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
![Leelah Alcorn](https://glreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/24545A5200000578-2891267-image-m-45_1419947436741-201x300.jpg)
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.