CINCINNATI (AP) — The Ohio Department of Transportation has erected signs indicating that a group has adopted a stretch of highway in southwestern Ohio in memory of a transgender teenager who killed herself there nearly a year ago.
The State Highway Patrol says say 17-year-old Leelah Alcorn left a handwritten note on her bed – “I’ve had enough” – and did an online search about runaway assistance and a Tumblr search for the word suicide before walking into the path of a tractor-trailer on Interstate 71 in suburban Cincinnati in late December.
Leelah’s death prompted vigils, social media discussions and online petitions supporting transgender people.
The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that Chris Fortin, a 2001 graduate of the same high school Leelah once attended, led the Adopt-A-Highway effort in her memory.
