Free Republic

The funeral for an Ohio transgender teen whose death and suicide note struck a chord across the country was moved Friday and held privately after threats against the family. Leelah Alcorn, 17, died Sunday after writing in an online diary that her parents didn't accept that she identified as female. Tim Tripp, the family minister at Northeast Church of Christ in Cincinnati, told NBC News the funeral had been moved to a private location because "the times and dates had been publicized, and the family's received threats." Tripp wouldn't specify what threats surrounded the funeral, other than to say the...

(FOX19) - A Change.org petition asking to ban transgender conversion therapy following Leelah Alcorn's death has received more than 233,000 signatures in two days. The Transgender Human Rights Institute posted the petition on Dec. 31 asking President Barack Obama and the leadership of the House and Senate to begin the process of banning transgender conversion therapy throughout the nation. "'Conversion therapies' have been documented to cause great harms and in this case, Leelah's death. Therapists that engage in the attempt to brainwash or reverse any child's gender identity are seriously unethical and legislation is needed to end such practices immediately,"...

FULL TITLE: Christian parents accused of 'cruelty' in their 17-year-old transgender daughter's suicide note REFUSE to accept her female identity - but insist they loved 'him' The mother of a transgender teen who killed herself over the holiday season is speaking out, and making it clear she did not and does not approve of what she believes was her daughter's choice to be transgender. Carla Alcorn of Kings Mills, Ohio said in an interview that she and her husband did not 'support' their daughter Leelah Alcorn, while also refusing to acknowledge her daughter's sex, using male pronouns and referring to...

When I was 14, I learned what transgender meant and cried of happiness. After 10 years of confusion I finally understood who I was. I immediately told my mom, and she reacted extremely negatively, telling me that it was a phase, that I would never truly be a girl, that God doesn't make mistakes, that I am wrong. If you are reading this, parents, please don't tell this to your kids. Even if you are Christian or are against transgender people don't ever say that to someone, especially your kid. That won't do anything but make them hate them self....

When Ohio teenager Josh Alcorn told his parents he wanted to live as a girl, that he felt trapped in his own body, his parents said they wouldn’t stand for that. “We don’t support that, religiously,” his mother told CNN Wednesday, her voice breaking. “But we told him that we loved him unconditionally. We loved him no matter what. I loved my son. People need to know that I loved him. He was a good kid, a good boy.” Crossing out the name “Josh,” the 17-year-old signed the name he wanted to be known as — “Leelah” — in a...

Gay rights activist Dan Savage has hit out at the parents of 17-year-old Leelah Alcorn, the trans teenager who tragically took her own life last Sunday (December 28). After facing rejection from her friends and family and being subjected to sessions with “biased” Christian therapists, Leelah was killed after deliberately stepping out into the road, but not before writing a heartbreaking suicide note outlining her struggle – click here to read more.

The suicide of a transgender teen is catching national attention in part because of a suicide note she left behind online. Leelah Alcorn, 17, of Kings Mills, Ohio, was struck and killed by a tractor-trailer on I-71 about 2:30 a.m. on Sunday, according to local media. Posthumous posts started to appear on her Tumblr page, titled “Lazer Princess,” including her suicide note and a post apologizing to her closest friends. “My death needs to mean something,” she wrote. “My death needs to be counted in the number of transgender people who commit suicide this year. I want someone to look...