UTAH (Web Desk) – Before she died, the transgender woman took to Facebook to post her last words and called for change to stop the persecution of the trans community.
In her letter, Hallstrom wrote that for as long as she could remember she felt like she was a female trapped in a male’s body, and that it caused her to become depressed.
‘From a very young age I was told that people like me are freaks and abominations that we are sick in the head and society hates us. This made me hate who I was. I tried so hard to be just like everyone else but this isn’t something you can change,’ she wrote.
Hallstrom said it wasn’t until she was 20 that she realized there was a whole community of trans people and that gave her the power to come out and begin transitioning.
But the happiness that accompanied her first steps toward transition were brief, and the depression she suffered from her years hiding who she was crept back.
Before her death, Hallstrom posted this suicide letter to Facebook, calling on others to share the letter in a hope of bringing change for transgender people.
‘Everywhere I’d turn I’d see the [hatred] that society had for us. I had already been poisoned by a society that didn’t understand us and, even worse, didn’t want to even try. I saw the pain it caused to people like me and going through this same hurt myself it has just become [too] much for me to take anymore,’ she wrote.
Hallstrom ends her letter with a call to action. She asked people to share her story so that she doesn’t become ‘just another number of a tragic statistic’.
‘People need to know that I’m not just another face of someone they never met. I was alive.
‘I have a family and friends that I love very much and I’m so sorry to them for the hurt this will cause them. I loved being around those that I love. I loved listening to music and singing. I loved going out to eat with friends and enjoying good food. I was a real person.
‘Please share my final words. I believe my last words can help make the change that society needs to make so that one day there will be no others like me. Please help make this change because trans people are everywhere. You may never know who you’re hurting until it’s too late. Please help fix society.’
After posting the suicide letter, multiple friends responded and pleaded with Hallstrom not to kill herself.
Police say they were informed of the letter after it was posted, but were not able to track down Hallstrom before she committed suicide.
The dump truck driver which hit Hallstrom on U.S. Highway 89/91 on Wednesday morning tried to swerve out of the way but was unable to. No one else was injured in the incident.
In an interview with the Herald Journal, Hallstrom’s close friend Dawn Blakely remembered her as someone who loved her friends, singing and who had a smile that would light up a room.
Everything seemed to be good. She never one time in the conversations we shared, she never talked about – she always seemed so happy. She never seemed sad or hurt or confused,’ Blakely said.
‘She just didn’t wear it on her sleeve, she just smiled and kept on going. That is what I found so amazing about her. That is why this whole thing is such a shock to me.’
Friends of Hallstrom have set up a GoFundMe account to help raise money for the costs of her funeral.
Hallstrom’s death marked the 20th suicide of a transgender person this year.
