Once again, the left is eager to use tragedy to make political statements and damage innocent people’s reputations.
Just before the new year, 17-year-old Josh “Leelah” Alcorn tragically committed suicide. Alcorn’s tumblr account revealed a suicide note that blamed the Christian parents for not letting the biologically male Alcorn get gender reassignment surgery and instead took Alcorn to Christian counseling which made the teen “hate religion,” the note charged.
Notoriously crass gay activist Dan Savage, who currently writes a sex advice column for Portland’s The Slog, hosts his own podcast and formerly had a show on MTV, led the charge, calling for the online community to shame the parents for not accepting their biological son identified as female and to “make an example” of them by charging them in the court of law.
It risks incentivizing suicide—take revenge on hateful parents by killing yourself—but an example needs 2 be made of #LeelahAlcorn [1]'s parents
— Dan Savage (@fakedansavage) December 31, 2014 [2]
We know that parental hostility & rejection doubles a queer kid's already quadrupled risk of suicide—rejecting your queer kid is abuse.
— Dan Savage (@fakedansavage) December 31, 2014 [3]
#LeelahAlcorn [1]'s parents threw her in front of that truck. They should be ashamed—but 1st they need to be shamed. Charges should be brought.
— Dan Savage (@fakedansavage) December 31, 2014 [4]
The "Christian therapists" who counseled #LeelahAlcorn [1] should also be charged. pic.twitter.com/UrxJFuI2jq [5]
— Dan Savage (@fakedansavage) December 31, 2014 [6]This kind of behavior is not new for Savage, who has a history of attacking Christians and conservatives.
Savage’s minions responded in kind by addressing hateful death threats to the parents and counselors on Twitter and Facebook.
Feminist Jessica Valenti also wrote an article for The Guardian calling for gender-confused children to [7] have the rights to legally emancipate themselves from their parents if they take them to counseling.
Savage agreed that counseling was “abuse” and encouraged others to harass the parents of the teen through social media.
.@samueloakford [8] What charges? Child abuse. Neglect. Reckless endangerment. Manslaughter. #LeelahAlcorn [1]
— Dan Savage (@fakedansavage) December 31, 2014 [9]So now the left is actually calling for criminal charges to be placed on Christian parents who try to help their kids who may be experiencing sexual or gender confusion instead of giving them hormones or surgery.
The teen’s mother, Carla Alcorn told CNN [10] that they have not had a funeral for her child yet because the family has been threatened with protests. Even the Facebook post by Carla notifying others of her son’s death was seized by activists who edited her post by changing the teen’s birth name of “Josh” to “Leelah.”
It’s sad when a family’s loss is tarnished by people who want to use it for political gain, but not only that, are threatened with violence and even accused of murder.
— Kristine Marsh is Staff Writer for MRC Culture at the Media Research Center. Follow Kristine Marsh on Twitter. [11]