Transgender teenager Leelah Alcorn's death in Ohio was suicide, officials say

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/apr/29/trangender-teenager-leelah-alcorn-ohio-suicide

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The death of a troubled transgender teenager who begged people to fix society before she stepped in front of a tractor-trailer on a highway has been deemed a suicide, and the investigation into it has been closed, the state highway patrol said.

Leelah Alcorn, who was 17, walked into the path of the tractor-trailer in the wee hours of 28 December. She had left a handwritten note on her bed – “I’ve had enough” – and had done an online search about runaway assistance and a Tumblr search for the word “suicide” before walking on to Interstate 71 in suburban Cincinnati, according to a patrol report released on Wednesday.

The driver of the truck is not being charged, a patrol spokesman, Lieutenant Craig Cvetan, said.

The patrol report notes that a coroner ruled the manner of Leelah’s death as suicide. It also said that while no suicide notes were found on the computer, there were “allusions to suicide and depression”.

An iChat conversation with a friend from 24 November was found on Leelah’s computer, the patrol report said.

“My suicide note was queued on Tumblr, and I was ready to jump off the bridge next to my house that goes over I-71, but I decided to call a transgender suicide hotline and I basically cried my eyes out for a couple hours talking to a lady on there,” Leelah wrote.

A note later posted on Leelah’s Tumblr blog pleaded: “My death needs to mean something ... Fix society. Please.”

Leelah’s selfies and poignant messages hit home among many transgender people who say they have faced disapproving families, discrimination or violence and are hoping for more acceptance. Her death prompted social media discussions, online petitions in support of transgender people and vigils as far away as London, and she was mentioned in a Golden Globe winner’s televised speech.

Her Tumblr post included complaints about depression and isolation and concerns that life would only get worse. She expressed frustration that her parents wanted her to be “their perfect little straight Christian boy” and said she was taken to “Christian therapists” who were “very biased”.

Her parents expressed love and grief after the death but have not commented publicly much beyond that.

The patrol investigation into Leelah’s death was done using her birth name, Joshua Alcorn, and refers to her as Joshua or Mr Alcorn.