An Alabama pediatrician has been accused of glorifying the suicide of a tormented transgender teenager by telling a top conference the 16 year-old’s decision to end her life was ‘bold.’
Dr. Morissa Ladinsky twice used the word while describing the 2014 death of Leelah Alcorn, who stepped in front of a tractor-trailer in Ohio while battling mental health issues she says were linked to her transition from male to female.
Speaking at the American Academy of Pediatrics conference at Anaheim on October 11, she said: ‘And in the final days of 2014… a local 16-year-old lady, Leelah Alcorn, of trans experience, stepped boldly in front of a tractor-trailer, ending her life.
‘Her suicide note, written to post on social media about an hour after her death, went viral around the world,’ Ladinsky continued.
‘Now, Leelah was not my patient. But I took care of hundreds of her classmates at Kings Mills High School. But each day, on the way to work, I passed that spot — where this teen boldly ended her life.’
Ladinsky attempted to emotionally tie in Alcorn’s suicide note and how the doctor passes the same spot the teenager took her own life daily while continuing to call her death ‘bold’
The 16-year-old teenager that Ladinsky was referring to was Leelah Alcorn. The teenager tragically ended her life after being ‘unaccepted’ as being a female
Ladinsky’s remarks were recorded by another pediatrician, Dr Julia Mason, who shared them on Twitter.
Commentators on social media were furious at how Ladinsky described alcorn’s death and called it ‘disgusting.’
‘What sort of social movement celebrates suicide as a bold act? The answer is a cult. Cults do that,’ one viewer wrote.
‘I’ve never heard a medical provider describe suicide as a “bold” act before. Let alone twice,’ another person said.
Physican Michael Ziffra was also mortified by Ladinsky’s suicide speech and called it ‘grossly exploitive.’
Alcorn had written a suicide note before she took her life that was pre-set to go live on social media an hour after her death.
In her lengthy suicide note, Alcorn wrote that her life wasn’t ‘worth living in’ because she is transgender, and the world would never accept her.
‘That’s the gist of it, that’s why I feel like killing myself,’ Alcorn wrote at the time. ‘Sorry if that’s not a good enough reason for you, it’s good enough for me.’
Alcorn was taking higher than advised dosages anti-depressants including Prozac at the time of her death.
Dr. Morissa Ladinsky is under fire on social media after calling the 2014 death of a transgender teen that walked in front of a tractor trailer in Alabama ‘bold’
The video of Ladinsky speaking at the four-day American Academy of Pediatric Conference was posted by Dr. Julia Mason, who slammed the fellow doctor
Ladinsky, who also works as an associate professor at The University of Alabama at Birmingham is a vocal transgender rights activist who is among doctors pushing for controversial ‘gender-affirming care’ for teens.
The medic and her supporters say this is crucial to keep transgender teens happy, but critics say youngsters are being pushed into irreversible treatments including mastectomies and hormone therapies they could later regret.
Last year, Ladinsky wrote an opinion piece for AL.com and insisted she could be arrested and stripped of her medical credentials for providing LGBTQ+ care in the state.
Under Alabama Senate Bill 10 passed in 2021, the state prohibited the care of’ gender change therapy’ and ‘withholding’ of medical information from parents.
Ladinsky cited the state law and recalled her patient who was a male but ‘had always known herself to be a girl.’ The unidentified patient was admitted into a psychiatric ward after a third suicide attempt as puberty approached and her parents disapproved.
The doctor feared Senate Bill 10 and wrote at the time that ‘in 28 years of practice’ she never saw it coming after ‘quietly healing thousands of youth.’
Leelah received criticism from her parents for being trans and they put her in conversion therapy. Carla (left) and Doug (right)
Alcorn left a handwritten note on her bed that said, ‘I’ve had enough,’ and conducted multiple searches in relation to suicide and running away.
Other page searches on Alcorn’s laptop included ‘suicide prevention’ tips that she viewed leading up to her death, according to reports.
The teenager had disapproving parents that sent her to ‘conversion therapy’ against her will. The sessions were intended to revoke Alcorn’s feelings about her gender.
In her suicide note, the teenager began the lengthy page with, ‘Please don’t be sad, it’s for the better. The life I would’ve lived isn’t worth living in… because I’m transgender.’
Alcorn walked through her struggles with her family accepting her as female and how she felt ‘like a girl trapped in a boy’s body’ since the age of four.
If you need help and support, you can contact The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 1-800-273-TALK (8255)
LEELAH’S SUICIDE LETTER
If you are reading this, it means that I have committed suicide and obviously failed to delete this post from my queue.
Please don’t be sad, it’s for the better. The life I would’ve lived isn’t worth living in… because I’m transgender. I could go into detail explaining why I feel that way, but this note is probably going to be lengthy enough as it is. To put it simply, I feel like a girl trapped in a boy’s body, and I’ve felt that way ever since I was 4. I never knew there was a word for that feeling, nor was it possible for a boy to become a girl, so I never told anyone and I just continued to do traditionally ‘boyish’ things to try to fit in.
When I was 14, I learned what transgender meant and cried of happiness. After 10 years of confusion I finally understood who I was. I immediately told my mom, and she reacted extremely negatively, telling me that it was a phase, that I would never truly be a girl, that God doesn’t make mistakes, that I am wrong. If you are reading this, parents, please don’t tell this to your kids. Even if you are Christian or are against transgender people don’t ever say that to someone, especially your kid. That won’t do anything but make them hate them self. That’s exactly what it did to me.
My mom started taking me to a therapist, but would only take me to christian therapists, (who were all very biased) so I never actually got the therapy I needed to cure me of my depression. I only got more Christians telling me that I was selfish and wrong and that I should look to God for help.
When I was 16 I realized that my parents would never come around, and that I would have to wait until I was 18 to start any sort of transitioning treatment, which absolutely broke my heart. The longer you wait, the harder it is to transition. I felt hopeless, that I was just going to look like a man in drag for the rest of my life. On my 16th birthday, when I didn’t receive consent from my parents to start transitioning, I cried myself to sleep.
I formed a sort of a ‘f*** you’ attitude towards my parents and came out as gay at school, thinking that maybe if I eased into coming out as trans it would be less of a shock. Although the reaction from my friends was positive, my parents were pissed. They felt like I was attacking their image, and that I was an embarrassment to them. They wanted me to be their perfect little straight christian boy, and that’s obviously not what I wanted.
So they took me out of public school, took away my laptop and phone, and forbid me of getting on any sort of social media, completely isolating me from my friends. This was probably the part of my life when I was the most depressed, and I’m surprised I didn’t kill myself. I was completely alone for 5 months. No friends, no support, no love. Just my parent’s disappointment and the cruelty of loneliness.
At the end of the school year, my parents finally came around and gave me my phone and let me back on social media. I was excited, I finally had my friends back. They were extremely excited to see me and talk to me, but only at first. Eventually they realized they didn’t actually give a s**t about me, and I felt even lonelier than I did before. The only friends I thought I had only liked me because they saw me five times a week.
After a summer of having almost no friends plus the weight of having to think about college, save money for moving out, keep my grades up, go to church each week and feel like s**t because everyone there is against everything I live for, I have decided I’ve had enough. I’m never going to transition successfully, even when I move out. I’m never going to be happy with the way I look or sound. I’m never going to have enough friends to satisfy me. I’m never going to have enough love to satisfy me. I’m never going to find a man who loves me. I’m never going to be happy. Either I live the rest of my life as a lonely man who wishes he were a woman or I live my life as a lonelier woman who hates herself. There’s no winning. There’s no way out. I’m sad enough already, I don’t need my life to get any worse. People say ‘it gets better’ but that isn’t true in my case. It gets worse. Each day I get worse.
That’s the gist of it, that’s why I feel like killing myself. Sorry if that’s not a good enough reason for you, it’s good enough for me. As for my will, I want 100% of the things that I legally own to be sold and the money (plus my money in the bank) to be given to trans civil rights movements and support groups, I don’t give a s**t which one. The only way I will rest in peace is if one day transgender people aren’t treated the way I was, they’re treated like humans, with valid feelings and human rights. Gender needs to be taught about in schools, the earlier the better. My death needs to mean something. My death needs to be counted in the number of transgender people who commit suicide this year. I want someone to look at that number and say ‘that’s f***ed up’ and fix it. Fix society. Please.
Goodbye,
(Leelah) Josh Alcorn
