Hey same anon here. I did a little digging and found her suicide note.
To clear up my earlier question; who *was* she? She seemed special to a handful of people and I'm curious what she meant to you (if you're comfortable sharing, I can give you my DM if you want) and just...what was this person?
So, she was special to me. I never knew her in life, but when Leelah died, I was.. 15, and on the internet a lot. I spent a lot of my time escaping real life, because I was butting heads with my own parents over gender/sexuality. I had a lot of negative internal thoughts that I couldn't turn into productive external actions. Felt like there was no path for me.
When Leelah's note gained national attention, I just sort of broke down about it. It was everywhere on this site. All of my mutuals were reblogging all of the posts about it. A few years earlier, I had a friend pass away in a similar way, by choice, because they felt unloved too. I couldn't tell anyone because it was an internet friend, who I didn't even know the name of, who I knew almost nothing about. I was 12 and didn't think to ask. I ask, now.
Leelah opened a dialogue path for me, and she died to do it. I really do spend a lot of time on the what ifs. What if she just had one advocate. What if my friend did. Maybe we'd have two more people in the world. Maybe we could see Leelah grow up into a beautiful adult.
I remember there was a lot of chatter about Tumblr potentially taking down her blog (lazerprincess), so I felt like saving it for myself. I know a few people did similar.
I wanted to save her art, and her shitposts, and her clear/visible cries for help, and her personality. What of it that I could, anyway.
