Leelah Alcorn
A 17-year-old trans girl whose death in 2014 moved the world – and led to bans on conversion therapy for minors.
Leelah Alcorn grew up in a small town in Ohio in a deeply religious family. At 14 she told her parents that she was a girl. They did not accept it, refused her medical support and sent her to Christian therapists who tried to change her identity. For months she was cut off from friends and social media.
In December 2014, at the age of 17, she took her own life. Before her death she published a message on her blog in which she described her loneliness and asked that her death should mean something: that society should change so that trans young people are accepted and supported. She ended with the words: “Fix society. Please.”
Her words spread around the world and led to vigils, protests and petitions. In 2015 the city of Cincinnati became one of the first places in the United States to ban conversion therapy for minors, and the Obama administration called for an end to such practices. Many states and countries have since adopted similar bans.
Her story is remembered as a call to protect trans young people. If you are struggling, please reach out to someone you trust or to a crisis line in your country.