An interview with Sue Benedict, mother of 16-year-old transgender student Nex Benedict, who died after an assault in the bathroom of their Oklahoma high school.
I see many with real sorrow,anger,disbelief for this child. I have all of that and more. The Board,school,principal and any employees hold them accountable for their malfeasance. Heartbreaking tragedy for this family and child.
The fact that this feels like an unexpected bright spot (Nex’s parents loved and supported them) is in itself depressing.
That’s, tragically, not something you can just assume about the parents of LGBTQ kids.
"The bullying had started in earnest at the beginning of the 2023 school year, a few months after Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt signed a bill that required public school students to use bathrooms that matched the sex listed on their birth certificates."
This situation is so heartbreaking, unfair, and hate fuelled. The people that have led the rise in this hateful discourse should be held accountable for their death; but I know that’s unlikely.
The picture in the article of Nex cuddling with their little kitten kinda broke me. Such an obviously sweet person being murdered in cold blood…it makes my blood boil.
In Native American culture two-spirited (non-binary) people are revered. They have integrated the male and female into one spirit (body). The real irony is that Oklahoma is Indian Territory, a state where Native culture is ingrained into everyday life, superficially it seems.
Told my dad about this shit and i guess the best thing he could think to respond with was to bring up a 6'3 transfem who injured other girs in a highschool football game
I would hope the school admins would be thrown in jail along with the monsters who killed Nex.
But, hope is pretty thin for this country when it comes to actually caring about its children’s wellbeing.
Being different
is not an invitation to be murdered.
We live in a Society
afraid of Androgen disruption
yet, engage voluntarily
Androgen disruptors daily.
Only to harm and hate what society creates
At what point does intelligence enter.
Ancients grasped simplistic reality
Moderns struggle with.
I’m going to get off the internet before I get myself into trouble but first a comment: this kid & the kid bullied by the UT Board of Ed didn’t see themselves as trans but instead as dissenters to the gender binary. They’re not “catching strays”, they are the most common victims of anti lgbtq bias.
quick note, Sue Benedict is Nex's grandmother, as Nex was being raised (and was adopted) by her grandparents, Sue and Walter. It doesn't make a ton of difference, but if anything I feel it's even more heartbreaking.
I hope they're willing to raise as much hell as Judy Shepard. I hope she has reached out. She was instrumental in advocating for change after Matthew Shepard was murdered in Wyoming.
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