Transgender teen Leelah Alcorn didn’t commit suicide by stepping in front of that tractor trailer last month—she was metaphorically pushed by her unaccepting parents. That’s what Dan Savage and other LGBT advocates are saying in their call for criminal charges, from child abuse to reckless endangerment, to be filed against Alcorn's parents.
Although the outrage over the Ohio 17-year-old's death is justified, the probability of successfully prosecuting Alcorn’s parents is unlikely, said attorney Shannan Wilber, youth policy director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights.
“As far as I know there’s no precedent for anything like that,” said Wilber. “In order to commit a crime, you have to have intent to commit a crime.”
In the case of Alcorn’s parents, they seem to be guilty only of being uneducated and misled—the recipients of “some bad advice,” said Wilber. A successful criminal case would require identifying that an illegal activity took place, and then finding a district attorney to prosecute it, she said. So although Alcorn’s parents likely won't be found legally responsible for her death, the shattering effects of their behavior can’t be overstated.
In Alcorn's suicide note she writes that her mom told her she'd "never truly be a girl" and that "God doesn't make mistakes." When Alcorn came out, her parents pulled her out of public school and took away her cell phone and computer, according to Alcorn's note. She was sent to "very biased" religious therapists, which meant she "only got more Christians telling me that I was selfish and wrong and that I should look to God for help,” Alcorn wrote.
Details surrounding Alcorn's treatment aren't confirmed by doctors or her family, but she also criticizes her parents for insisting that her transgender status was just "a phase."
Rights to mental health treatment lie at the core of the questionable actions that have inspired rage against Alcorn's parents in the LGBT community. Dan Savage compares the situation to that of Tyler Clementi, an 18-year-old who committed suicide after his roommate broadcast him kissing another man. If Clementi's roommate could be prosecuted, and he was, then so should the Alcorn's parents, Savage wrote in a tweet.
Many others in the LGBT community have also publicly skewered Alcorn's parents, tweeting that what they did was child abuse and calling their behavior "disgusting." Fuel was added to the fire when Alcorn's mother repeatedly referred to Leelah as "him" in a CNN interview. The family even received threats that the Alcorn's funeral would be disrupted, so they moved the service and held it in private.
All this criticism for insensitivity begs the question of whether it's fair to chastise and push for criminal charges against grieving parents, who, regardless of how it happened, lost a child just a few weeks ago. The Alcorns have publicly stated that although their religious beliefs didn't support their son's desire to live as a transgender female, they loved "him" unconditionally.
"We loved him no matter what," mother Carla Alcorn, told CNN. "I loved my son. People need to know that I loved him. He was a good kid, a good boy."
How parents respond to their gay or transgender teen can have a “tremendous impact” on that kid’s mental and physical health, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Research shows that LGBT young adults who were rejected by their families during adolescence are more than eight times as likely to report having attempted suicide, according to a report published last year from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Statistics show 41 percent of transgender and gender-nonconforming respondents said they’ve attempted suicide, according to a 2011 report from the National Center for Transgender Equality.
Turning to the church for guidance may have cost Leelah Acorn her life, which makes public education campaigns like the Family Acceptance Project crucial to changing the way people understand the effects of rejection on LGBT children, said Wilber. The San Francisco–based project studies the way parents react to and deal with their child coming out as gay or transgender. The group in turn works with families to help them provide a positive, supportive environment for the LGBT teen, which can help reduce the youth's risk of suicide, HIV or homelessness.
If any legal action is taken in the aftermath of Alcorn's death, it should be against the “real villains” in these situations across the country, the religious leaders and conversion therapists who prey on families in need of guidance, said Wilber.
“The whole premise of conversion therapy is that there’s something wrong or bad about being LGBT,” said Wilber.
Conversion or “reparative therapy” attempts to change one’s sexual orientation or identity through a variety of techniques, from prayer to electric shock. This form of therapy has been publicly condemned by medical associations for being ineffective at best and highly damaging at worst. California, New Jersey, and the District of Columbia have recently passed legislation that bans conversion therapy, prohibiting licensed therapists from using it on people under the age of 18. In the meantime, she supports civil litigation to hold conversion therapists accountable.
Wilber likens conversion therapy and parents' overall rejection of LGBT children to forms of child abuse, in that many of the actions we now consider abuse weren't classified as such 25 or 50 years ago.
“For example, many, many people used corporal punishment in the ’50s and ’60s, and it was considered absolutely fine,” said Wilber.
Striking children as a disciplinary measure used to be not only acceptable but necessary under "biblical precepts" about sparing the rod, said Wilber. The public's perception of physical abuse only changed after decades of research emerged to show that spanking is ineffective and potentially harmful, and after medical groups such as the American Academy of Pediatrics spoke out against hitting children.
Although there still isn't a "universal condemnation" of corporal punishment, said Wilber, physically hurting children is more likely to be investigated and treated as child abuse now.
Wilber and the National Center for Lesbian Rights launched the #BornPerfect campaign last year in an effort to end conversion therapy nationwide and teach parents that a child's sexual orientation or gender identity is not something that can be changed through treatment.
http://news.yahoo.com/telling-lgbt-child-just-phase-crime-202652820.html
