Leelah Petition: 200,000 Call For National Ban On Trans Conversion Therapy

At this writing almost 200,000 people have signed a Change.org petition calling for a national ban on so-called transgender conversion therapy.  Almost 70,000 have signed a separate petition which calls for Leelah Alcorn's preferred name to be inscribed in her headstone.

Yesterday CNN got a brief quote from Leelah's mother:

When Josh Alcorn voiced a desire to live as a girl, the Ohio teenager's parents said they wouldn't stand for that. "We don't support that, religiously," Alcorn's mother told CNN Wednesday, her voice breaking. "But we told him that we loved him unconditionally. We loved him no matter what. I loved my son. People need to know that I loved him. He was a good kid, a good boy." Crossing out the name "Josh," the 17-year-old signed the name "Leelah" in a suicide note posted to Tumblr. The note was programmed to publish after Alcorn's death Sunday. The teenager was struck by a tractor-trailer on Interstate 71 around 2:15 a.m., about four miles from home in the tiny town of Kings Mills, northeast of Cincinnati. The Ohio State Highway Patrol is investigating the death as a suicide.

More from NBC News:

Alcorn's parents did not return phone calls Wednesday. A minister at the church where her wake and funeral service will be held said in an email that he could not comment. "Our focus right now is to help a family broken by tragedy to grieve and heal," Tim Tripp of Northeast Church of Christ said. In the suicide note, Alcorn said she had felt like a girl trapped in a boy's body since she was four but did not learn what transgender was until she was 14. She came out to her parents, who took her to Christian therapists and denied permission for transitioning treatment, she wrote. A friend who worked with Alcorn at the Kings Island amusement park last summer said she didn't agree with the parents' reaction — or the vitriol heaped on them after the note went viral. "They did what they thought was right and it's very difficult to actually put ourselves in the situation. They lost a child," said Azalea Laverde, 16. "We need to stop harassing them and focus on bringing awareness and promoting equality to transgenders."

JMG reader St8 Grandmother notes that this counseling page (viewable via the Wayback Machine) has been removed from the church's website. (Tipped by JMG reader Jay)