Fulfilling Leelah's Request

By now, you’ve probably heard the story of Leelah Alcorn, the 17 year old transgender girl that committed suicide on December 28th in Ohio. Leelah’s viral Tumblr post, scheduled to publish hours after her death, explained how transphobia contributed to her decision and included a call for action: “My death needs to mean something. My death needs to be counted in the number of transgender people who commit suicide this year. I want someone to look at that number and say ‘that’s fucked up’ and fix it. Fix society. Please.”

As a lifelong Cincinnatian, I feel the loss of Leelah even more than I usually do when I hear of a young queer or trans person’s death. She was so close to me in physical proximity; her death occurred on a piece of highway I drive frequently. I am haunted by this child that I never knew.

By the local and national response, I can tell I am not alone. Chris Seelbach, Cincinnati’s first openly gay City Council member, posted to Facebook, “We have to do better.” The Transgender Human Rights Institute is pressing for legislative action to ban so-called conversion therapy, which Leelah wrote about enduring in her Tumblr suicide note. Marriage Equality Ohio has created a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds for a headstone with Leelah’s correct name. Clearly, the impact of this loss is deeply felt across the nation and people want to take action. We want to fulfill Leelah’s request of us to fix society.

Some change is already happening, in ways that have genuinely surprised me. WCPO, an ABC affiliate in Cincinnati, received backlash after posting an initial story about Leelah’s death, in which she was repeatedly misgendered. One day later, the news source posted an explanation of their reporting choices, which was informative but did not seem to address the harm caused. The following day, WCPO Editor Mike Canan published another article, which provided more information about the process. In the piece, Canan describes using GLAAD and The Associated Press guidelines to revise the initial post and states,” No matter what you believe about transgender people, I think we can all agree that when a young person takes his or her life it is a tragedy. If our coverage can help prevent future tragedy, that's serving the greater good.”

I appreciate the work Mike Canan and WCPO are doing to become more inclusive and respectful while reporting this story and hope that work continues in their future reporting. And what does this have to do with Student Affairs? A lot, actually. Leelah will never be one of our students, but many just like her will be. We must be prepared to take on all that entails. We have to be fierce and courageous in our mission. We cannot sit silently while our students and community members are suffering. The stakes are far too high.

For those of us that are cisgender, we need to do the work to become educated in trans* issues. Don’t assume because you identify as gay, lesbian, bisexual, queer, asexual, etc., that you know the struggle of trans* people. Don’t assume that your good intentions will make up for your lackof knowledge. Don’t make excuses for not knowing; think of how infuriating it would be/is to you when others use ignorance as a get-out-of-jail-free card. There are more resources available to us now than have ever existed before. Take advantage! The Sylvia Rivera Law Project and GLAAD both have Trans 101 pages for reference. Julia Serano’s Whipping Girl and Janet Mock’s Redefining Realness are great reads, particularly on the intersection of identities. If you’re unsure of how to appropriately address a student or colleague, Practice with Pronouns is the resource for you. (Note: I’ve spent a lot of time on PWP and it’s been a great help!) Read University of Cincinnati student Jason Hettesheimer’s letter to Leelah to learn what challenges trans* youth are facing. Scroll through #reallivetransadult and help trans* students see they have a future ahead of them.

And regardless of gender identity, it’s the responsibility of each of us to make the world a bit better and a lot safer. We all must commit to having the difficult conversations necessary to create change. We all must be willing to educate ourselves, a never-ending process of learning and unlearning and relearning. We must be open to hearing criticism when we have made mistakes. We must put good intentions into action. We owe it to Leelah. 

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Angela Zippin is a Program Coordinator in the Testing Services Department at the University of Cincinnati where she received her Master of Arts in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She also serves as on the UC's Student Affairs Diversity Steering Committee and as the Membership Chair for the Ohio College Testing Association. 

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