genderoftheday:

#suicide TW

I’m sure many of you have heard the heartbreaking news this morning about transgender teen Leelah Alcorn’s (this links to her tumblr which contains her suicide note and other potentially triggering content) suicide after years of dealing with her bigoted and abusive Christian parents. After coming out to her mom, Leelah was forced into “therapy” with extremely harmful Christian therapists who did nothing but tell her she was selfish and to turn to god. Her parents removed her from public school and took away all her electronics so she could not even turn to social media for help. In the end, she felt like she had nothing to look forward to in her future.

Leelah, I’m so sorry the world wasn’t ready for you. I’m so sorry we live in a world where this is allowed to happen. I wish there was some way I could have helped you. I wish your parents could have seen the harm they were doing. You were a bright, shining star of a human being and it crushes my soul to learn of you like this.

Followers, I know probably more than half of you are cis. You follow for the funny words and pictures, but this is the reality of trans people’s existence in the world. We are not safe. Our families abuse us, people constantly seek to do us harm and tell us we are abominations, and many times, trans people feel like there are no other options than suicide. 

If our society were more compassionate, more understanding, more kind, this would not be the case. Cis people can help trans people. Call out transphobia from your friends and family. Denounce transphobia at your church. Stop tolerating transphobic jokes and remarks in the media. Stop letting it slide when people misgender trans people. Speak up. 

I’ll end this post with a quote from Leelah. Remember her words.

The only way I will rest in peace is if one day transgender people aren’t treated the way I was, they’re treated like humans, with valid feelings and human rights. Gender needs to be taught about in schools, the earlier the better. My death needs to mean something. My death needs to be counted in the number of transgender people who commit suicide this year. I want someone to look at that number and say “that’s fucked up” and fix it. Fix society. Please.