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antinativefaves · 2 months

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Nex Benedict — a nonbinary, Native American, 16-year-old sophomore — was reportedly beaten to denath on February 7 by three older female students in the bathroom of Owasso High School in Oklahoma. The school refused to call an ambulance for the injured teen and didn’t inform police of the attack until Benedict was later admitted into the hospital — they died from their injuries the next day.

#owasso high school #your fave is anti-native #anti-native racism #anti native racism #homophobia #cherokee #nex benedict

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futurebird · 2 months

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More about Nex

“Nex did not see themselves as male or female,” Ms Benedict said. “Nex saw themselves right down the middle. I was still learning about it, Nex was teaching me that.”

This is a gut punch to read. I've seen "old folks" go through that journey of gaining understanding. Ideally it wouldn't need to be a whole journey but there's something loving in people willing to grow.

But not knowing just how at risk they might be ... from this kind of violence.

what could have been.

Nex was a really good student apparently. Had strait As. So a nerd. Another gut punch. They just remind me of more than one person I know and care deeply about.

These FUCKERS destroy everything beautiful.

#nex #nex benedict #tw transphobia #tw murder #murder #violence #hate crime #OK #Owasso #Owasso High School #oklahoma #death #tw death

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bogbutteronmycroissant · 2 months

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For those who don't know, Nex Benedict, an American indigenous non-binary 16 years old, died in February 8. And I said died, but they were murdered: they passed away the day after three girls (whose names are still kept hidden) attacked them and their friends in the bathroom of the Owasso high school in Oklahoma. They were beated, insulted, and possibly suffered serious damage in the face and head. The next day, they collapsed and was declared dead at the hospital.

The school did and has done nothing. The teachers have done nothing. The police has done nothing. A kid died and the world stays silent. If Nex hadn't been indigenous or non-binary, then the whole country would have turned upside down.

Trans people deserve to live. Non-binary people deserve to live. Indigenous people deserve to live.

One of my close childhood friends is trans. He's also forced to go to the women's bathroom. Will he be the next victim? Who else will have to suffer for us to learn? When will justice be served?

We won't forget, Nex, and we won't forgive.

#nex benedict #non binary #transgender #justice for nex benedict #owasso #owasso high school #say their name #indigenous #oklahoma #hate crime #anti trans violence

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nitrosplicer · 2 months

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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.

A few weeks ago, on 7 February, the bullying allegedly erupted in violence when Nex suffered severe head injuries during a “physical altercation” at Owasso High School, according to the Owasso Police Department.

Sue Benedict told The Independent she was called to the school that day to find Nex badly beaten with bruises over their face and eyes, and with scratches on the back of their head.

Nex told her that they and another transgender student at Owasso High School had been in a fight with three older girls in a girls bathroom. Nex was knocked to the ground during the fight and hit their head on the floor, according to their mother.

Ms Benedict said she was furious that the school had failed to call an ambulance or the police. She said the school then informed her Nex was being suspended for two weeks.

She took Nex to the Bailey Medical Center in Owasso for treatment. They spoke to a police school resource officer at the medical facility and were discharged. That night, Nex went to bed with a sore head and eventually fell asleep while listening to music, Ms Benedict said.

On 8 February, Nex was getting ready to go to Tulsa with Ms Benedict for an appointment when they collapsed in the family living room. Ms Benedict called an ambulance, and EMT officers arrived to find Nex had stopped breathing. Nex was declared dead that evening in hospital.

#justice for nex benedict #owasso high school #owasso #Oklahoma

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planetofsnarfs · 1 month

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When a child dies – any child – the loss is incalculable. There’s the loss of a son or daughter, a sibling, a cousin, a best friend. There’s a loss of a life, snuffed out before its time. The loss of a future – who knows what that child could have accomplished?

And when that child dies, particularly under horrific circumstances, there is a loss of innocence for all of us, regardless of whether we knew that child or not. Among the first impulses for anyone with a heart who wishes to protect other children is to find a way – any way – to prevent a loss like that from happening again.

The hyper-cruel antithesis of this is what’s going on right now in Oklahoma in the wake of 16-year-old Nex Benedict’s death. As we first reported, Nex, a transgender sophomore at Owasso High School, was brutally beaten by other students in a school bathroom and died the following day. The incident has drawn national attention – but not nearly enough, in my opinion – with many attributing the violent act to a culture of transphobia they say is being stoked by state officials.

Days before Nex’s death, The Oklahoman reported that there were a whopping 50 bills in the state legislature targeting LGBTQ+ people. The state ranks 48th in both education and health care. Don’t you think the state legislature and state government officials have better things to do than sow queer hate among its citizens?

One of those state officials is the superintendent of public instruction, Ryan Walters. Even before Nex’s death, Walters was virulently anti-LGBTQ+. More than 350 LGBTQ+ organizations, activists, and celebrities urged his removal from office after Nex died, saying he has encouraged “a climate of hate and bigotry” throughout his career. Nex’s death didn’t stop him from fanning the flames of hate.

Walters poured salt into a festering wound, telling The New York Times, “There's not multiple genders. There’s two. That’s how God created us.” He added that he did not believe that nonbinary or transgender people exist and that the state would not let students use names or pronouns other than those matching their birth records.

It seems the goal of the official responses around Nex’s death has been to protect those who bullied and beat him. Police were quick to release initial reports saying that Nex "did not die as a result of trauma."

It’s important to note that school officials did not reprimand, sanction, or report to authorities the students who critically harmed Nex. “No report of the incident was made to the Owasso Police Department prior to the notification at the hospital,” Chief Dan Yancey told The Advocate.

The police jumped out over their skis with their initial statement, which raised eyebrows. In fact, Sue Benedict, who was Nex’s adoptive mother, told the news site Popular Information that a statement released by the Owasso Police was a “big cover."

Parents and other members of the public expressed outrage over how the school was handling the response to Nex’s death, particularly pointing out that protecting queer kids and making sure that it didn’t happen again was not a priority for the school board. “Apparently people don’t feel safe here. I can’t imagine why at all,” public commenter Walter Masterson said at the first Owasso school board meeting after Nex's death. “A more 'woke' school board would see the death of a child and work to make sure it never happens again. Not this board.”

Then, along comes the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Oklahoma, which concluded that Nex died by suicide. The medical examiner’s one-page summary report identifies the cause of death as combined toxicity from diphenhydramine (Benadryl) and fluoxetine (Prozac). Noticeably absent from the report were all the injuries Nex incurred the day before.

My colleague Christopher Wiggins was once a paramedic. When he saw the cause of death was attributed to two very common medications, he decided to investigate. He’s a damn good reporter, and his suspicions regarding the report were justified. He reached out to two toxicology experts, who first made it clear that they weren’t privy to Nex’s autopsy report; however, they told Christopher that the risk of death from these medications, especially when used as directed, is extraordinarily low.

In response to the coroner’s report, GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement, “Nex’s family accurately notes how the report released this week does not reflect the full picture of what happened to Nex and continues to urge accountability of those who failed to keep Nex and all students in Oklahoma safe from bullying, harassment, assault, and most brutally, death.”

Now you have this full picture of all those involved, coupled with a backdrop of hate. Taken in its totality, the reaction to Nex’s death shows that a corrupt, do-nothing clique is part of a deceptive lie and cover-up that shows they did nothing, zero, zilch to protect the life of Nex or any child like him. The authorities' only goal is to protect the perpetrators, not just those who attacked Nex but all those who will be emboldened to beat others just like Nex in the future in school bathrooms throughout the state.

The grossly deceptive response to Nex’s death makes the state of Oklahoma a breeding ground for the bullying – and for beating to injury or death – of LGBTQ+ kids. What the state is doing goes against all we know about protecting vulnerable children.

If the state legislature pushes hate bills, if state officials spew hate, if local authorities and administrators cover up hate, then you create this breeding ground. You create an atmosphere where that hate explodes, like it did with Nex, and you use hate to demean the victim and ennoble the haters.

Suicide rates among LGBTQ+ youth are astronomically high. If Nex ultimately did commit suicide -- and this initial autopsy report does not make a convincing case -- then Oklahoma officials still deserve to be held accountable. Oklahoma's LGBTQ+ suicide prevention line saw a 230 percent increase in calls after the cause of Nex's death was revealed by the coroner. As transgender activist Ari Drennan noted, in a climate of anti-trans hate, "every trans suicide is a murder."

But if Nex's death was ruled a suicide to avoid addressing anti-LGBTQ+ bullying, Oklahoma officials have crossed a line. Using suicide as a cover, as a deception, should be a crime.

It is worth repeating the ominous words of Walters that nonbinary or transgender people don’t exist. That means, in Walters’s world, Nex never existed. And if Nex never existed, how would Walters and other officials associated with him be able to objectively investigate Nex’s death?

All of which means that Nex’s autopsy report is a lie and a facade. Null and void. Plain and simple. Nex and his family deserve so much more, and we need to keep protesting loudly until we get the truth.

#nex benedict #children #teens #youth #public schools #public safety #republican party #christian nationalism #ryan walters #owasso high school #oklahoma

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nando161mando · 2 months

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A picture of what's been going on at Owasso High School for minority youth, including queer youth like Nex Benedict, is starting to come out.

Kids being called f-- and n----- not bothering to report it because the school does nothing if they do.

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christinareedy-love · 2 months

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THIS ⬇️ THIS ⬇️ THIS ⬇️

youtube

Grown teachers raping students, so sexual predators.

Biden needs to step in & protect these children. Period. Watch till the end, this this this.

Owasso High School teachers are sexual predators raping kids, & should NOT be getting away with this.

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tomorrowusa · 2 months

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Oklahoma is not exactly a friendly place for LGBTQ+ Americans. Though some residents are pushing back against the culture of hatred.

Dozens of students at an Oklahoma high school walked out in a peaceful demonstration on Monday to show support for the LGBTQ+ community after the death of a non-binary teenager following a fight in a school bathroom in which they said they were a target of bullying. Nex Benedict, a 16-year-old student who identified as non-binary and used they/them pronouns, died on 8 February after a “physical altercation” with classmates in the bathroom of Owasso high school, according to local law enforcement. Body camera footage later released by police showed Benedict describing the altercation with three girls who were picking on them and some friends. At least 40 students at Owasso high school walked out to protest what they described as a pervasive culture of bullying with little accountability, NBC reported. “I just want to get the word out and show these kids that we’re here,” Cassidy Brown, a Owasso graduate and organizer of the demonstration, told KTUL. “There is a community here in this city that does exist, and we see them, and they are loved.” Vigils have been held in honor of Benedict across Oklahoma and the country, including on Sunday night when hundreds gathered at Redbud Festival Park in Owasso for the teen. Many of the gatherings were organized by LGBTQ+ groups to protest against the frequent bullying suffered by nonbinary teens. “Our children are scared to death and go to school every day, and something has to stop,” one Owasso parent, Susie Eubank, said. “My child has had direct threats. Direct derogatory names.”

The Oklahoma state government is completely controlled by Republicans. On a federal level, both of Oklahoma's US senators and all five of its US House members are Republicans.

One GOP Oklahoma state senator is trying to outdo Trump's "vermin" talk and Ron DeSantis's "don't say gay" persecutions.

State senator 'stands by' beliefs after calling LGBTQ+ Oklahomans 'filth'

Days after calling LGBTQ+ Oklahomans "filth," a state senator issued a statement on his comments, saying he stands by what he said. State Sen. Tom Woods is facing growing public outcry and even scrutiny from those within his own Republican Party. Senate leadership called Woods' comments "reprehensible" and "horrifying." But the state senator from eastern Oklahoma has not apologized and appears to be doubling down. “We are a Republican state – supermajority – in the House and Senate. I represent a constituency that doesn’t want that filth in Oklahoma," Woods said, referring to the LGBTQ+ community during a public event last week. The comments came after an audience member asked Woods about legislation targeting the LGBTQ+ community. The audio was recorded by the Tahlequah Daily Press. "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," Woods said.

Yep. Tom Woods defends his extreme homophobic hate speech by referring to Oklahoma as a "Republican state" and a "Christian state". Allowing Republicans to get elected by failing to vote or by wasting votes on third parties empowers hatemongers like Tom Woods.

This is Oklahoma State Senate District 4. It sits along the state's eastern border. It looks like there's not a single notable town in the entire district. Does a tiny suburb of Fort Smith, Arkansas count?

It would probably be difficult to defeat an asshole like Woods in such a district. But electing Democrats in more swing districts would reduce the influence of politicians like Woods.

Look up who represents you in your state legislature – regardless of state. If it's a MAGA Republican extremist, contact your county or state Democratic Party to find out what you can do to help retire the individual.

Find Your Legislators Look your legislators up by address or use your current location.

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the-weed-daddy · 2 months

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TW: Death, transphobia

A 16 year old non-binary high schooler by the name of Nex Benedict was murdered in an Owasso High School girls bathroom on February 7th, 2024. Three other high school girls were “beating on” Nex and their friend, and (reportedly) “one of the girls just kept smashing their head into the floor.” I’m not going to quote the article because none of them gender or name Nex properly and that is never going to be anywhere near this post. I did not know Nex, I didn’t even know Nex existed. But I live 15 mins away from Owasso High School and I’ve spent many years there doing various school activities. I’ve been in the girls bathrooms there. I’ve also been in the boys bathrooms there. I’ve been terrified for my life being in the boys bathrooms at the Owasso High School football stadium one time. *One time.* Imagine what Nex felt *every day* walking through those halls, only to have their classmates hatred and violence best them in what should have been the spot to gossip and fix your hair in.

Nex Benedict will be remembered. Their murder will see justice.

#personal #tw death #tw transphobia #Nex Benedict #owasso high school #Oklahoma #lgbtqia #nonbinary

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overkonsumption · 2 months

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rest in peace nex benedict.

an indigenous, nonbinary high schooler who was beaten within an inch of their life after being forced to use the girls’ bathroom, only to die due to brain damage complications.

they liked minecraft, they had a cat named zeus. transphobic state laws killed them. their school refused to call an ambulance after the attack.

#nex benedict #tw transphobia #tw death mention #rip nex benedict #i hope their family is given justice. i hope their attackers are brought to light.#i hope this government fucking falls.#owasso high school

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galactic-space · 2 months

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Everything’s “just a fight” til it affects you.

Murders murder dumbass. The second you let your political viewpoint make it “ok” then suddenly its “not murder”

No matter how he died. He got hurt. He got hurt because of your kid. Because your kids wanna burn anything that they find “lesser than”

This isn’t a fucking joke. You’re a fucking clown if you think this is one.

How long are these right-wing self obsessed narcissistic bitches are gonna cry that they are the “oppressed” ones til they realize that no one is falling for their pity party?

Nex Benedict was 14. Nex Benedict was a teenager. He was gang up by three girls. 3 v 1

There is no way you can spin this without making it look bad.

Fuck Oklahoma politicians. So far up your own ass you can’t see the bigger picture of how; if this is allowed, then more murder will occur. More and more til it ends up being one of your own kids.

Edit: also thoughts and prayers to the family and of the choctaw tribe. The tribe has found this very disheartening. Apparently the boy wasn’t registered under the tribe legally but his mom was, and the tribe took her family as apart of the tribe. It’s heartbreaking that they had to go though this and I wish nothing but good faith to them.

#justice for nex benedict #nex benedict #right wing extremism #us politics #lgbtq rights #trans rights #facist pigs #fuck politicians #fuck Oklahoma #good on the teenagers who’s boycotting the school tho #respect #fuck you owasso high school #Owasso high school #Choctaw tribe #indigenous

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bluecookiedisaster · 2 months

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#nex benedict #lgbtq+#lgbt pride #choctaw #native american #transphobia #nonbinary #owasso high school #owasso #oklahoma #justice for nex benedict #petition #change.org #please sign and share

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cityofchapin · 2 months

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Indoctrinated As Straight

Photo by Kamaji Ogino “There ought to be a time in one’s adult life which is dedicated to rediscovering the most important readings of our youth. Even if the books remain the same (though they too change, in the light of an altered historical perspective), we certainly have changed, and this later encounter is therefore completely new. –Italo Calvino, Why Read the Classics? 90s Queer I came…

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fuckyeahmarxismleninism · 2 months

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At least 40 students at Owasso High School walked out Monday to protest what they describe as a pervasive culture of bullying with little accountability, which they believe led to a student’s death at their school.

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planetofsnarfs · 2 months

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Sue Benedict, in an interview for the news site Popular Information, has called the Owasso Police Department’s Feb. 21 statement regarding the death of her child, Nex Benedict, “a big cover” released simply as “something to calm the people.”

And just-released video footage from school surveillance cameras and from a police body cam combined with 9-1-1 calls appear to point to what the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation calls a “cascade of failures [by] school, local government and law enforcement” officials.

Non-binary 16-year-old Nex Benedict died Feb. 8, a day after being beaten by three other students in a bathroom at Owasso High School. But it wasn’t until Feb. 20 when the website Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents reported on the incident that Nex’s death begin gaining wide attention.

Initial reports indicated that a teacher came into the bathroom and broke up the fight, and that Nex, at the time, was unable to walk to the nurse’s office on their own. Reports said that school officials failed to call an ambulance and did not report the assault to police.

Nex’s family took them to the emergency room where they were treated and released the same night. The following day Nex was rushed back to the hospital where they were pronounced dead.

School officials have disputed those early reports, and on Wednesday, Feb. 21, Owasso Police posted a statement to their Facebook page that, Popular Information reports, “appeared to defend Owasso High School’s response to the Feb. 7 incident. The state also suggested that Nex’s death the following day was unrelated to the bathroom assault.”

The statement said that, according to the medical examiner, autopsy reports “did not indicate that the student died as a result of trauma.” The medical examiner’s report did not, in fact, actually say that and the autopsy is not yet complete.

Owasso Police Lt. Nick Boatman told Public Information that it is not normal practice for police to release autopsy results before an autopsy is complete, but they had done so in this case “to head off some of this national scrutiny.” Boatman also acknowledged that the medical examiner “did not explicitly tell him that Nex ‘did not die from something as a result of that fight.’ But that’s how Boatman interpreted the medical examiner’s comments,” Popular Information noted.

Popular Information got a copy of an “affidavit for search warrant” by police on Feb. 9 that indicated police suspected “foul play” and were investigating Nex’s death as a murder. Boatman told Popular Information that murder charges are “still on the table” at this time.

WHAT THE VIDEO SHOWS

According to a press release issued today (Saturday, Feb. 24) by GLAAD via email, newly-released school surveillance video and police body cam video contradict at least some of the statements by school and police officials and show possible police misconduct.

As per the GLAAD email:

Newly released police body cam footage from inside the emergency room raises concerns about questionable police involvement:

• The police officer discouraged Sue Benedict from asking him to file a police report and saying it would open up Nex to legal liability and that it would be a shame for any of the students to have to deal with a criminal situation for quote “something so minuscule.” • The police officer told Nex that they were “just as guilty as” their attackers. This followed Nex explaining that after repeated harassment and bullying from three students, they threw water on the students. Those three students then began to violently beat Nex, slamming their head on the floor until they lost consciousness. • The police officer described the verbal bullying of Nex by classmates as “free speech.” • The police officer suggested multiple excuses for why the school did not follow protocol and alert law enforcement about the assault.

Newly released school surveillance footage show Owasso High School officials did not follow protocol:

• The police officer confirmed that protocol dictates that Nex’s high school should have notified police about the assault and that the school “dropped the ball.” • The police officer then suggested multiple excuses for why the school broke protocol.

New 911 audio shows Nex’s mother had to report the assault after the school did not, and details Nex’s final moments:

• Nex’s mother Sue Benedict called 9-1-1 twice. First on the day of the attack, from the emergency room, with Nex by her side in a hospital bed, to report an assault had taken place at school. • Sue Benedict made the second 9-1-1 call the following day when Nex collapsed at home. Sue reported Nex’s “eyes rolled back into their head,” their “hands curled” and Nex was “struggling to breathe.”

Newly released videos detail horrors of attack and reveal ongoing history of bullying and targeted harassment experienced by Nex:

• Nex’s mother Sue Benedict explains Nex was pinned to the ground and beaten until they blacked out. • School footage shows Nex unsteady on their feet after the brutal 3-on-1 beating. Note that the school did not call an ambulance or the police. • Nex and their mother discuss the ongoing bullying and harassment Nex faced at school, naming specifically that Nex was targeted for the way they dressed. • Nex explains that they were unable to see the point in bringing recent bullying to the school’s attention given how much they had been bullied and harassed at school in the past year.

GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in today’s email, “It is haunting to hear Nex Benedict, in their own words, describe how school and state leaders failed, at every level of leadership, to keep them safe from bullying and harm. Less than 24 hours later, Nex would collapse and die.

“The release of the chilling 9-1-1 call by Nex’s mother, Sue Benedict, school surveillance video, and police body-cam footage of Nex in the emergency room recounting the brutal assault, all point to a clear and catastrophic cascade of failures from a school and state’s basic responsibility of safety and care for all young people.”

Ellis added, “Passing laws that ban students from bathrooms, refusing to act to prevent or stop bullying in all its forms, coupled with state leaders who perjure themselves by spreading lies and ostracizing LGBTQ students — this is a hostile, combustible environment that no student should ever have to endure in school.

Every young person, their friends and their families, need to know this is not normal and this cannot be acceptable. In Oklahoma and other states passing discriminatory laws against LGBTQ youth, we must all decide that now is the time to speak up and stand up to demand safety and acceptance for all students to live, learn and grow in peace.”

#nex benedict #teens #education #human rights #owasso high school #ryan walters #kevin stitt #christian nationalism #republican party #oklahoma

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rrcenic · 2 months

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nex benedict was a native american non binary kid who was beaten to death in the girls bathroom at their school in oklahoma. the school forced them to use the girls room and they still got fucking killed.

their school didnt even call 911 when they were dizzy and bruised and bleeding after being assaulted by three older girls and having their head slammed on the tile floor. they were suspended for two weeks. they died from the head injuries 24 hours later.

NEX WAS SIXTEEN. SIXTEEN. THEY LIKED MINECRAFT AND ARK SURVIVAL EVOLVED AND THEIR CAT ZEUS.

THEY WERE A CHILD.

THEY WERE TOLD TO COMPLY TO THE RULES ABOUT BATHROOMS AND THEY DID AND THEY WERE STILL BEATEN TO DEATH. BECAUSE IT HAS NEVER BEEN ABOUT BATHROOMS AND BIOLOGICAL SEX. IT IS ABOUT SILENCING AND ENDING US.

trans kids are not safe anywhere. terfs and transphobic influencers teach children to hate their peers and people DIE. i hope terfs know that they are the reason people die. nex's blood, and the blood of thousands of trans kids who have been killed, abused, and ended their own lives, are on your hands.

im disgusted and depressed and scared

important additions!!

@donuteater13 added this link to a source

@wonderthestars compiled this info:

as @minecraft666 said, the staff needs to be held accountable for not calling an ambulance and allowing the transphobia to exist

https://ohs.owassops.org/apps/staff/

#tw violence #tw murder #tw transphobia #nics stuff #lgbt #lgbtq #lgbtq+#trans #transgender #nonbinary #nex benedict #justice for nex benedict #trans rights

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