Police identified the Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) student who claimed his own life on Monday as 21-year-old Logan Birdsong, who identified as a transgender woman and preferred the name Serenity.
On Wednesday, the Murfreesboro Police Department (MPD) wrote in a post to the social media platform X that Birdsong (pictured above) is the student who allegedly committed suicide at the James E. Walker library on the MTSU campus, and LGBTQ Nation confirmed both that Birdsong identified as a transgender woman and was vice president of MT Lambda, an LGBT organization at MTSU.
The university closed on Tuesday, in the wake of the suicide, but resumed its normal schedule on Wednesday. MTSU held a vigil for Birdsong on Wednesday that was reportedly attended by 2,000 people.
The student who died by suicide inside the James E. Walker Library on the MTSU campus on Monday, Oct. 28, has been identified as 21-year-old Logan Birdsong, preferred name, Serenity Birdsong. pic.twitter.com/LGUhVGP15y
— Murfreesboro TN Police Department (@MboroPoliceDept) October 30, 2024
The LGBT organization where Birdsong served in leadership posted a memorial in his memory to Instagram, where it wrote, “MT Lambda and the queer community as a whole lost an amazing, individual, friend, and organizer to su*cide. Her name was Serenity Birdsong, and she was MT Lambda’s vice president.”
A student who was reportedly inside the MTSU library when Birdsong allegedly claimed his own life told WSMV, “There was a noise that wasn’t immediately recognizable as what it was, and then, we all kind of stood and eventually realized and saw what was happening.”
The student told the outlet that paramedics were quickly on the scene, but that Birdsong ultimately succumbed to the injuries.
“I was really heartbroken to see someone who, I just wished they saw that there was still more time and there was still an opportunity to feel better,” the student told WSMV.
In June 2023, researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law found that 42 percent of transgender adults have attempted suicide, 81 percent of transgender adults have considered taking their own lives, and that 56 percent “engaged in non-suicidal self-injury” at some point in their lives.
Though a 2022 study showed adolescents who receive such treatment are less likely to experience thoughts of self-harm, at least in the short term, and it is clear Birdsong identified as a transgender woman, whether he received gender-affirming treatment prior to his death remains unclear.
Another study published by the conservative Heritage Foundation the same year found that puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, both common gender-affirming care methods, could increase the rate of suicide in minors when the drugs are administered without parental consent.
The researchers additionally cast doubt on previous studies indicating gender-affirming care reduces suicides, arguing the “poorly executed” research has failed “to show a causal relationship” between a decrease in suicides and gender-affirming care.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Logan ‘Serenity’ Birdsong” by mtlambda and “MTSU Campus” is by Murfreesboro Police Department.
transgender woman? You mean Man, right?