Author: Zach Mallory

People can hate me all they want for my efforts to pursue my happiness, they aren’t the ones who got born in this birth defect of a body – I am a 35 year old transwoman in the long, painful process of transition. I was terrified of saying anything to my family for years due to a fear of being disowned and losing the only support I have since I’m also disabled. Plus the fear of being murdered by a hateful society didn’t help. That fear held me back from transitioning for a long time, I didn’t manage to begin HRT until this past April. My family now knows and they are thankfully supportive, hard to say with my sister though and while I’ve had to put up with a lot of transphobia from many where I live, others have been supportive. Years of being forced to be male since early childhood though and from being forced to be male in things like video games for years on end has resulted in a strong physical and emotional distress from being forced, demanded and addressed to as male. I’m a woman, I can’t help that my body was born wrong. So many who are trans* are forced to suffer because of the stigma and hatred there is towards the trans* community, from radical feminists groups ensuring that our rights are denied to religious groups trying to force us to be what they demand and forcing conversion therapy on us. It has to stop, it must stop.We are human beings who yearn and ache to be able to live our lives as ourselves, we are not ‘freaks’, we are not ‘things’, we are human beings. We are daughters, sons, wives, husbands, mothers, fathers, we are real people who just want and need to be true to ourselves. Trans* youth need the support and guidance to be able to be who they know they are, and trans* adults need the same help and guidance to be who they know they are. Too many of our trans* sisters and brothers have died, so many lives have been ended because of hatred, bigotry, damaging ideals, misinformation, oppression, violence and many other means. We are fellow human beings, please let us live. No more hate.
~Reina~

My name is alex my birth name was alecis (alexis) i am ftm Trangender i identif as bisexual (mostly guys tho) i am 16 years old from Michigan usa. When i was about 12 or 13 i started to feel something wasn’t right i have had this feeling when i was 6 but didn’t know what it was so i ignored it till i was 12 or 13 i looked it up and found out im transgender i have started living as a male (waiting to have the surgery) and i feel really happy as a male 🙂 rip leelah you are missed so much

I’m a cis queer Christian girl, and I just wanted to apologize to Leelah. I never met her, or the boy whose body she wore, or any of her friends or family. There is nothing I could have done to save her, but I still have to apologize. I bought into the society that did this to her, that not only did not stop her or save her but that stood by and allowed her to end her life.
When Tumblr, by request of Leelah’s parents, took down Leelah’s tumblr (a backup of which you can find here: http://lazerprincess.soup.io) I saw on tumblr that on Reddit she was known as nostalgiaprincess, and I went and checked her out.
I found a beautiful girl who was full of life; she loved art and video games, and longed for the day she would turn 18 and move out, get her own hormones, and become the girl she really was. She was active on a subreddit where she often gave advice to trans people, mostly girls, who were trying to pass as their transitioning gender. She was a beautiful girl who had so much to offer the world, who could have changed society with her amazing life instead of her untimely death. Her parents deserve only a fraction of the blame. A culture that allows transphobia is truly the culprit.
I’m sorry, Leelah, that I let you die.
RIP => Rest In Power

In 2005 I meet a guy his name was Ryan we were both going to hard times we were both not accept where we were I’m bisexual I have been for year I didn’t come out till I was 15 Ryan never felt like a guy he felt trapped in a body that wasn’t him but couldn’t do anything because he felt he wouldn’t be accepted for 2 years I helped him get the courage to become who he felt he was Dakota he was a beautiful women and for time in the two years I had known him he was happy with himself with life no one understood him he was judged everyday of his life but he was happy I was there for him his mother kicked him out and I opened my door with my family with open arms he wasn’t just a tranny he wasn’t confused he was trapped living a life he didn’t believe was his i helped him find him self he became family he because my light he saved my life I saved his but people can only be strong for so long and when the words get to you they destroy not just the victims but everyone around them everyone who cared Dakota took her life last year at 21 she had so much ahead of her it’s time people understand that words hurt yeah we grow up with the whole “stick and stones will break our bones but words will never hurt you” words may never break your bones but they will leave you damaged they will fuck with your mind change your thought on yourself your self esteem will fall you won’t be comfortable in your own skin just because word don’t break bones doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt so let’s wise up understand the meaning of what we stay and stop taking the lives that haven’t even started yet. When I was in middle school, on April 19, 2011, I asked my best friend if she wanted to date me. She said yes, but she knew if her parents found out everything would go wrong. Two weeks later, her parents found out. They said that I was going to Hell for making their daughter gay and that I was an ugly, terrible person. They took all contact I had with her away. Her cell phone, her laptop, the only contact I had with her was school… And they eventually took that away too. They put her in a Christian school to convert her to being straight. Once the summer came, I never heard from her again, and she was my best friend. It still hurts today, almost 4 years later, that there could be someone so intolerant of their children. Both of us were on the verge of suicide. I know it’s not a transgender story, but it does involve conversion… And I want to put an end to it because it’s just not right!

I’m 19 years old and am a Male to Female transgender. I currently live in a very conservative, religious small town. I always knew there was something different about me, even to my earliest memories, but I couldn’t quite pinpoint it. While I played with “boy toys” and never really seemed girly to others, I would always want to be the heroines of my favorite shows (Totally Spies and Sailor Moon, in case you were wondering). I was never vocal about it, but I spent every day as a heroine of some sort in my imagination. As I got older, I realized there was something odd and that regular boys didn’t do that sort of thing. I started to act more masculine on the outside, thinking I could “fix” myself, but I just couldn’t get rid of that feeling I kept pushing away. That anxiety coupled with my Dad being diagnosed with ALS and his eventual death drove me crazy. I began to cut myself and even attempted suicide once. A few years after he was gone, I learned about transgenders. It finally clicked and I knew what I was, but I heard and saw all the negativity against them and was too afraid to come out. At least, until last year. I finally got the courage to come out to my mom. We argued a lot, and for a while she thought I was insane. She remembered how I would play with “boy toys” and thought because I didn’t fit the stereotype that I couldn’t be transgender and that it was just a phase. But now we’ve had some time to talk things over, and we went to an impartial psychiatrist who gave us all the facts and details, and now she’s super supportive along with a few close friends! But still, given how hostile my community is, I’ve made little progress in transitioning. It’s a terrifying thought honestly. But Leelah’s story inspired me. She was able to be true to herself despite everything, even though she wasn’t lucky enough to have the support I have. I don’t think I would be able to live with myself any longer, wasting the love and support that so many would yearn for. So, I’ve finally made the decision to start the transition process. I owe Leelah for giving me the courage, and this page for giving me something to be passionate about. Thank you so much. Let’s get Leelah’s Law passed! No one should have to go through that kind of hell! And if there’s anyone like me who has been hesitating, I personally think they should go for it. More than being afraid of discrimination, I think the real thing we should be afraid of is regret. No one should live in regret over the things they could have done or the person they could have been.

I wasn’t born with the name that all my friends secretly call me, but It’s the name I chose for my real self. I was born a girl, but always looked at my brother wishing that I could be like him. But not his personality, I wanted to be a guy because I hated girly things and I enjoy dressing and looking like a guy. But it got to the point I just wasn’t happy in my own body. It didn’t show what I was inside. It took a lot of tears and fighting to find out that in the end, Im a boy trapped in a girls body. While everyone knew I was a lesbian, no one knows the truth. I try to deny who I am, because my family will never accept me. My mom freaked when she found out I was gay. When she saw my facebook used male pronouns, she nearly had a heart attack. I had to lie to keep her from knowing. I will never transition because hurting my family just to make me happy with myself is just something I’ve never been able to do. I couldn’t possibly hurt my mom with that, because when she approached me about my facebook, she said that “transgender people were mentally ill and confused and she didn’t want her daughter to feel that way”. It doesn’t help that my grandparents are proud that I’m their only granddaughter. I have denied religion in the belief that all it has done is blind my mom from seeing that being a parent is more about loving your child no matter what they grow up to be or what they’re born as. I know most people will say that I should leave my family if they would accept me for who I am. But I just can’t. I’ll be 19 soon. I’m afraid of the future and what will happen. All I know is that I need to just keep living.