Recently, a girl died.
Her name was Leelah. Leelah Alcorn. Her parents named her Josh originally.
Leelah was a transgender male to female. Identifying as a girl at the age of four, her parents were horrified and refused to acknowledge her identity.
One argument they made was that God does not make mistakes. If God did not make mistakes, as you say, and God created people, this, by extent, means he created those in the LGBTQ+ community. Were they mistakes too?
I never knew Leelah. But I face similar issues at home. I'm genderfluid. Usually I identify as female, but especially during wrestling season, I more identify as male. Every day, people question, and every day, my family hates. "Be feminine! Be what you were born as!"
I feel powerless. Society tells me I'm not okay. I'm not normal. I'm not accepted.
I want to reach out to everyone who has been bullied or has faced discrimination because of who they are. Like Leelah, we should be able to express ourselves in every way we want to express ourselves. If a boy wants to dress up in a dress and heels, it should be his choice. If a girl wants to do construction work, a stereotypically masculine thing, she should be allowed to. Gender is nothing except what we define it to be. Having the genitalia for a gender does not make you automatically that gender. Sometimes it does. Sometimes it doesn't. That's life, isn't it?
Leelah didn't deserve the hate. She didn't deserve to be forced to get "conversion therapy". No one deserves to hate themselves.
Leelah, the world wasn't ready for you. And, Leelah, I wish I would have known you. Through your tumblr blog, I can see you're a gorgeous individual who would have made the world such a bright and happy place if you had been able to spread your wings and fly.
Leelah, I'm sorry you had to die for society to realize what a gem you were. And I'm sorry that on your grave, there's the name Josh Alcorn. I'm sorry you were buried in a suit. And I'm sorry that even in death, your parents refuse to acknowledge who you were and continue to impress upon your death the image of who they thought you should have been.
Everyone, please keep this in mind. Parents are supposed to nurture and support their children. As their argument says, God does not make mistakes. He gave you a child that may not be the social norm, but that child is still special. Cherish your children.
None deserve to die.