Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

8 years after Leelah Alcorn's death, group founder is 'hopeful' despite anti-trans legislation

Courtesy Leelah's Highway
Chris Fortin holds a sign in a still image from the documentary Leelah's Highway.

The founder of the Leelah Alcorn Memorial Highway project says he hopes things have been getting better for transgender youth. Chris Fortin says Wednesday is the eighth anniversary of Leelah's suicide. She was a transgender teen in Warren County whose death sparked a national conversation. Fortin says he's not sure if there's been progress, but he'd like to think youth suicides have dropped.

"The feeling I get from the public, people are just as scared of the transgender thing as they were eight years ago," he says. "I like to keep the focus on 'Somebody died here,' and then, 'Why not accept them as a human being?' "

Fortin says the Leelah Alcorn Memorial Highway group schedules regular trash pickups along I-71, where she died. He says they also do educational outreach and maintain a social media presence. The group also assisted with a 2018 documentary about Leelah and the events following her death in 2014, which put a national spotlight on the issue of conversion therapy. Cincinnati Council has since banned the practice in the city.

"Loving families who have a transgender child will take care and give them the support they need," he says. "I like to think a lot of that’s still going on, and folks who really need the right information go and find it, and that they dismiss a lot of what I call sensationalism now."

Fortin says he started the project because he passes the spot on I-71 almost every day. “It’s kind of two-fold: suicide prevention and trans education. Just kind of educating people on what trans is. Just like we always say 'You probably know a gay person,' you probably know a trans person."

Fortin says with as much talk about anti-trans laws as there is today, it seems the public is still just as confused about transgender issues as they were eight years ago.

"First thing that pops into my mind is how people complain about how we're trying to teach kids to change their gender in school, and all this kind of crap," he says. "And I'm just like, 'I just don't want anyone else to die.' "

Members of Leelah Alcorn Memorial Highway plan to return to the interstate four times in 2023 to clean up.

If you or someone you know is contemplating suicide, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, a hotline for individuals in crisis or for those looking to help someone else. To speak with a certified listener, call 988.

Bill Rinehart started his radio career as a disc jockey in 1990. In 1994, he made the jump into journalism and has been reporting and delivering news on the radio ever since.