Kentucky Democratic state Sen. Karen Berg has announced that her transgender son died by suicide, the Lexington Herald-Leader reports.
Berg said in a statement that Henry Berg-Brousseau, 24, spent his life “working to extend grace, compassion and understanding to everyone, but especially to the vulnerable and marginalized.”
“As the mother of a transgender son, I gave my whole heart trying to protect my child from a world where some people and especially some politicians intentionally continued to believe that marginalizing my child was OK simply because of who he was,” Berg wrote. “This lack of acceptance took a toll on Henry. He long struggled with mental illness, not because he was trans but born from his difficulty finding acceptance.”
As the Herald-Leader points out, Berg-Brousseau recently received “a big promotion” at work for the Human Rights Campaign. He also worked for the Fairness Campaign, an organization dedicated to LGBTQ advocacy in Kentucky.
IN OTHER NEWS: Members of Congress cut cameras and remove the public from Trump taxes meeting
“In one of our last conversations he wondered if he was safe walking down the street,” Berg wrote. “The vitriol against trans people is not happening in a vacuum. It is not just a way of scoring political points by exacerbating the culture wars. It has real-world implications for how transgender people view their place in the world and how they are treated as they just try to live their lives.”
Read more at the Lexington Herald Leader.
