Vet found hanging draped in trans flag

The suicide letter they won't publish

It’s weird being a queer veteran right now. I can change my name and I can alter my body but it wont take away that I served this country and now it considers me subhuman. Last week one of my friends messaged me and asked if I was doing okay. She told me that they had found a body draped in a trans flag hanging from the Syracuse Veterans Affairs parking garage. I frantically looked it up to verify and I found only one website talking about.

Read Article here

This happened days after the Trump Administration announced trans and nonbinary people weren’t real, they were kicking trans people out of the military, and silently removed the T & the Q from the White House websites that once read “LGBTQ” . Trans people are being heavily attacked.

When I spoke about it online I was privately messaged by someone who had confirmed the U.S Army Veteran’s name was Elisa Rae Shupe. The follower, who submitted this under the condition of anonymity, had receieved Elisa’s suicide note by email. My informant wasn’t the only one who had received this suicide letter. Elisa had emailed a couple of other news stations in hopes they’d publish the letter but none of them did- none of them even wrote a story.

Maybe it was because nobody gives a fuck about trans people right now or maybe it’s because big news stations don’t want us to. But I care. I care a whole lot and I want to honor Elisa’s wishes now by sharing her suicide note. I encourage you to do the same.

Elisa Rae Shupe pictured below

Email sent 11:00 AM Monday Jan 27, 2025

This is the message from Elisa Rae Shupe, the first person to obtain a non-binary gender transition, 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.

The research & the empathy that followed

I looked Elisa up after reading their letter. I wanted to know more about who they were and I can honestly say it threw me for a loop. I didn’t agree with a lot of what they had to say prior to figuring themselves out. I didn’t like the guttural reaction I had to some of their opinion pieces. It did however take me about ten minutes to reflect on my own digital foot print. Elisa’s internal struggle with queerness and existence is one I have been suffocated by before.

If I was hanging from the veteran affair parking garage and people looked me up they would see all of the good and bad I have contributed to society. They would read my angry think pieces and all of the outlandish things I’ve said and done. Then they would see I was survived by my son the way Elisa's daughter and wife survives them. I have more in common with Elisa than I ever will with most people.

If you have someone in your life who you love that’s apart of the LGBTQ community please check in on them. If you are apart of the LGBTQ community reach out to others in your life. 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.

If you are a veteran please consider joining group chats, websites, and other online communities who will be there to support you during these dark times. We are gonna make it out of this alive. We know what it’s like for our government to turn their back on us. I know it’s lonely. I know it’s weird. I know you feel used but I need you to remember that we run this shit. We intimately know what the land of the free is suppose to be and we are no stranger to fighting for it. It’s not the first time we’ve taken on a tyrant and won.

We are gonna be okay. All of us. We will not be erased. We will fight and we will win.

Rest in Peace to Elisa Rae Shupe. I hope this article helps achieve their goal.

Organization Vets can join to make a difference and stay engaged:

vets against facism

Vets against war

veterans for peace