As you may or may not know, a 17-year-old transgender,
Leelah Alcorn (#LeelahAlcorn), committed suicide by apparently stepping in
front of a speeding tractor trailer in Ohio this Sunday, 28-December-2014.
Born Joshua Alcorn, but like many gays was in the wrong body.
From the newspaper articles I’ve read and his suicide note (see bottom of this post), I assume that he had deeply religious
parents who could not accept the fact that their son was gay.
Her final message, which she scheduled to be posted after her
death read, “My death needs to mean something.”
This is really sick people, how can parents, family, and
associates turn such a blind eye to the suffering of our gay, lesbian, and
transgender kids that they take the ultimate step? While there are no definite
statistics regarding suicides by LGBT young adults, it is apparently much
higher than the straight world.
For those of you who read my stuff, know that I’m not a
preachy sort but this is really bad people. Growing up, unless you were the
star quarterback or the head cheerleader, I’m sure you witnessed or were the
target of other cruel teens if you were different in any way, tall, short, fat,
skinny, glasses, braces, the list goes on forever.
Thankfully most teens will grow to accept those who are
different from themselves but the damage they do is sometimes not repairable.
As parents of those teens, you need to understand your child and encourage
him/her to make it through the difficult years.
As a teen growing up in Texas, I guess I was reasonably
normal not bad looking with a half way decent body and I was lucky that I was
never the target such harassment. My teen years were reasonably “normal” but I
knew a lot of kids who went through hell from other teens. Also you have to
include those kids who grew up in a dysfunctional household.
Being in the Lifestyle, we tend to be more tolerant than a
lot of people. We know a lot of gay, lesbian, and bi-women. We only have one
close friend who lives in drag as a woman and is amazingly beautiful. Example
she wins a lot of bikini contests.
People you cannot “pray the gay away”, it doesn’t work like
that. Sort of like the woman who tapes pictures to her living room wall in the
GEICO ads.
One of my close friends told me that he knew he was
different from early childhood, around age 6. He tried both sides of the fence
and finally accepted the fact that he liked guys more than girls. His parents
are “normal” and when he finally came out to them at age 40, they fully
accepted him.
My friend often tells me that no one would be gay by
decision as their life is hell. He and his boyfriend love to go to supper with
wifey and I. He says that if it’s just the two of them they can’t sit together
in a booth because of the attention they draw. I never thought about that
before but thinking of how to exist in a straight world must be difficult.
We live in Sin City and on the Strip pretty much anything
goes but get away from the strip and it’s as bad as Kansas.
If you know of a teen who fits the bill as being harassed
for any reason, be extra supportive to them and encourage their parents to put
aside any animosity and love their kids. Teenagers don’t need to step in front
of a truck to get help!
No comments:
Post a Comment