Mom heartbroken by daughter’s suicide blames transphobic Republicans & health insurers

“Her life and existence never should have been up for political debate,” her mom said. The obituary she wrote for her daughter has since gone viral.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

An 18-year-old transgender teenager in North Dakota named Haley Gabriella Feldmann died by suicide on November 12, just six days before her 19th birthday. Her parents blame anti-trans Republican policies and inaccessible trans-related medical care for her death.

Feldmann’s obituary — which was written by her mother and has since gone viral — reads, “She was called boy and so we gave her a boy name — now a dead name. We gave her boy clothes, boy toys, boy things. We didn’t know she was our daughter and so we called her son and brother…During her adolescent years she retreated into herself and we lost her.”

Related: Hormone therapy lowers suicide risk for transgender young people

Feldmann enjoyed board games and playing with her dog. She created her own language, loved dark humor and called herself “Imperial Empress of the Galaxies, Conqueror of Solar Systems, Creator of Planets and Nations, Destroyer of Stars.” However, as she became more aware of her own trans identity, she “built formidable walls that became impossible to breach,” her obituary states.

“She had begun to grow afraid of the world as she began to understand herself and who she was,” it continues, “and the reality of her situation became apparent.”

Her parents told The Daily Beast that they accepted her trans identity. One of their daughter’s siblings identifies as non-binary and one of Feldmann’s parents, who was assigned male at birth, is also considering the possibility of transitioning late in life.

However, their daughter’s despair deepened in response to anti-transgender legislation being introduced nationwide and the transphobic rhetoric that became a mainstay during the administration of Republican President Donald Trump.

Her mother said that her daughter never wanted anyone to know that she was transgender because…

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