Published in: May-June 2015 issue.
Last December, Leelah Alcorn, a seventeen-year-old transgender girl, committed suicide by walking in front of a tractor-trailer in
Ohio. Before her death, she blogged that she would rather die than be forced to continue “conversion therapy.” Her suicide moved hundreds of thousands of people to sign on-line petitions against conversion therapy, also known as “ex-gay therapy” or “reorientation therapy.”
News of her death energized many of us to be more proactive in debunking conversion therapy.
Jim Walker, MA, MFT, is a psychotherapist in private practice in San Francisco. He can be contacted at therapist@lgbtcounseling.com.
