Transgender teenager Leelah Alcorn took her life

Before the Kings School student took her life, she scheduled a suicide note to appear on her Tumblr page hours after her death. In the post entitled ‘suicide note’, Alcorn stated she was transgender and felt “like a girl trapped in a boy’s body” since she was four-years-old. However, she added she did not tell anyone because she was not aware of the term "transgender", or that it was "possible for a boy to become a girl". She wrote that aged 14 she discovered she could change her gender, and “cried of happiness.” “After 10 years of confusion I finally understood who I was,” said Alcorn.

A transgender teenager used her suicide note to claim she ended her life because her hardline Christian parents would not allow her to transition medically, and urged society to treat transgender people “like humans”. Leelah Alcorn, 17, died a few miles from her family home in Ohio, after she was hit by a tractor-trailer just before 2:30am of Sunday morning. The incident occurred on the southbound Interstate 71 in Union Township in Warren County, and is being investigated by Ohio State Highway. Police reports confirmed the teenager had died, but identified her by using her birth name Joshua Alcorn, which has also been widely used by local media.

The Independent