Nex Benedict Should Have Grown Up
A sign that advocates for the lives of LGBTQ+ individuals. Credit: Delia Giandeini on Unsplash
A father of a transgender child at an Oklahoma vigil for 16-year-old Nex Benedict, a nonbinary student who died following a violent assault in their school bathroom at Owasso High School, said he hopes people across Oklahoma and the world will hear what he is about to say:
“My child is not filth! My child is not a mistake! People I love are not mistakes; they deserve love, respect and acceptance,” the man cried out across the crowd. His words reverberated, and they hold the truth that transgender and queer individuals are not mistakes. There must be an effort to dismantle the rhetoric that attempts to erase transgender and queer identities and subsequently, lives.
The death of Benedict is important to examine when understanding how legislation and rhetoric affected Benedict in their daily life, and now, in how their death is being handled. The Independent was one of the first outlets to speak to Sue Benedict, who was Benedict’s legal guardian and disclosed that Benedict was bullied in earnest when the Oklahoma bathroom bill passed by Gov. Kevin Sitt mandated public school students to use the bathroom of their assigned sex on their birth certificates.
As reported by CNN, Benedict initially splashed water on one of three students making fun of them and their friend, when the three students proceeded to assault them. The aftermath of the altercation was handled in a troubling manner, with Benedict sustaining head injuries and bruising across their body, as they explained to an officer at the hospital, as shown in the police body cam footage. Benedict was taken to the nurse's office and then to the principal’s office, where they were suspended. No medical aid was offered at this time by the school until Sue took Benedict to the hospital later that day.
The day after the hospital visit on Feb. 8, Benedict collapsed in their home, posturing with their eyes rolling back in their head while not breathing, as the 911 call placed by Sue Benedict indicates. Later that day, when Benedict arrived at the hospital, they would be pronounced dead.
In November 2023, the Human Rights Campaign released its yearly report that there is an “epidemic” of violence against transgender and gender non-conforming individuals in the U.S. The report details the rise of violent acts against LGBTQIA individuals, along with violence reported at LGBTQIA events and establishments. This also includes context around the astronomical level of anti-trans and anti-LGBTQIA bills and laws across the country that the state of Oklahoma has succumbed to.
Benedict and their situation is alarming for the nature in which Benedict was treated, following the assault by three classmates, along with the rhetoric and legislation by Oklahoma officials that created a hostile environment for Benedict at school.
Several individuals within the Oklahoma Public School system are at the center of this issue, and now Chaya Raichik, owner of the Libs Of TikTok page that routinely posts anti-LGBTQIA and fear-mongering content, has been cited as causing material damage to individuals and businesses. As Business Insider reports, school teachers have been publicly accused of being “groomers” on her page, with several being fired, and Boston Children's Hospital has received threats after Raichik posted disinformation about gender-affirming care at the hospital, including a bomb threat in 2022.
This doesn’t scratch the surface of what Raichik has done through her violent rhetoric towards LGBTQIA individuals. Despite her track record of causing material harm to individuals through her social media content, Raichik has been embraced by several prominent individuals like Tucker Carlson, Elon Musk and recently, Superintendent of Oklahoma Public Schools, Ryan Walters, as the Washington Post reports.
Walters has been openly hostile towards the LGBTQIA community through social media posts he has shared and through policy within Oklahoma’s public schools. Policies include removing certain materials from libraries deemed inappropriate, along with seeking to ban diversity, equity and inclusion in Oklahoma public schools, as reported by ABC News. Walters has been quoted in The New York Times saying, “There’s not multiple genders. There’s two. That’s how God created us,” along with him believing that transgender and non-binary identities do not exist — a red flag to anyone familiar with gender and sex in an informed way.
Walters appointed Raichik to the Oklahoma Library Advisory Committee, where she would have the ability to review content within Oklahoma public school libraries that Walters justified by saying Raichik knows what the “radical left” is, which to him is “lowering standards, porn in schools and pushing woke indoctrination on our kids,” as the Associated Press reports. What does a New York native who is a real estate agent by trade know about regulating content within Oklahoma public schools?
Unfortunately, the dangerous and unfounded rhetoric that Walters forwarded in Oklahoma public schools had consequences for Benedict before they died, along with other students of the school who reported harassment and bullying based on their LGBTQIA identities. The teaming of Walters and Raichik together only adds fuel to the fire, which reads as an intentional move to silence and intimidate LGBTQIA students and families in Oklahoma.
The damage has been done, and the Benedict family no longer has a cherished member of their family. As of now, Benedict’s death has not been tied to the bathroom assault that Owasso Police Department statements reflect from the initial autopsy findings. However, this finding may change, and toxicology is pending. Still, scrutiny should be applied as to how Benedict’s assault was handled by the school, along with the hostile nature that Walters allows in Oklahoma public schools and what Raichik pushes nationally, influencing wider anti-LGBTQIA ideology.
Benedict should be alive today. We have a responsibility to Benedict and the hundreds of other transgender, non-binary and LGBTQIA individuals who have been targeted for their identities by combating fear and disinformation that is pervasive in American society. There is something fundamentally insidious in capitalizing on ignorance and fear to direct hatred and violence toward a community, and it requires pushback if we wish to live in a world where parents don’t have to remind people that their child is not filth.