Giving Compass' Take:

• Ally Moms is a network of mothers of trans youth that provide their phone numbers to support this struggling population. 

• How can donors get involved with assisting trans youth? 

• Read about a survey showing distressing responses from LGBTQ youth and safety. 

When 17-year-old transgender teen Leelah Alcorn died by suicide in 2014, it made national headlines — and hit some parents painfully and particularly hard.

Roz Keith was one of those parents. Keith's teenage son had just come out to her as trans a year earlier.  She was in the middle of her own parenting journey, and it was "devastating and heartbreaking," Keith told Mashable, to think that Alcorn may have died by suicide "in part because she didn't have parent support." Alcorn's parents wouldn't refer to Leelah as a girl. They had sent her to conversion therapy to help correct her gender identity.

At the time, Keith was participating in a Facebook group for parents of trans youth. She and another mother started thinking about ways Leelah's parents and even they, as strangers, could have done more to help youth like Leelah.

That's how Keith came up with Ally Moms, led specifically by mothers of trans youth. The network provides a list of personal phone numbers of allied moms. Anyone can call an Ally Mom for support at any time.

Keith is now executive director of Stand with Trans, a Michigan-based nonprofit that operates Ally Moms. Four years after Keith founded the network, the need for caring, informed adults like her is just as acute as it was when she first started.

Still, the statistics for trans youth remain steadily bleak: an October 2018 study by the American Academy of Pediatrics found that more than half of all trans male teens surveyed report having attempted suicide, compared to 29.9 percent of transgender female teens and 41.8 percent of all non-binary youth. Trans and non-binary youth are significantly more likely to develop a depressive disorder.

Read the full article about services for trans youth by Heather Dockray at Mashable