Taylor Alesana, 16, reportedly told a school counselor of the daily harassment she faced, but did not find relief. She took her own life earlier this month.Taylor Alesana, a 16-year-old transgender girl in Fallbrook, Calif., who faced
"constant" bullying online and in school, died by suicide April 2, reports San Diego TV station
KGTV.
Despite facing
daily harassment, Alesana tried to support and inspire other trans youth through
her YouTube videos, where she had been speaking about trans issues and giving makeup tutorials for several months. Reaching several hundred viewers each week appeared to be a joy to the teen, who also spoke of being lonely and losing "a ton of friends" after coming out as trans at Fallbrook High School.
In one November video for last year's
Transgender Day of Remembrance, Alesana spoke out against the "horrible" fatal violence that faces trans people, and especially trans women of color, worldwide, saying, "One in 12 transgender women are killed each year. ... I myself am a transgender woman and that, to me, just breaks my heart." Alesana then
gave her own account of living daily as an out trans woman, saying that she had just begun attending her new high school in Fallbrook, a town she considered "convservative."
"I go to school every day [and] I don't have many friends. I'm usually alone," she shared. "And if that's how my life's going to be then, hell, I'm just going to get my diploma and get out. Being transgender, for me, [means] I've lost tons of friends — tons. It's been hell."
"Being there [at Fallbrook High School], of course, means
you're gonna [get] a lot of hate and some support," she continued. "Me, I walk into school ... and I put my headphones in. ... Because
I know all the shit I'm going to get. Especially lately, I've gotten a lot of drama from the school itself."
Alesana had informed a school counselor of the harassment she faced, but nothing changed, North County LGBTQ Resource Center executive director Max Disposti told KGTV.
Comment: The gang rape is disgusting enough, but the fact that there were hundreds of people standing there, just watching these men rape a woman, is another sign of the normalization of rape in society. For more on that, see: Rape Culture in America - How the system protects the rapists and fails the victims