For Leelah

An elegy and a cry for help.

How dare you thrust your falsified God onto her
To suit your bigotry
How dare you disown your own daughter
How dare you send her to hell
Hoping she gets to heaven
How could you subject your child to that?
This cannot stand.

All she wanted was her own life to live
Her own self how she wanted it
Your denial has murdered another.

How many more must we lose
How many lives unwritten will it cost?
It all seems too much.

To paint her with the blue of boyhood
To cry for something she never was
It's an atrocity upon atrocities.

Yet with her dying breath,
Her dead, dead, cold, fingers
She wrote her hope, her wish
To help others when she couldn't help herself
A selfless heart is broken.

Now I ask the only God I can
One written with compassion and love
Spilling from his throat:
Please. Protect her. Protect them all.

Author's Note

Leelah is a transgender girl who committed suicide because of her parents forcing her into conversion therapy and her unaccepting friends. Do not let her memory, or her dreams, die.

Reviews

[TheLostMind]

The problem lies within the society we live in. We refuse to accept transgender people as " normal people". Yes, forcing her into conversion was indeed an atrocity upon atrocities. We live in the 21st century. We talk about equality.. and then we treat transgender people in such "monstrous" ways. A really good write.. Neatly penned :)

[Emily]

Thank you, but transgender cannot be pluralized, because it is seen as transphobic. The correct use is "transgender man" or "transgender woman", and "transgender people/individuals". :)

[TheLostMind]

Corrected my review :)

[Emily]

Thank you very much!

[TheLostMind]

You are welcome :)