Leelah Alcorn died December 28th, 2014. Faced with male pronouns all her life, Leelah was drowning in a sea of rejection. With very strict Christian parents, she wasn't accepted as transgenderby her family. Leelah was hit by a tractor-trailer on Interstate 71 close to her home in Ohio. She had programed a suicide note to be posted on Tumblr shortly after.
Leelah's death has a lot to do with political culture. If the world around her hadn't been taught that transgender was wrong, Leelah mat still be standing with the battle for transgeneder rights. Her parents and fmaily members believed she was confused. Her mother even told her "it was just a phase." Her parents were her "political culture." They were the world around her and resulted in suicide.
I strongly believe that Leelah could still be alive right now if it weren't for the negativity around her. This isn't right, and it definitely isn't fair. Transgender people should have the same rights that the rest of us do. Even though they don't at the moment, we should still respect them all the same. "Pleasse don't change my pronouns," a simple request that everyone is capable of respecting. R.I.P Leelah.
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