Rant: Transgender Teen Commits Suicide (And All I have to Say Is Fuck You, You Coward) · 10:45am Jan 1st, 2015
Okay first things first, I'm going to need you to not jump to any conclusions about me being a bigot in regards to gender preferences or sexuality. Second things second, if you're prone to suicidal thoughts or have suicidal tendencies, you may not like me at the end of this blog post. I do not give a fuck. The unfollow button is there for your convenience, I encourage you to use it.
Now the thing that has me so frustrated that I've been literally arguing with invisible crowds of transgender is this recent new story about some transgender kid who went and offed himself by throwing himself in front of a fucking semi-truck. Let's get something out of the way: I don't care that this dude thought he was girl, because frankly if a word starts with 'trans' and isn't followed by the suffixes 'vesite', 'form' or 'sylvannian hookers' I don't believe or care that it exists. And even though I believe that life is a precious thing that must be valued and protected, never wasted, squandered or stolen, I also don't care that he committed suicide. No, the thing that pisses me off is that he's on CNN for it and he wants to be made out as some sort of hero... role modelely... thing. I dunno, here's his suicide note on tumblr, you decide.
That's only part of what has me so frustrated though. We can explore the rest by dissecting the last bit of his suicide note, namely this half:
The only way I will rest in peace is if one day transgender people aren’t treated the way I was, they’re treated like humans, with valid feelings and human rights. Gender needs to be taught about in schools, the earlier the better. 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.
Now I'm willing to concede to his fourth point, his death certainly does need to be counted in the number of Transgender people who committed suicide this year, otherwise we wouldn't have a very accurate count. But by all the doucebaggery that flows through my soul, his death doesn't need to mean a damn thing. It's not like he died doing anything important. It isn't like he did anything monumental or awe inspiring. He certainly didn't die making a direct change in the world. All he did was possibly ruin some innocent, caffeine-addled trucker's career by making him into an accessory for murder/manslaughter, and that's a real shitbag move on his behalf.
He wants someone to look at the number of transgendered folks who offed themselves and just... fix it? The character defining words of a truly lazy motherfucker. Evidently he looked at the fucking numbers, but what did he do? Did he dedicate his life to becoming a transgender rights activist? Did he become the head of an organization dedicated to bringing the issue of transgender humans to the public in a positive light? Did he go down swinging, fighting against the system that's (evidently) kept transgender people down for years? No.
No he did not. He chickened out and rage quit life. The truest bitch move if there ever was one. Fuck this kid, weak willed is what he was. I don't want him to rest in peace, and not for the reasons stated in his letter. No, I don't want him to rest in peace because he won't have earned the right to rest in peace; he doesn't deserve it. He did nothing but pass the baton of burden off to some other poor soul rather than man up (woman up in this case? I dunno) and take the issue into his own hands. Running away from life because you're scared... I hate that kind of weakness more than I hate ISIS and let me tell you I really fucking hate ISIS. Fuck you kid, you don't get to run off and quit because it's hard.
When I think of the many great historical figures who were killed for standing up in what they believe in, assassinated or made an example of for going against the tide while sailing in flimsy little barrel of hope and then I think of this weak-willed little victim, I just get sick to my goddamn stomach. Martin Luther King took a bullet because he had a dream of a world without racial segregation. Gandhi took three for daring to (nonviolently) fight for his country's independence. William Wallace was drawn and quartered for doing the same, but low and behold Leelah Alcorn threw himself in front of a bus because he was too much of a bitch t figure out how he should've made a stand. The things this little fucker could have done if he'd just stayed and fought...
I'm going to bed, this shit's pissin' me off.
Loathe,
Your Antagonist
Hmm. . . .
Man, I don't know. I really don't know quite what to say. I mean, I agree that there are better ways to do things than killing one's self. No one should ever think of doing something that horrible, but the other side of the coin is that they shouldn't be driven to that point in the first place. His death, and all deaths, should mean something. How he is asking for it, I agree, is really extreme and selfish, throwing his life away like that. But in the end, we can't just not look at the problem, and if you aren't insinuating that, then I apologize.
This . . . girl's death should still mean something, and that should be for everything. What about the other numbers of people that didn't speak that ended up killing themselves? Your views on suicide aside, they are still dead, and a missing life should never be another statistic.
I hate to be cliché, but that's your opinion, man. I respect you heavily for being able to muster the wherewithal to write your unfiltered thoughts on here, and that's no matter what you and I believe.
I agree that they didn't really do anything deserving of being considered a hero, but some people just aren't cut out for the kind of shit you mentioned.
It's Amanda Todd all over again. Different reason, same solution.
I feel bad for the truck driver.
Meh. His life (I make a point of saying 'he' because quite frankly, he took a look at how hard it is to make change and decided not to (if you'll forgive the term) pony up. He's not a woman because he didn't want it bad enough, apparently).
Was his to waste.
Don't get me wrong, that's exactly what it was, a waste, but then again would someone that weak really have made a difference anyways?
For anyone who's going to say something like 'you're heartless! It's not his fault!' Or any variation of that, don't bother. I lived through suicidal depression, as have plenty of other people. A lack of support isn't an insurmountable obstacle, it's a reason to make your own hope.
Tl;dr: I agree the kid bitched out, but it's not really that great of a loss.
I have no sympathy for people who take the coward's way out.
“Dying for something is easy because it is associated with glory. Living for something is the hard thing. Living for something extends beyond fashion, glory, or recognition. We live for what we believe.”
--Donald Miller
If he had been murdered by bigots for refusing to back down, that would have made his death mean something. But suiciding just because people were mean to him? All that means is that he didn't have the balls to do something that would have really mattered.
Yep. Weak spirit, selfish soul, this kid recieved an ugly and meaningless death. All that she has done is bring lots of grief to ones who cared for her, traumatize the truck driver and make her death another juicy topic for the scandal loving type of press.
I have read the suicide note.
I can't help, but feel bad that Leelah Josh Alcorn betrayed her parents' love and was ungrateful for the life she has been given. She twisted the knife even more by vilifying the image of her caring and confused parents and by throwing all the blame of her death onto their shoulders. Talk about guilt tripping! How could she expect them to respect her life choices and beliefs, if she herself did not respect her elders, their beliefs and traditions?
I agree that it is the next generation's duty to challenge old preconceptions. Still I want to believe that there is always room to handle these topic with a clear mind and an open heart, like a true empathetic person would do.
Josh will be remembered as a disgrace to his family and Leelah - as a digrace to her fellow transgender people. What a shame.
Death is easy, living is not. You can't truly make a change by doing things the easy way.
I'm more concerned about the driver. The teen's suffering is over. The driver's is just beginning. They have to live with that for the rest of their life. It is their fault someone is dead. The kid could easily have hung themself, slot their wrists, drank bleach, or something else, but no, they decided to drag someone else into their problems. Yeah, I'm sad the kid's dead, but I'm more sad about how fucked up the driver's life is now.
You are absolutely right and I support this completely. I know there is pain in life that can drive people to kill themselves, and I won't pretend to ever understand that level of soul-drowning pain, but I do know that killing yourself doesn't inspire change in society. This person is just another number in the suicide statistic rate in America. He's a number, as cruel as that is to say. Change only comes from action, and the only people who will ultimately be affected by this is that teen's family, friends, and that driver. I feel bad this happened, but I feel worse that it was done in such a misguided attempt to be special.
Welp, I'm not sure what to say. I'm transgendered and I have tried to kill myself before (though for unrelated reasons), so I could speak about what it's like going through it...but seeing the amount of hate here makes me back away and just unfollow you instead. Sorry.
Before I say anything else I have to say that publically saying this is one of the bravest things I have ever seen. There is so much risk from what you just did and I don't think I could ever do something as gutsy as this without knowing, without a doubt, that I would have backup.
Now I make no claims to understand the hardships he/she went through as a transgender, but I do know what it means to stand up and fight for what you believe in. I know it's hard and I know that it's hard to be alone. I am more afraid of being alone than almost anything else. That is why even though the world itself can stand against me I will follow what I believe in until it kills me. I may not be the first to stand up for a cause, but you can be damn sure that I will rush to be the second if I believe in it, and that I will fight tooth and nail to keep it alive, so let me tell you something I do know.
I know how much it hurts a cause whenever someone thinks that they can make a difference in whether it lives or dies, because I have seen things rise and fall based on the actions of one man, one woman, and one time, the actions of a single child.
It doesn't matter who you are, how old you are, what kind of record you have, or how much money you have, because you can make a difference. YOU can change the world. YOU CAN SAVE EVERYBODY.
But if you let yourself fall down.
If you let the world leave you behind.
You can't do shit.
2693473
You'll read no argument from me. The title of this post is pretty much the same words that went through my mind when I read the title to the article. I haven't read an article about it, or the note, and I don't care. If you're going to kill yourself, then do so, but do not for a moment believe that it's going "to mean something" other than you were a coward.
Who among us has not faced adversity? I got bullied. 3 times, once at each school I moved to. And on each occasion I FOUGHT the person bullying me. I punched them in the face until we were physically pulled apart. I don't care who you are, I defend myself, and Celestia help you if you start with me. What happened after that? I didn't get bullied anymore.
Yeah I've held a knife to my wrist. I've looked at a bottle of pills. I've contemplated driving off a bridge. Life's hard sometimes. But I'm still here, and determined to make my dreams come true. When I feel down, I vent, I watch some MLP, and I nut up and move on.
Your death won't mean anything. Your life might.
2694452
I'm glad someone caught that line.
2694127
Ain't nothing to apologize for. I said some shit you don't like and you decided not to be subjected to it. I respect that. S' been fun, thanks for following up till now and take care.
2693673 damn bro, that's colder than my whole tirade. I like the honesty.
Well, uh, I agree that it is disgusting to force another into killing you, but I'm also scared of this strong opinion.
My worthless two cents?
I don't know what to think about how I view suicide, but it's a thought that runs through my head every time I think about it (in general, not actually doing it!):
The great thing about suicide, is that it's always an option! Why rush and make a decision you can't come back from? Give it another day, and see if things get better. If not, there's always tomorrow to kill yourself.
Is this a wrong way to look at it? Am I just too lazy to even commit suicide?
Another thought: He walked onto an interstate to do it?! Nope. I don't like it one bit. It's like shooting a cop to go out as suicide by cop. I want to feel for the kid, but he dragged someone else unwittingly into his suicide? Nope.
You forget that people who are able to commit suicide or harm on themselves are nuts, my best friend offed himself for no apparent reason in November and I'll never have any clue why he decided to but that's the thing, its a state of mind that obviously the average person does not really understand. I sure as hell value my existence over everything as pretty much every living thing does but there are some who are just not of that mindset and get dragged down with depression etc. I know as you're a black guy yourself obviouslynyou don't suffer from it but when intollerence was high some would fight,some would do jack shit and then tiny minority would kill.themselves due to their treatment somehow feeling their life was so insignificant that the words or actions done to them were of greater importance.
In this girl boy whatever they hell they were I believe it said their family and school "friends" all wouldn't accept them so in the end they awere obviously a little.more succeptable to depression than most and couldn't rakenit, now I cantnunseratand this mindaetbbut ive never been in the situation where every body hatesbme but that would.probably makenu eventually go nuts so I can understandn it in this case tbh. Howecerbif you're gonna off uraelf don't do it in a way that would cause others PTSD like they did. Not that you'd really care if you were dead. They aren't cowards though.
Also, typing on phone so idgaf about spag lol
2693673 dat profile pic tho...
2699601 What do you mean?
2699689 It's adorable.