Editor’s Note: This post contains material of a highly sensitive nature including description of events leading to the death of Nex Benedict that may be triggering for some individuals.
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren describes how many of us feel about the death of Nex Benedict after a beating in a school bathroom in Owasso, Oklahoma.
The killing of Nex Benedict is gut-wrenching and underscores the danger of extremists who are dehumanizing kids with anti-trans hate in Oklahoma and across the country. Every student should feel safe at school and supported for who they are. Nex deserves justice.
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren on Threads, Feb. 21, 2024.
Oklahoma Republican state legislators passed a bathroom bill. Now a nonbinary kid is dead. A definitive narrative of what happened has been slow to emerge. An autopsy was being conducted to determine cause of death. Authorities are waiting for the results of toxicology studies. Here’s part of what we know from the local police department investigation:
This story is complicated and reports in media are not uniform. Likewise, there is public skepticism about the police statement “the decedent did not die as a result of trauma.” The toxicology report as well as the complete Medical Examiner’s report will show the cause and manner of death and that could still be weeks away. On Thursday, Feb. 22, the Owasso Police executed a search warrant at the school and collected evidence to be used in the investigation.
One of the things we do know is the state passed a book ban law and the school district that includes Owasso High School hired the producer of a conservative, right wing website, Libs of TikTok, to oversee the process. After work began, the Libs of TikTok website featured a video with one of the school teachers who they characterized as a groomer because they disagreed with books selected for exclusion from classrooms and the library. That teacher subsequently resigned. Who would want to attend a public school with this type of environment?
There are reports Nex Benedict was harassed for a year before their death. School harassment is common in the United States. In many cases, it is parents and other adults who bear responsibility for such harassment by giving permission to school children to harass people who are different. Some say the Libs of TikTok is culpable in creating an environment where harassment was more likely. In any case, Nex Benedict is dead after being harassed.
When asked about the death of Nex Benedict, Oklahoma State Senator Tom Woods said,
We are a Republican state – supermajority – in the House and Senate. I represent a constituency that doesn’t want that filth in Oklahoma. We are a religious state and we are going to fight it to keep that filth out of the state of Oklahoma because we are a Christian state – we are a moral state. We want to lower taxes and let people be able to live and work and go to the faith they choose. We are a Republican state and I’m going to vote my district, and I’m going to vote my values, and we don’t want that in the state of Oklahoma.
State Senator Tom Wood, Tahlequah Daily Press, Feb. 23, 2024.
Nonbinary people tell me the thing they fear most about living in America is that a segment of the population wants LGBTQ+ people completely erased from society. Dead would be preferable, they said. If there is one certain lesson to learn as this story develops, it is nonbinary people deserve to live.
Below are links to some of the major stories about this death, which readers can review for themselves.
If you live near Owasso, this is happening Feb. 25. Other, similar events are popping up across the United States.
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