Just because one person wants to be something he isn't, doesn't mean he can be it. Even when people do a physical gender change they still really are the gender they are born as. Nothing can change that. (Of course there are exceptions such as intersexuals which are physically different.)
About conversion therapy. Forcing someone to change never will help. A person only can change when he wants to. But I've got no problem with parents trying to explain their child(ren) something they're convinced is wrong. That's your right as a parent. That's education, something parents are giving way too little nowadays, and the results are obvious everywhere. Of course the end decisions go to the person itself, and someone who doesn't want to listen, you just eventually have to leave alone and just let do what they want.
This boy, Josh, who wanted to be a girl and wanted to be called Leelah, remains what he physically is born as. The only reason people are calling him a girl is because he wanted to be one. And I don't think that's any reason to misuse the word.
I think they should put his real name on the grave, and he should be buried as a male, because those things are what he is. We're talking about real gender here, not sexual orientation or preference.
You cannot change who you physically are. The only thing that really can be changed is sexual orientation.
Now of course I find it saddening that a person commits suicide. But it's clear to me that he couldn't handle the fact that he was who he was. He hated his parents because of this, but obviously hated himself as well.
Sex and gender are not the same thing. Gender is a social construct, and has to do with the way you feel and want to personally identify as. It has nothing to do with your sexual organs, expression, etc.
Parents do NOT have the right to impose their own beliefs on their children. There is a very big difference between teaching your child morals, and then shoving your ideas down their throat. Just like with religion, sexual orientation, etc. a parent should not be able to prevent their child from having their own harmless ideas and beliefs. It's not like Leelah was trying to justify killing a person. All she wanted was for her parents to use pronouns that she was comfortable with and allow her to transition.
Also, why should her birth name be on
HER grave? It is hers after all, she should definitely have a say regarding it, just as much as she should have a say regarding her own life choices. Leelah was practically a grown adult. It is entirely reasonable to put the name Leelah wanted to be addressed by on her grave.
And also, yes you can change your sex with surgery and hormone treatment.
She did not die because she hated herself, she clearly stated that she hated the way her parents treated her and did not want to be unhappy the rest of her life because she feared not being able to fully transition at a certain age(which she was misinformed on, so that is another thing that people should be more educated on). Clearly her parents did not care much about her, I mean her mother sugar coated the event that took place in her Facebook post and then didn't even list her correct age.
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Also, being transgender is not necessarily related to a mental disorder. Some people have dysphoria which is still considered a mental illness, but that is so that transgender people have access to medical care (if needed).
Homosexuality was also considered a mental illness at one point. It was removed once people became more educated about it, which is the issue here - lack of education.
