TW: suicide.
This is Elisa Rae Shupe, the first person to obtain a legally recognized non-binary gender status in the US and a veteran, was found dead from an apparent suicide by hanging atop the Syracuse Veteran's Affairs Medical Center parking garage on Monday, January 27th, 2025.
She was found fully wrapped in the pink, blue, and white transgender pride flag. Elisa had emailed loved ones and a couple of news stations a letter immediately prior to taking her life, hoping at least one source would publish it, but none even bothered writing a story about it.
Here is the letter from Elisa Rae Shupe to the Trump Administration:
"Fuck You America!
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 that 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.
Have that Nazi piece of shit Elon Musk and his DOGE henchmen deduct the savings from my $93,000 of federal pensions from your bankrupt coffers.
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."
Let's do the community and Elisa a huge favor by sharing the message she has in spite of the news media's failures.
user zerodoesntsleep on Substack completed the one and only article regarding Elisa's message by saying:
"They want us to believe that trans people don’t exist.
They want us to believe that all of us are disposable and unimportant but we are not.
We matter and the world needs our stories more than ever.
While rainbow capitalism has been fun it’s important to remember that the first Pride was a riot.
A trans woman picked up a brick and threw it back at the officers using force against the queer community.
We, a bunch of good looking freaks, said “fuck you stop hurting us”.
I believe we are going to be okay but we are going to need to get tough and stick together.
I believe in y’all.
Remember to bedazzle your brass knuckles and hide your faces.
See you divas on the streets."
