Nex Benedict, a 16-year-old nonbinary teen from Oklahoma, is the latest victim of America’s war on trans youth. On Feb 7, school bullies beat Nex and another trans friend in the bathroom of Owasso High School. Rather than calling an ambulance or the police, school administrators sent Nex home with a two-week suspension for getting into a fight. The next day, Nex collapsed and died from an injury to their head. In this edition of “Choice Words”, Dave Zirin takes aim at those who contributed to the trans panic surrounding public schools and youth sports leading up to Nex’s death, including Oklahoma public schools superintendent Ryan Walters, and Chaya Raichik of Libs of TikTok.
Studio Production: David Hebden
Post-Production: Taylor Hebden
Audio Post-Production: David Hebden
Opening Sequence: Cameron Granadino
Music by: Eze Jackson & Carlos Guillen
Transcript
Dave Zirin: Okay, look, since we have started this show, we have said that anti-trans laws being imposed upon the sports world have nothing to do with sports and are instead just a foothold for bigots who aim to eradicate trans people from public life.
We have also said that this would’ve deadly consequences, and now we must reckon with the killing of Nex Benedict. Nex Benedict was many things. The 16-year-old child of Sue and Walter Benedict, a friend to the bullied, proudly part of the Choctaw Nation, and transgender.
To the state of Oklahoma, their life was cheap. The basics of this story are ugly, but we cannot look away because this is what we have become. A country that has decided to wage a one-sided legislative war against trans kids. We are a country where Nex was bullied for being non-binary. We are a country where, on Feb. 7th, Nex was beaten with a trans friend in a bathroom, and the adult on bathroom duty did nothing for two minutes before stepping in.
We are a country where the school administrators, instead of calling an ambulance or the police, as Sue Benedict wanted, was sent home with a two-week suspension for fighting. Sue took them to the hospital with a badly bruised and scratched face, the back of their head hurting from hitting the bathroom floor, but the hospital quickly discharged Nex. The next morning, they collapsed and died.
But school officials aren’t the only people who failed Nex. Libs of TikTok fascist and far-right social media influencer Chaya Raichik hounded Benedict’s supportive teacher at Owasso High School out of his job through her heavily edited viral videos.
The Superintendent of Public Schools in Oklahoma, the porn-obsessed Ryan Walters, then appointed Raichik — Who, by the way, is a former New York real estate agent — To the state of Oklahoma’s Library Advisory Committee. Walters has refused to comment on the beating death of one of his students, as if Benedict did not exist. And since Benedict’s death, he has found time to post worshipful thoughts about Donald Trump. And yes, talk about more porn.
Walters and the Oklahoma Governor, Kevin Stitt, have used their state powers to torment children like Nex. They pass laws making it so they couldn’t play sports, or receive the medical care they need, or even choose their bathroom.
The bullying, according to Sue Benedict, escalated at the beginning of the 2023 school year, just months after Stitt signed a bill requiring public school students to use bathrooms that match the sex listed on their birth certificates.
Now, the Owasso police are saying two weeks after the fact and under a widening national glare that the head trauma resulting from the “fight” did not in fact lead to the 16-year-old’s death. Given the lies that officials routinely parrot about transgender kids in Oklahoma, there is no reason to believe this. We should demand a federal investigation into how the denial of Nex’s civil rights led to their death.
It’s difficult to not recall when the great George Clinton said in 1972 that America eats its young, and it has been proven right time and again. It is too generous to say that this country does nothing as kids are gunned down in classrooms, thousands of children are being slaughtered in Gaza, and young teens like Nex Benedict are being beaten to death. It’s too generous because that makes the US sound impotent, and even mournful, at the state of this world.
The facts are far uglier. We make it easy to buy automatic weapons and shoot children in their classrooms. We make it easy for Israel to perpetrate their crimes against children, sending them billions in weaponry and then defending them against the world at the United Nations. We pass laws that valorize bullying non-binary kids and send the unmistakable message that transgender life is not worth protecting. And it can feel unbearable.
Yet still, we must fight. We fight so the next generation can live. We fight so the next generation gets its chance to show us a better way. As Sue Benedict said, “Nex had a light in them that was so big. They had so many dreams. I want their light to keep shining for everyone. That light was so big, and bright, and beautiful, and I want everyone to remember Nex that way.” Look, we should have thrown our arms around Nex. Instead, their school and their government folded their arms and watched them die.
Maximillian Alvarez: Thank you so much for watching The Real News Network, where we lift up the voices, stories, and struggles that you care about most. And we need your help to keep doing this work. So please tap your screen now, subscribe, and donate to The Real News Network. Solidarity forever.
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