Wingnut Columnist: ‘Satan’s Little Soldiers’ Are Responsible For Leelah Alcorn’s Suicide

I haven’t found too many reactions from right-wing personalities about Leelah Alcorn being driven to suicide due to her parents refusing to accept her transgender identity. But none of them are anywhere near as disgusting as an article penned by conservative Catholic blogger Louie Verrechio at Renew America. Verrechio blames Leelah’s death on the gay rights movement, whom he calls “Satan’s little soldiers.”

Leelah Alcorn (courtesy New Civil Rights Movement)
Leelah Alcorn (courtesy New Civil Rights Movement)

Verrechio read Leelah’s suicide note on the Facebook page of Cincinnati city councilman Chris Seebach. He concluded that it was evidence that her death wasn’t an accident. To Verrechio’s mind, Leelah–or Joshua, as Verrechio calls her–is the latest victim of the gay rights movement’s effort to overturn “anything and everything that even hints at the existence of objective truth.” He doesn’t think that LGBT people and their supporters “give a flying quickie in a bus station bathroom” about Leelah or anyone else struggling with family or friends’ refusal to accept them for what they are. They only saw her as “a character in a tragic tale” that can be used as a pawn in “their war against the Author of the Divine Law.” He sees several parallels between Leelah’s case and that of Matthew Shephard–whom he dismisses as a “meth addicted dope dealer.”

To Verrechio’s mind, Leelah’s parents deserve “our sympathy, our admiration” for refusing to accept Leelah’s desire to live as a girl and treating it as mental illness. Um, Louie? You mean to tell us they deserve our sympathy for sending Leelah to numerous conversion therapy sessions? Or that they deserve our admiration for essentially cutting her off from the outside world for five months and repeatedly verbally abusing her? I have to assume that you do, if you’ve read Leelah’s note. Seen in this light, your claim that a push to enact a federal ban on “pray away the gay” proves “the demonic nature of the LGBT movement” is outrageously insulting. And your suggestion that Leelah’s suicide is evidence that gay rights activists don’t have any “authentic compassion” for LGBT people is disingenuous at best.

Until reading this, I thought that the strongest argument I’ve seen against “pray away the gay” was the appalling ordeal that David had to endure at Escuela Caribe. But Verrechio does a better job of proving how harmful this is than anything else I’ve ever seen.

Let us know your thoughts at the Liberal America Facebook page. Sign up for our free daily newsletter to receive more great stories like this one.


Darrell Lucus.jpg Darrell Lucus, also known as Christian Dem in NC on Daily Kos, is a radical-lefty Jesus-lover who has been blogging for change for a decade. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook.

Darrell is a 30-something graduate of the University of North Carolina who considers himself a journalist of the old school. An attempt to turn him into a member of the religious right in college only succeeded in turning him into the religious right's worst nightmare--a charismatic Christian who is an unapologetic liberal. His desire to stand up for those who have been scared into silence only increased when he survived an abusive three-year marriage. You may know him on Daily Kos as Christian Dem in NC. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook. Click here to buy Darrell a Mello Yello.