FYI on an important issue facing society today

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.