Leelah Alcorn

Leelah Alcorn (November 15, 1997 - December 28, 2014) was an American transgender girl who gained attention in 2014 after committing suicide and making a statement about the societal standards of transgender people. A suicide note was published on her Tumblr blog. In this letter, she declared that she wanted her suicide to cause an impact and create a dialogue about the discrimination and abuse of transgender people.
Life
Alcorn was born in November 1997 as Joshua Ryan Alcorn to Doug and Carla Alcorn. One of four children, she was raised in an Evangelical Christian environment. In a suicide note, she signed herself "(Leelah) <s>Josh</s> Alcorn".
According to the suicide note, Alcorn identified as a transgender female from age 14, when she became aware of the term, having felt "like a girl trapped in a boy's body" since she was four. She died at the scene. It is believed that Alcorn walked three to four miles from her parents' house in nearby Kings Mill, Ohio, before being struck. The highway was closed for more than an hour after the incident. The driver has not been charged.
Reaction
Alcorn's death sparked widespread reaction across social networks, and the apparent disregard that her parents had for her gender identity has angered many in the LGBT community, according to the Daily Mail. In addition to support from social media sites, advocates have begun petitions to ban conversion therapy and include her preferred name on her gravestone, and a Facebook group called Justice for Leelah Alcorn was also set up.<ref nameDailyMail1/> Her mother was also criticized for misgendering her in a Facebook post.<ref name"Time"/>

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