Leelah Alcorn suicide
The suicide case Leelah Alcorn (born November 15, 1997 as Joshua Ryan Alcorn , † December 28, 2014 on Interstate 71 in Warren County , Ohio ) was the suicide of a 17-year-old American trans girl that became known in the media .
life and death
Alcorn was one of four children of an evangelical couple. From the age of four she felt like a girl in a boy's body, as portrayed in her suicide note. Her circle of friends consisted mostly of friends she had met on the Internet. At the age of 16, she claimed to be gay at her school in order to take the first step towards her public outing , which was positively received by her friends.
According to Leelah Alcorn's suicide note, the attempt to convince her parents of the necessity of a gender reassignment was answered by her parents with the multiple forced implementation of "reparative therapy" ( conversion therapy ), in which she should be cured according to her parents' ideas. This worsened the relationship with her parents considerably.
Leelah Alcorn said she was afraid she might not achieve gender reassignment in time to look like a perfect girl. Furthermore, she has no friends and fear of the future. With her suicide, she wanted to draw attention to the general situation of transgender people, gender identity must be taught in schools.
After a reconstruction by the police, Alcorn was hit by an articulated vehicle on Interstate 71 at around 2:30 a.m. on December 28, presumably with suicidal intent, and died at the site of the accident. There was no criminal case against the driver.
Effects
Her suicide attracted international attention and led to public discussions about the status and abuse of trans people in US society and Christian fundamentalism, as well as petitions to ban so-called conversion or reparative therapies. The then US President Barack Obama supported these initiatives.
Until May 18, 2020, such conversion offers were banned at least among young people in 20 US states as well as in Washington DC and Puerto Rico.
Mara Keisling, who is executive director at the National Center for Transgender Equality , emphasized that suicide is too complex an issue to be blamed solely on parents. "Despite the great cultural and legal advances that trans people have made, there is still a great deal of disrespect, discrimination and violence directed against us, and it is very difficult for all children and young people these days."
In Germany, the use of conversion attempts in children and adolescents and the competitions was the same for all age groups banned in § 1 of the Law on Protection against conversion treatments states: "This Act applies to all operations carried out on humans treatments that sexual to the change or cancellation Orientation or self-perceived gender identity (conversion treatment) ". Self-determined measures for gender reassignment are expressly excluded from the prohibition ( Section 3 ).
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Leelah Alcorn: Suicide Note. (No longer available online.) In: Tumblr.com . December 28, 2014, archived from the original on January 1, 2015 ; accessed on October 11, 2019 .
- ^ Peter Monn: Smiles for Leelah Alcorn, Who Asked Us to 'Fix Society. Please. ' In: Huffingtonpost.com . December 31, 2014, accessed October 11, 2019 .
- ↑ Eliana Dockterman: US LGBT: Transgender Teen's Death Sparks Outcry From Advocates. In: Time.com . December 31, 2014, accessed October 11, 2019 .
- ↑ Message: Bills in America: Obama Against Re-education Therapy for Homosexuals. In: FAZ.NET. April 9, 2015, accessed October 11, 2019 .
- ↑ Interactive overview map: Conversion Therapy Laws. October 8, 2019, accessed on October 11, 2019 (English, US states with foreboding of “conversion therapies”).
- ↑ Kashmira Gander: Transgender teenager Leelah Alcorn took her life because 'parents would not allow her to transition'. (No longer available online.) In: Independent.co.uk. December 30, 2014, archived from the original on March 25, 2015 ; accessed on October 11, 2019 .
- ↑ Law for the protection against conversion treatments BT 19/18768