Elisa Rae Shupe: “My death is not a surrender.”
Content warning: Discussions of suicide
With the U.S shifting to support and implement more right wing ideologies and policies over the past few years, those in the LGBTQIA+ community have been seeing an increase in violence and hatred being targeted towards them.
Along with this, in recent years, there have been an increase in death rates among transgender (one’s gender identity that now differs from their assigned sex at birth) and queer (sexual and gender identities not relating to straight or cisgender) individuals.
These deaths are the cause of hate crimes and suicide- and do not deserve to go ignored.
Who was Elisa Rae Shupe?
Elisa Rae Shupe was a non-binary (not presenting or identifying with the gender binary of ‘man’ or ‘woman’) army veteran.
Elisa was also the first U.S citizen to have their gender legally changed to non-binary in 2016.
It is reported that Elisa used she/her pronouns, as found in a blog post written around 2021 by them. It is also reported that at the end of their life, they used they/them pronouns, however this has not been confirmed fully.
Elisa was seen at the VA Medical Center parking garage in New York. Anne Bellows, a food studies professor at Syracuse University saw Elisa from across the lot of the parking garage (not having seen their face).
Bellows, after seeing Elisa’s body, reported that she, “…was struck by how the flag floated “gently around the body.”’
Elisa had committed suicide, on January 27th, 2025, wrapped in the transgender flag of pink, white and blue.
Why does it matter?
When doing research on Elisa, I read articles upon articles who barely mentioned them. Who briefly note their name and nothing more in a list of others who have passed. Who include their in the statistics of the transgender people who have taken their life due to recent legislation, policies, and hatred.
Some wrote that this case should not matter. That this death of a human being did not matter.
Elisa is more than a statistic. More than being the first ‘X’ that marks their gender on a sheet of paper in a nation they hated.
All of these people who have died or taken their life matter, and more than a percentage on any chart.
Why Does this Matter to Our Population?
The rate of suicide by transgender teenagers has increased to 72% in recent times in states that have passed anti-trans laws, as noted by The Trevor Project in 2024.
The Trevor Project reports that in 2022, that 45% of transgender teens in Florida seriously considered suicide, and that 16% actively attempted suicide within that past year alone. These statistics only seem to rise.
These laws mentioned ban transgender people from doing the most basic of things, like going to the bathroom in the restroom that aligns with their current gender, and playing sports among many other things.
These are children. These are teenagers. Children and teenagers taking their life because they have been told and shown throughout the course of history that they, as human beings, are not deserving of the right to live.
Why shouldn’t this matter? Why should the deaths and attempted deaths of so many not matter?
Elisa: What They Left Behind
Included here is the suicide note of Elisa Rae Shupe. This was written by Elisa with the intention that America read it. News outlets have failed to show this to the world, so here it is.
No major news outlet shows this, but was found in a link on Reddit after searching for it. And now you can read it in a high school newspaper. Due to the explicit language used in two sentences (*) of this note, they have been removed for publication on this school website. To read the note in it’s entirety, please visit: Elisa Rae Shupe’s Suicide Note
“*
I don’t want your hatred.
I don’t want the military decorations and medals you awarded me.
I don’t want your pension money for my distinguished military service and service-connected disabilities.
I don’t want your health care to treat the mental illnesses you caused.
I don’t want more psychiatric ward commitments to keep me alive in a nation I despise.
I don’t want to be buried in any of your state or national cemetery’s for veterans and military retirees.
I don’t want to be buried anywhere on American soil.
I don’t want any military honors or ceremonies to mark my death.
I don’t want my ashes to be stored on American soil.
I want my ashes or remains to be spread or buried in international waters.
I don’t want your flag anywhere near my body, remains, or ashes.
I don’t want any members of my family other than my spouse to be on the vessel that disposes of my ashes or remains.
My death is not a surrender.
My death as a member of the third gender and transgender population does not mean you won.
It solely marks the end of our association.
You are not the land of the free.
You are not a country getting made great again.
Too much demonstrated hatred throughout your existence extinguishes any claim to previous greatness.
You are a cesspool of zealots that worship a god that does not and has not ever existed
Enjoy your new royal family and third world dictator.
I refuse to participate any further.
*
The white man decimated and massacred the indigenous populations of the third gender on the lands now called America. It was only fitting that a white person restored it.
You cannot erase non-binary and transgender people because you give birth to more of us each day.”
- Elisa Rae Shupe, August 10th, 1963- January 27th, 2025. Found at planetrans.org.
Resources: Trans Hotlines and More about Elisa
- The Trans Lifeline: (877)-330-6366 or translifeline.org
- The Trevor Project: (866)-488-7386 or TrevorProject.org
- The following link contains the blog of someone who had known Elisa personally. This goes more in depth as to who she was: “…She Deserved Better”
- More about the origin of Elisa’s note: “Vet Found…”
