Alcorn's parents On December 28 at 2:56 p.m., Alcorn's mother, Carla Wood Alcorn, posted a public message on
Facebook: "My sweet 16-year-old son... went home to Heaven this morning. He was out for an early morning walk and was hit by a truck. Thank you for the messages and kindness and concern you have sent our way. Please continue to keep us in your prayers." On Twitter, American LGBT rights activist
Dan Savage argued that Alcorn's parents should be prosecuted for their role in bringing about their daughter's death, commenting that through their actions they "threw her in front of that truck". He cited the successful
prosecution of Dharun Ravi following the
suicide of Tyler Clementi as a legal precedent for such an action. He added that legal action should also be brought against the conversion therapists who had counseled Leelah, and suggested that the Alcorns should lose custody of their other children. She expressed concern that users of social media thought her to be a "horrible person", but defended her actions in dealing with her child, stating for example that she had banned internet access to prevent access to "inappropriate" things.
People magazine quoted
Johanna Olson, Medical Director for the Center of Trans Youth Health and Development at
Children's Hospital Los Angeles, as stating that "Did Leelah's parents love her? Yes, I'm sure they did. Did they support her? No, they didn't. And that's a tragedy." On January 1, 2015, the Cincinnati-based LGBT rights group Support Marriage Equality Ohio hosted a vigil for Alcorn outside Kings High School. A candlelight vigil in
Goodale Park, Columbus was held on January 2 by a group called Stand Up 4 Leelah. A January 3 vigil was scheduled for
Trafalgar Square in London; an organizer was quoted as saying that "[Alcorn's] death was a political death. When a member of our community is brutalised at the hands of oppression we must all fight back." Those who spoke at the event included politician
Sarah Brown and novelist and poet
Roz Kaveney. Marches were carried out in honor of Alcorn in both
Northwest, Washington, D.C. and
Queen Street, Auckland on January 10. The same day, a candlelight vigil was held in New York City's
Columbus Circle. A memorial protest against conversion therapy and in memory of Alcorn took place in
Lynchburg, Virginia, on January 24, 2015. Among the transgender celebrities who publicly responded to the incident were
Janet Mock,
Andreja Pejić, and
Laverne Cox, while the musician
Ray Toro released a song, "For the Lost and Brave," in dedication to Alcorn.
Joey Soloway, the writer of the television show
Transparent, dedicated their
Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series to Alcorn. During
Diane Sawyer's interview with
Caitlyn Jenner, which confirmed Jenner's transgender identity, Alcorn was mentioned by name and the message "Fix society. Please," was broadcast. In June 2015, the singer
Miley Cyrus founded the
Happy Hippie Foundation, an organization to raise awareness of homelessness and LGBT issues among young people, partly in response to Alcorn's death. To promote the organization, she released a new series of
Backyard Sessions videos, the second of which,
Dido's "
No Freedom" was dedicated to Alcorn. After reading about Alcorn's death, British musician
Declan McKenna was inspired to write a song, "Paracetamol," which was included on his debut album
What Do You Think About the Car? and discusses the media's representation of LGBT communities. In 2015, the nationwide non-profit organization Ally Parents, operated by Stand with Trans, was created in response to Leelah's death. Carolyn Washburn, editor of the Ohio newspaper
The Cincinnati Enquirer, stated that the incident "raises important issues we hope will prompt conversations in families throughout our region." When contacted by
The Cincinnati Enquirer, Shane Morgan, the founder and chair of transgender advocate group TransOhio, stated that while 2014 witnessed gains for the trans rights movement, Alcorn's death illustrated how "trans people are still being victimized and still being disrespected", highlighting the high rate of transgender people who had been murdered that year. Under the Twitter hashtag #RealLiveTransAdult, many transgender people posted encouraging tweets for their younger counterparts, while other hashtags, such as #ProtectTransKids, and the term "
Rest in Power", also circulated on Twitter. A
Change.org petition was set up calling for Leelah's chosen name to be included on her
gravestone, which gained over 80,000 signatures. Under Ohio's
Adopt-a-Highway program, a group adopted the interchange of Interstate 71 South and
Ohio State Route 48—which was where Alcorn died—and dedicated it to her memory. As a result, the
Ohio Department of Transportation erected signs stating "In Memory of Leelah Alcorn" along the road. Members of the group affixed a wreath to one of these signs; group member Lisa Oravec informed press that "We don't want Leelah to be forgotten... We want people in Cincinnati, or anybody driving down 71 to see the wreath. See the highway. If they don't know who Leelah is they'll
Google it, educate it, and learn from what happened." As of December 2018, the "Leelah Alcorn Highway Memorial" group continued to meet four times a year to clean that stretch of road. Its creator, Elizabeth Littlejohn of
Toronto, stated that "as a human rights activist who believes [in] the right for gender self-determination, I believe this story needed to be told."
Leelah's Law A Facebook group called "Justice for Leelah Alcorn" was established, while a petition calling for "Leelah's Law," a ban on conversion therapy in the United States, was created by the Transgender Human Rights Institute to raise awareness of the psychologically harmful effects of such practices. By January 24, it had 330,009 signatures, and was named the fastest growing change.org petition of 2014. A second appeal demanding the enactment of "Leelah's Law" was posted to the
We the People section of
Whitehouse.gov on January 3, 2015, which garnered more than 100,000 signatures as of January 30. In response to the petition, in April 2015, President
Barack Obama called for the banning of conversion therapy for minors. In December 2015, Cincinnati became the second U.S. city after Washington, D.C., to ban the practice of conversion therapy outright; council member Chris Seelbach cited Alcorn's suicide as an influence in the decision and stated that "she challenged us to make her death matter, and we're doing just that." By October 2018, four cities across Ohio had banned conversion therapy, leading journalist Nico Lang to comment that "the Buckeye State has become an unlikely leader in banning conversion therapy at the local level." == See also ==