15-Year-Old UK Trans Boy Commits Suicide After School Refused to Use His New Name

After coming out to his family, friends, and school officials as a transgender man, 15-year-old Leo Etherington took his own life. According to Pink News, a coroner's court heard that Leo's girls' grammar school in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, refused to honor and address him by his new name until he turned 16.

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Even in a statement from the school's head teacher, Sharon Cromie, Leo's old, female name was used when expressing grief at the loss of a student. "[Old name] was a wonderful person in every way and is missed by us all," she wrote.

Martin Etherington, Leo's father, said the teen had been angry that teachers continued to call him by his old name even after he started presenting as male and transitioned in 2016. Having attended sessions with Leo at a gender identity clinic, Etherington offered to fund his son's gender-confirmation surgery. Leo Etherington's death adds to the tragically high number of trans individual's deaths 2017.