LGBTQ activists blame anti-trans legislation for Nex Benedict’s death: ‘We warned you’

After non-binary 10th grader Nex Benedict’s death, LGBTQ advocates tell Bevan Hurley the GOP-controlled Oklahoma state legislature is inflaming prejudice

Kylan Durant, the president of Oklahoma Pride Alliance, says legislators in the state are creating a dangerous environment for LGBTQ youth (Courtesy of Kylan Durant)

As Oklahoma lawmakers introduced dozens of anti-LGBTQ bills last year, local advocacy groups had a warning.

“We were saying, ‘this is going to cost queer and trans kids their lives’,” Kylan Durant, president of the Oklahoma Pride Alliance, told The Independent in an interview.

“We tried to warn you and no one took it seriously and now here we are.”

Oklahoma’s anti-LGBTQ laws have come under scrutiny after the death of non-binary high school sophomore Nex Benedict, 16, on 8 February.

Nex collapsed at home one day after they got into a fight with three girls in a bathroom at Owasso High School. Nex told a family member they had been “jumped” after standing up to bullies, and the fight was three on one. They died in a hospital emergency room that night.

Owasso police have said an early autopsy indicated Nex had not died as a result of trauma. However, Nex’s family said through a lawyer they plan to conduct an independent investigation into their death.

Nex had been bullied for more than a year prior to the fight due to being gender fluid, according to their mother Sue Benedict.

Nex Benedict, 16, died one day after being assaulted in a bathroom at Owasso High School in Oklahoma, police say (Courtesy of Benedict family)

Like many Republican-controlled legislatures across the United States, Oklahoma has seen a recent surge in proposed anti-LGBTQ legislation.

From bans on gender-affirming care to penalties for public school teachers asking students what their pronouns are, the collective weight has had a chilling effect on young people exploring their gender identity, Mr Durant said.

“It just reiterates to me that it’s not about the kids, it’s about political power, it’s about a lot of things that have nothing to do with kids.”

“We’ve heard a lot of ‘protecting our children’ rhetoric from that side of the aisle, and then we see something like this happen. It’s not ‘protect all kids’, it’s not ‘protect queer kids’.”

“It feels like again, that our community continues to be a pawn to progress political agendas.”

In 2022, Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt signed a bill requiring public school students to use bathrooms that matched the sex that was listed on their birth certificates. Nex was using the bathroom as determined by that legislation.

Among the more than 50 proposed laws before the current legislative session are bills that would ban discussion of some topics related to race and gender, prohibit sex education and criminalise gender-affirming care for people under 21 years old, according to The Oklahoman.

Oklahoma has the highest number of bills targeting LGTBQ youth in the country, according to the ACLU.

Days after Nex’s death, a house committee voted along party lines to ​​advance a bill that would ban people born in Oklahoma from changing their gender on birth certificates.

Trans-rights activists protest outside the House chamber at the Oklahoma state Capitol before the State of the State address in February 2023 (AP)

Mr Durant said that the current persecution of LGBTQ communities was similar to the AIDs epidemic of the 1970s, when the growing medical crisis was ignored.

“The way that was handled cost a lot of lives. And we’re still here, fighting this.”

In the face of this overwhelming wave of explicitly anti-LGBTQ legislation, advocacy groups have been trying to fight back.

In September 2022, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Oklahoma, and Lambda Legal filed a federal lawsuit challenging the bathroom law. The groups are also spearheading efforts to challenge or overturn laws that prevent trans youth from seeking medical care.

“We’ve been fighting that kind of stuff and it’s so hard to look at death and say let’s keep fighting it. But then it’s ‘well, what else do we do’?” Mr Durant said.

“The biggest thing that people need to understand is that, sure it’s in Oklahoma, but this affects all of us, and don’t leave us behind and forget about us.”

On Wednesday 22 February, the vice mayor of an Oklahoma City suburb angrily confronted members of the Oklahoma State Board of Education at a meeting.

Sean Cummings accused education superintendent Ryan Walters and other members of emboldening trans hate, and said they had “blood on their hands” over Nex’s death.

“It’s so great to see someone like that have that anger, because we have been screaming into the void for a long time now,” Mr Durant told The Independent.

“We’ve seen this in other instances of incredible injustice, it takes these big moments, and enough people finally saying something. But we’ve been here all along saying the same thing.”

Nex Benedict had been bullied for at least a year at Owasso High School in Oklahoma, their mother says (Courtesy of Benedict family)

In June 2023, Mr Walters released a “public service message” on YouTube describing transgender students as a “threat” in schools.

Last month, Mr Walters appointed the Libs of TikTok social media influencer Chaya Raichik to a state library advisory board.

Ms Raichik had earlier targeted a teacher in the Owasso public school district who spoke out in support of LGBTQ children who had been shunned by their parents.

She regularly posts content about LGBTQ-friendly schools and teachers, many of whom have later received bomb and death threats.

Mr Durant believes there is a “direct causation” between the kind of hateful rhetoric shared by accounts such as Libs of TikTok and the “rising hatred” towards LGBTQ children in the state.

“How do you not understand that your platform causes that? How do you not understand that by bringing someone on to one of our committees that deals with education, that you’re not signing off on that.”

Mr Durant said that after Libs of TikTok posted about a youth drag competition for Oklahoma City’s PrideFest in June last year, the Oklahoma Pride Alliance were bombarded with hateful messages to their social media channels.

“Then they started coming to our personal Instagram and Facebook and Twitter accounts. I had to put my socials on private, truly violent and hateful stuff, wishing death upon all of us,” he said.

The Independent has contacted Ms Raichik for comment.

Nex’s death has prompted waves of grief and anger across the US. Vigils are being held across Oklahoma state, in Los Angeles, New Jersey and elsewhere.

Vice President Kamala Harris posted on X that her “heart goes out to Nex Benedict’s family, friends, and their entire community”.

Oscar-nominated Flowers of the Killer Moon actress Lily Gladstone also shared a call to action.

“I want more of that until there’s true justice,” Mr Durant told The Independent.

“Because Oklahoma is queer. People go ‘Oklahoma is a red state, we’re never going to be able to change that’.

“But I have to have hope that that’s not true. All of these folks fighting for us even outside of the state, it’s incredibly helpful to know that we have that support.”