Bethany Suckrow connects the dots between the discussion of the recent suicide of transgender teen Leelah Alcorn and the claim of many anti-gay Christians that they are "pro-life":
If you claim to be "pro-life," then be consistent. Care enough to change these statistics. Care about offering LGBTQ people hope through compassion, grace and unconditional love. Stop wielding your faith as a weapon against the LGBTQ community. Stop blaming Jesus for your bigotry. And please, for the love, if you cannot embrace the LGBTQ people in your midst, then stop claiming to be "pro-life" and start calling yourselves what you really are: "anti-abortion." If compassion and unconditional grace are not a part of your "pro-life" ethic, then you are not pro-life.
For information about Leelah Alcorn and her suicide, see David Badash at The New Civil Rights Movement (here, here, and here), this Wikipedia coverage of the story that has quickly developed in the space of only a few days, and the #LeelahAlcorn hashtag page at Twitter, which is also rapidly fueling discussion of this story.
I'm indebted to Fred Clark at Slacktivist for the link to Bethany Suckrow's blog.
The photo of Leelah Alcorn is one she posted at her Tumblr site Lazer Princess, which is the site at which she also posted her suicide note. According to a new page at Tumblr entitled LazerPrincess, Leelah Alcorn's Tumblr page, with her suicide note and photos, has now been deleted — but the photo has now been widely circulated at my news sites.
