Regarding Leelah Alcorn Vigil
held on Saturday, January 10, 2015
Written by Michael W Hawkins, CHRC Board Vice President
Many
of us were recently made aware of the suicide of 17 year old Leelah Alcorn, a
transgender teen, on December 28, 2014. In her suicide note, she
expressed hope that her death would create a dialogue about discrimination,
abuse and the lack of support for transgender people, and to fix society.
See #FixSociety.
I
recently was appointed by the Mayor to The Cincinnati Human Relations
Commission and am its Vice Chair. One of my fellow Commissioners, who is
transgender, invited me to attend this vigil for Leelah. I attended it
and was profoundly impacted and educated about this important issue to the
point of sharing it with others who, like me, have likely not attended an event
with the LGBT and transgender community and their allies.
To do
justice to this vigil and the important message, I want to do my best to share
this experience and, encourage dialogue about it or follow up with some of the
resources and help to make a difference.
The
program opened with the song “Iris” (Goo Goo Dolls) performed by the Diverse
City Youth Chorus. Two key phrases in the song are “I don’t think they’d
understand” and “I just want you to know who I am.” This song set the
theme of the voices of the transgender community that they just want to be
accepted for who they are, loved, supported and accepted by family, friends and
community, and shown respect and compassion. These messages were
presented by older adults, young adults and teenagers who all publicly
identified as transgender and, especially the teens who shared their stories of
support, lack of support, depression, suicidal thoughts (41% of transgenders
consider suicide) and the challenges and consequences for them.
As to
the teens, from ages 12 to 18, they spoke of their process of identifying as
transgender, challenges communicating, needing support from family, abandoned
by some parents, inability to be accepted at school, having to be home
schooled, suicidal thoughts and killing themselves slowly with self harm,
eating disorders, depression, having a broken heart and feeling alone and that
no one loves me. To a person, these feelings consistently arose from not
being accepted and understood for who they are. They uniformly commented
they just want to live lives with happiness and purpose. Not only did
this raw exposure by them about their broken hearts impact the hundreds in the
audience, but it was heartbreaking to hear their pain mainly because society
has not been accepting of them.
There
were a few teens who have had a more positive experience dealing with these
challenges and it was primarily centered around family and friends who are
supportive and give them unconditional love. The mother of Tiffany
Edwards, a transgender young woman killed earlier in the year, spoke to the
audience. It is believed that her daughter was killed because she was
transgender. She spoke about the challenges as a mother when your child
is not accepted by family, friends, and school mates, and her daughter’s death
because people would not accept that “he” was a “she.”
The
program concluded with affirmation by all in attendance to the teens that we
love you as fellow human beings, we support you for who you are and we will be
a voice for you and transgender teens to make sure there is help and acceptance
in society. For help, Children’s Medical Center
has a transgender clinic for youth and currently have 115 teens in its
program. Heartland Trans Wellness Group at www.transwellness.org
provides access to assistance and resources for the transgender.
The
closing song was “We Could be Heroes” by David Bowie. The message before
the song was we can all be heroes for those disenfranchised by our society.
We need to use this tragedy of Leelah’s death as a teaching moment for
ourselves, our family, children and friends. We were challenged to
recognize we all have a voice and to exercise it by speaking up and creating a
community of respect and inclusion for all, including the transgender community.
