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John Kasich says he hasn't heard of Leelah Alcorn

CINCINNATI — John Kasich said Monday he hadn't heard of Leelah Alcorn or the Cincinnati-area transgender teen's 2014 suicide death.

CINCINNATI — John Kasich said Monday he hadn't heard of Leelah Alcorn or the Cincinnati-area transgender teen's 2014 suicide death.

Leelah, born Josh Alcorn, left a post on the social media site Tumblr that went live after her death. "My death needs to mean something," the 17-year-old wrote in the post. "Fix society. Please."

 

The post spawned national activism over policy that affects transgender children and adults, including a promise from President Obama to advocate for a ban on "conversion therapy," a form of counseling that seeks to change people's sexual orientation. Leelah's Tumblr post said her parents, who did not accept her gender identity, put her in "Christian therapy."

Kasich's comments, at a presidential campaign event in Troy, N.Y., reportedly came in response to a question about conversion therapy.

"There are unfortunately too many tragic deaths across our state and nation each day. And as much as you wish we could recall each of those two years later, that is unrealistic," Kasich gubernatorial spokesman Joe Andrews said in an email.

 

Transgender issues have risen to prominence again this spring after North Carolina and Mississippi passed laws requiring people to use the restroom labeled for the sex listed on their birth certificate.

On Sunday on CBS News' Face the NationKasich said he wouldn't have signed such a law in his state, "from everything I know."

Conversion therapy has been denounced by the American Psychiatric Association as ineffective since 1998. Democratic lawmakers have introduced a bill that would ban the practice in Ohio, but Republicans who control the Legislature have not gotten behind the bill. The Cincinnati Council banned conversion therapy within the city in December.

"Why do we have to write a law every time we turn around in this country?" Kasich said. "Can't we figure out just how to get along a little bit better and respect one another? I mean, that's where I think we ought to be. Everybody chill out. Get over it if you have a disagreement with somebody. So that's where I am right now ... and unless something pops up, I'm not inclined to sign anything."

 

Contributing: Anne Saker, Sharon Coolidge and Jessie Balmert, The Cincinnati Enquirer.

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