Recently, extremely sadly, a teenage transgendered girl killed herself because most people (including her parents) wouldn’t accept her as female. What bothers me is that I actually haven’t seen many articles about it. Not enough anyway. Then I realised that I could just as well post about it and so I’m going to do just that.
The media seem to have awful priorities because I’ve seen stories about how some young people haven’t heard of Paul McCartney much more than I’ve seen anything about Leelah’s tragic death. What’s worse is that the comments on these articles say things like “urgh, people these days” when, really, whether somebody has heard of Paul McCartney or not says nothing important about our society. Articles covering what happened to Leelah and why it’s so bad are very important, because highlighting all the problems that caused this tragedy can make some steps towards stopping it from happening again.
I think a lot of people don’t really understand what it means when somebody is transgendered. If you’re transgendered, you were born that way and in simple terms you could be a man born into a woman’s body or vice versa. It’s based in scientific fact; if you are a transgendered man, you are a man, but the problem is you were born with a woman’s body and your brain is expecting a male anatomy. Hence why people have treatment in order to match their body of to the type that they are going to be most comfortable in. It’s all natural and it’s only through ignorance that members of the transgender community are met with any objections.
Beyond this blog post, today’s Finger Puppet Show, is also about Leelah. Since my webcomic is rather light-hearted, I am a little concerned that I am making light of a very distressing subject and I am certainly very sorry if it does seem that way. One of the main characters (Fran) is transgendered and I sometimes feel bad that I have her lead a very happy life, free from oppression as I worry it may make me appear blind to the suffering of people in that community. The reason I write it this way is that someone should be able to live a life free from judgements and oppression, so my webcomic is a reflection of what life should be like and how people should handle these issues. Including Leelah in a strip as a happy, well person illustrates this point and the idea was to make a damning comment about our own world from the perspective of another. I felt it important to explain this because, with it being such a sensitive subject, I was worried I might offend.
So, that’s about all I have to say. Keep all of this in mind and spread the message; the more people that do so, the less the chances of another person having to meet this unhappy fate. Fix society, is what she said in her suicide note, and that what we all should try to do.
The media seem to have awful priorities because I’ve seen stories about how some young people haven’t heard of Paul McCartney much more than I’ve seen anything about Leelah’s tragic death. What’s worse is that the comments on these articles say things like “urgh, people these days” when, really, whether somebody has heard of Paul McCartney or not says nothing important about our society. Articles covering what happened to Leelah and why it’s so bad are very important, because highlighting all the problems that caused this tragedy can make some steps towards stopping it from happening again.
I think a lot of people don’t really understand what it means when somebody is transgendered. If you’re transgendered, you were born that way and in simple terms you could be a man born into a woman’s body or vice versa. It’s based in scientific fact; if you are a transgendered man, you are a man, but the problem is you were born with a woman’s body and your brain is expecting a male anatomy. Hence why people have treatment in order to match their body of to the type that they are going to be most comfortable in. It’s all natural and it’s only through ignorance that members of the transgender community are met with any objections.
Beyond this blog post, today’s Finger Puppet Show, is also about Leelah. Since my webcomic is rather light-hearted, I am a little concerned that I am making light of a very distressing subject and I am certainly very sorry if it does seem that way. One of the main characters (Fran) is transgendered and I sometimes feel bad that I have her lead a very happy life, free from oppression as I worry it may make me appear blind to the suffering of people in that community. The reason I write it this way is that someone should be able to live a life free from judgements and oppression, so my webcomic is a reflection of what life should be like and how people should handle these issues. Including Leelah in a strip as a happy, well person illustrates this point and the idea was to make a damning comment about our own world from the perspective of another. I felt it important to explain this because, with it being such a sensitive subject, I was worried I might offend.
So, that’s about all I have to say. Keep all of this in mind and spread the message; the more people that do so, the less the chances of another person having to meet this unhappy fate. Fix society, is what she said in her suicide note, and that what we all should try to do.
(Don’t miss my latest article for SmartDating UK!)
