A Sad Story.

[April Rose]

http://lazerprincess.tumblr.com/post/10 ... icide-note

This is the farewell note of Leelah, a 17 year old mtf who walked in front of a tractor trailer in Ohio recently. She requested that all of her savings and the proceeds from her possessions be given to transgender rights organizations.
The Christian "therapists", which were the only ones her parents would allow, did nothing for her.

[Virginia]

This is such a sad commentary on our status. There is more and more scientific evidence out there that yes we are REAL. We were born with this gift and it isn't going away through prayer or "do-gooder" intervention or "the couch." OH, we can repress it, suppress it, ignore it but those of us who are blessed with "IT" it is always going to be there. The difficult path is how we individually deal with it.

This forum has "saved" a lot of us from a lot of misery. Unfortunately for others it has burdened them more than they can handle or want to admit. We have an obligation to our sisters who are struggling to lend them a helping hand in anyway we can.

Stay the course ladies, this gift is one that keeps on giving and this woman loves the returns!!!!!!

Virginia

[DonnaT]

As noted in another forum:

From the victim's suicide note:

Gender needs to be taught about in schools, the earlier the better. My death needs to mean something. My death needs to be counted in the number of transgender people who commit suicide this year. I want someone to look at that number and say “that’s bubbles up” and fix it. Fix society. Please.

What the hell is this? Suicide as activism? NO!

This is not the way to change the world. The way to change the world is to survive - kicking and clawing for every bit we can get. To live and stand up to them with our bruises and our cuts and say "STOP IT!", not to lie down and die for them.

[SilverLady(SO)]

Sad story, indeed . . . but the commenter in that other forum is right.

Suicide as activism is not the answer - never has been and never will be.


- SL

[Toni_Lynn_P]

This story affected me deeply .. and resulted in much conversation between my wife and me. The bottom line to us, is not that Leelah was TG, but rather that she was denied basic human dignity as a person, most especially by her parents.

A further sad thing is the fact that in death, she is being mocked on certain other non-TG forums, by those who hate us.

Toni-Lynn

[Anthony Simon]

For me, there's people out there who love to jump up and down on your head and tell you how evil you are or how hopeless the world is - or whatever. And I guess I kind of feel the best policy is to get to the end of your life just to spite them - like there's a value to that in itself.

But you can't always legislate for how you're going to feel - or what you're going to do.

[PaulaGarnet GG]

This is truly a terribly sad story with 2 victims. The first is the poor child that was tormented for being herself. The second is the poor driver of that big rig that she ran in front of. Her life was snuffed out in a terrible way, and I pray that her suffering was ended quickly. The driver on the other hand will have the rest of his life to re-live the memories of that poor child's death. I feel so sorry for both of them. I know someone who was driving and a person wanted to end their own life, and jumped in front of her car. The man was killed, but it was 4 years before she could drive again. Every time she tried to drive, she saw him jumping from the curb. Thankfully the psychologist was able to help her to realize it wasn't her fault, and she was able to resume her life with her mind in peace. I'm sure the driver of the big rig will be going thru the same thing, and I will be saying a prayer for him also.

[Virginia]

Leelah's mother supposedly said that, sic., God does not make mistakes and that her daughter/son was in violation of God!!!!! I posted that her mother was right, that God does not make mistakes and SHE had given the parents seventeen years to accept "their daughter," and they, the parents, had chosen NOT to accept God's gift to them.

I got a couple of negative responses, from totally ignorant people! One person actually said they had never thought of God being a She!!!! The "White Paper," "What The "Bleep" Do We Know?" makes reference to that man, creating God in our own image is the height of arrogance!

As for the truck driver, Leelah did not target him he is simply untargeted collateral damage! Yes he may be traumatized but he actually has nothing to do with it as far as I am concerned. Just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

We should only hope that this "message" she sent will make an impression. We are making inroads into society just like the gays and lesbians but it is not easy and will not be as "easy" as it was for them. Yes, I admire their struggle for recognition and yes, we were not there to support them like we should have been, but then again we are unique to this quest are we not?

Love,

Virginia

[KimberlyS]

Virginia, calling the driver collateral damage is a bit much. That driver has to live with killing someone like that the rest of their life. And using a life to send a message like that is not a good way to do that. The message is tainted by the life of the driver it affects. It is just too bad that there are families out that that can not support their kids and they see the only way out is to kill their self. There is still so much bad information out there on TG's.

kimberlys cd
joe in a skirt

[Virginia]

I agree Kimberly, I probably did not express this in the best light! Several people have taken your point of view and I agree, yet the truck driver was not "targeted." It is most unfortunate that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I can understand that people need to dwell on his future and how he will have to live with this, however, his (or it could have been you or me or anyone else) part is this is "secondary" to the subject.

If one wants to put the unfortunate truck driver as the subject, why him, why was he were he was at that particular time, what will his future hold, how will this affect his family and on and on. That's fine, so then it becomes a discussion on which part of the story is primary. I don't think you can say the two people involved at that instant in time is more important than the other. To me it falls to the old adage "whose ox is getting gored?" We have a traumatized, innocent by-stander, the truck driver and we have a young person dead, because their parents seem to not have been able to accept and understand the change in their child. You can direct your concerns to both or to one or the other. If you read the news reports and the comments you will find all variations. Thus the human condition.

Virginia

[Gillian]

Quote, "Leelah's mother supposedly said that, sic., God does not make mistakes and that her daughter/son was in violation of God."
It amazes me what comes out of the mouth of the ignorant. It is even more amazing what the religious legalists pick and choose to live by.
I quote Christian doctrine, Mankind is born in sin, a man and a woman make a child, hence the child is born in sin. Are any perfect...no, so the imperfection cycle continues on. I am not saying this was a mistake, just that nothing from mankind is perfect. Secondly, God is love, so stop hating and start acting like God and love, regardless of the imperfections within human beings. Third, judge not, lest you be judged by the same standard, sounds like there was alot of judging going on.
I feel sorry for everyone in this sorted situation, the child, the truck driver, and the parents who have a lack of compassion and love for a lost child. "Even as you have done it to the least of these...you have done it unto me"!
No one comes out a winner on this one.

[Toni_Lynn_P]

One other reason that this story affects me deeply because a lot of what Leelah heard from her parents is similar to what I heard even as a crossdresser.

When I was 'found out' I was told how painful giving birth to me was, and basically that by being a crossdresser, that was how I gave thanks to my mum for having me. I was told "I wish you were never born". My faith was at time used against me to justify their bigotry.

As to God making a mistake, I am of the belief that my existence as crossdresser is a part of His plan. I am here for a purpose, and that is no mistake. Likewise Leelah being TG was no mistake.

Hugs

Toni-Lynn

[DonnaT]

Genesis 1:27
So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

Sounds like God is trans, doesn't it?

It can be argued that when one dies, the body returns to dust. The soul ascends to heaven. If one is female in their soul, regardless of their physical appearance, they will be female in heaven.

[Anita]

I wish she hadn't chosen to involve the truck driver. There's nothing that can be done now about the decision to use suicide as a statement about injustice, and I'm not going to judge her on that, one way or another. But her method of doing so muddied the water considerably. People can't help but feel anger at her, especially if they don't care for the idea of transgender to begin with. I see this on the railroad forum I belong to--when someone steps in front of a train, there's a lot of anger generated. The locomotive engineer has no choice at all in the matter. They can't stop. The truck driver would not be able to stop, either, so I would hope he doesn't feel any blame.

If even another TG person (me) has mixed feelings about this, then I can imagine what the rest of the nation might be saying. I haven't gone online to read comments; I already know how ugly they can get, from reading other TG related news items over the years.

Clarification: I don't feel angry at her--I know the kind of pain that would drive someone to do that. I don't happen to believe that suicide gives any relief, so I haven't been tempted to make that choice. I'm saying that my sympathies are divided by this, and the focus of the story is lost by involving an innocent bystander.

[Bernice]

Hate to dredge up an old thread, but this one hits close to home for two such events in the past ten days.

First, the suicide involving a Germanwings A340 and 149 other innocent bystanders involuntarily going the same way. I understand suicide in certain situations, but it really irks me when someone destroys a perfectly good airplane in the process (and there is evidence that this is not uncommon in general aviation). Then too, it is reprehensible that someone would murder others while murdering one's self.

Second, the brother of a coworker of mine committed suicide early this last week, at age 52. No matter how much life sometimes sucks, and it certainly does sometimes suck, it is better than the alternative. No, I am not opposing physician assisted suicide in painful terminal situations here. I'm just trying to remind others that suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. I think in general it merely shifts the problems onto the survivors, and that is not fair.

If we can take away anything of value from the suicide of the young TG person in the top story, it should be that the problem of public ignorance, fear, bigotry, hatred, and violence towards TG and gender-gifted must stop, and we must do whatever it takes to stop it, because religious fundamentalists are obviously not going to. All lives matter.

Hugs,

Bernice