Leelah Alcorn: how parents’ disappointment instigated own child’s suicide

   For my first post on this new, shiny blog, I thought I would write an article relevant to what has been happening recently in the World. Something that has really shocked me and thousands of other people in the past few weeks is Leelah Alcorn's story and tragic death. - I wrote this article as part of my A Level English Language coursework and I liked it a lot, so I thought I would share it with you all.                                                          

In the afternoon of December 28^th, a heartbroken mother posted a status on Facebook that no mother ever wishes to post, warning family and friends that her beloved son had died.

Carla Alcorn, the mother, telling friends and family the sad news of her “son’s” passing.

Now, of course if you saw this on your Facebook feed, you would feel terribly sorry for the poor mother who has lost her child. But what if I told you that she’s the reason that her son died?

  Leelah Alcorn, referred to as “Joshua Alcorn” by her family, was a 16 year old struggling to live her life as a transgender teenager. She was hit by a truck in the morning of December 28^th. Although her parents’ clear effort to make Leelah’s death pass as an accidental murder rather than suicide may have fooled some people, the clever 16 year old had scheduled her suicide letter to go up on her online blog explaining the real reasons as to why she killed herself. Leelah, in her suicide note, expressed her rightful feelings towards her parents: “Mom and Dad: Fuck you. You can’t just control other people like that. That’s messed up.”

  However, even though there’s clear evidence that her parents did not support her in any way and took her to therapists who were only “more Christians telling me that I was selfish and wrong and that I should look to God for help” and completely isolated her as she came out as gay to ease the transition to her friends and peers, taking her out of school and making the poor girl feel as if she had “No friends, no support, no love. Just my parent’s disappointment and the cruelty of loneliness”, Carla Alcorn, Leelah’s mother, spoke to CNN about her daughter’s death and explained her and her husband’s feelings towards their daughter’s transgender identity: "We don't support that, religiously,” yet still claiming that they “loved him no matter what” and Leelah was a “good kid, a good boy.” She also expressed her feelings towards the LGBT community viciously on social media:

Carla Alcorn’s comments on Laverne Cox’s, a transgender Emmy Award winning actress, instragram post about Leelah.

People, it’s 2015. How is this still legal? How is it okay for a 16 year old to feel as if she has to put an end to her own life because of her own parents? Parents are supposed to care and love their children, not make them commit suicide. I know many Christians who accept all sexualities and genders. I know many Christians who do not agree with the LGBT community but would not go as far as Leelah Alcorn’s parents and force their child into “transgender therapy”.

  Isn’t it time for us to put our loved ones before religion? Isn’t it a known fact that God makes no mistakes? How can you classify yourself as a Christian if you think your own child is a mistake? I think Leelah Alcorn’s parents skipped this passage when classifying themselves as “Christians”: “Galatians 3:28, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Many articles, especially tabloid articles referred to Leelah as “Joshua” and although they acknowledged that she identified herself as a woman, they still referred to Leelah as “he”. Similarly to the recent comments that were made about Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt’s son John, born Shiloh, as John recently appeared at a red carpet event with his brothers and father dressed in a suit and with short hair, sparking comments from all sorts of wide mouthed cynics claiming that Jolie and Pitt should treat Shiloh’s wish to be called John and dress as a boy as a “phase”. The parents, however have embraced their child and given John the opportunity to express who he really is with no judgement. 

 This is what parenting should be – accepting and loving your child no matter what and supporting them every step of the way. It would be so much easier for Hollywood’s most famous couple to do what Leelah Alcorn’s parents did and try to reverse their child’s thoughts – they have the money and means to do this. But they didn’t. And that’s what true love is. Not what Carla and Doug Alcorn claim to have had towards their son daughter.