Oklahoma banned trans students from bathrooms. Now a bullied student is dead
Nex Benedict died one day after a fight in a school bathroom. Their mother Sue Benedict tells Bevan Hurley that the gender fluid teenager endured more than a year of abuse simply for being who they were
All part of their plan.
"Fuck them kids" -Republicans
You've got Matt Gaetz's attention.
You'll get called dramatic for saying that but Republicans are absolutely eyeing a form of trans genocide; removing access to treatment and creating as hostile and dangerous an environment possible for trans people. They want us to disappear.
Yep, inevitable and intended consequences.
Owasso PD spokesperson Nick Boatman told The Independent that police were awaiting the results of toxicology and autopsy reports from the Oklahoma Medical Examiner’s Office before determining whether anyone will be charged.
Ofc cops want a toxicology report on the victim instead of testing the perpetrators.
ACAB
Testing the other kids for what? An overdose of "fight in the girls bathroom" meds? Make some sense.
THIS IS WHY YOU HAVE TO ARM UP AND BE SEEN READY TO FIGHT
These people know you're a doormat and a pushover.
I have to admit, one of my first emotional responses was anger. I want vengeance. When will we see the day the bullies, abusers, murderers, and their enablers receive justice?
Not civilized "justice" in court rooms, on pieces of paper, with well-dressed men and women arguing politely over legal arcana.
Blood for blood. There should be a mortal fear that if they harm one hair on our heads, something worse will happen to them by far.
Don't tell me this won't bring anyone back. Don't tell me to be better than our enemies. If you will assault someone over their skin color, gender, sexual orientation, you don't deserve the breath of life.
It's a social contract thing. Conservatives insist on being granted all of the benefits you get by signing an accord with the rest of us, but then act as though they are exempt from it's requirements.
As far as I'm concerned, they aren't covered by the agreement anymore, and should be deprived of any protection offered by it.
Another person murdered by Christianity.
This isn't "Christianity". And that's not to defend the religion, but it is just one head of this Hydra, not the core of the problem. People in power are using hate and fear in whatever medium they can to consolidate and increase that power, casualties be damned.
This is exactly Christianity. Their book tells them to act this way and their shamans have been screaming for this conduct for twenty centuries. Every single Christian I have dealt with is about one bad day away from doing this and why shouldn't they? The have skydaddy telling them that they will be forgiven for everything and that it is a good thing to oppress the LGBT.
You know, I've been noticing more and more that lemmy has a bunch of people who just fuckin hate religion straight up, edgy 2010's reddit atheism style. I don't necessarily disagree with a lot of their criticisms, but it has gotten kind of annoying seeing people attribute these clearly complex and incentive driven behaviors to something so broad, so old, and so vague.
It seems pretty obvious to me personally that conservatives have kind of given up on contesting civil rights and gay rights as a means to differentiate themselves from the other neoliberals, since those issues remain pretty deeply unpopular to contest, and are moving to this as sort of the next thing in their playbook, the next highest profile minority that they can easily lambast on nightly news. All while they try to roll back those other issues through every possible angle they might be able to work in local, state, and federal government.
That's even a pretty big oversimplification of the issue, and the different forces involved, right, like it's not really tied into why or how specifically they're doing that, right, but it's really stupid to even have that surface level understanding, and still bump up against people insisting that it's more singularly some other driving, evil force. As though you couldn't, were you to analyze christianity, split such a thing up into another whole litany of forces, another whole network of relations, causes and effects.
@ech @afraidofzombies TBF it kinda is Christianity tho.
I can't imagine -- don't want to imagine losing a child. I had no idea until I had a kid but... Nothing in the universe matters more to me than my kid and I would be destroyed forever if anything ever happened.
To lose a kid (very likely) due to bullying? I can't imagine the blind rage mixed in with the universe shattering grief.
What sick fucked world do we live in where school bullying turns into violence that turns into death? Just for being different from most? Jesus Christ. These psychopaths should be in jail getting intensive therapy to try to unfuck their twisted minds.
This child could have lived a full life but instead because of fearful, hateful monsters, the kid is dead.
Fuck Oklahoma and fuck this school and the parents of the murderers.
It's only going to get worse if Trump gets back in power. As if it isn't bad enough now.
Boy, girl, non binary, whatever WHO GIVES A FUCKING SHIT?! Mind your own goddamn business and don't be a fucking evil piece of shit. Let people fucking exist as they are.
My biggest fear is to outlive my daughter. And since she's queer (not trans, but queer), I worry about her being assaulted or even killed because of it, especially as people like Trump foster bigotry. Also, one of her closest friends is trans and I'm very worried about him. I know he's being bullied in school and he already has self-harm issues. Thankfully, his parents support his transition, but he's still not getting the support he needs and the school makes him use the girls bathroom and locker room. I hope he makes it through school okay. He's only 12 and he's already cutting himself, vaping and smoking weed.
I hope he finds the strength to get through this. Besides support from his family and having supportive friends, which no one should take for granted, there's overcoming the bullying and finally, the hardest of all, the inner conflict. Topple this with puberty's own ordeal, so everything gets even more confusing. But it's also the one task, that drops the most loot, if you solve it. There's nothing more rewarding than feeling inner peace, love yourself and coming of age strong and prosperous.
This is one of several reasons why I'm (secularly) homeschooling my kids.
What sick fucked world do we live in where school bullying turns into violence that turns into death?
It probably happens more often than you think. Without the nonbinary angle and excuse to invoke bathroom bills this wouldn't have got nearly the attention that it did. In the US, most bullying related deaths are suicide and a couple hundred thousand kids get physically attacked by fellow students every year in addition (most recent number I'd found was a few years old and around 288k). If you piece together the various statistics, an estimate of around 3500 kids per year dying to bullying-related suicide is probably reasonable. Bullying-related homicide is harder to get a decent number on, but it's probably significantly lower.
That they can say the autopsy showed CoD was not trauma from the attack but were awaiting toxicology and other ancillary results before naming an official CoD makes me curious if they suspect CoD is overdose and are waiting for results to confirm. I guess we'll see when the report is finished.
How's protecting those kids by putting them in danger going?
Oh - a kid you wanted to kill us dead - all part of the plan.
These lawmakers are knowingly lying for personal gain, and to kill those they don't like - including kids. They're fucking demons, and their supporters are either as bad, or mentally deficient.
These lawmakers are knowingly lying for personal gain
...which obviously includes their so-called reverence for the "sanctity of life".
The key is to add an additional implied phrase to the end. Kind of like fortune cookies.
In this case, radical right speech has an implied ", for the right people." After all they are not trying to govern equally, but instead prefer a rigidly defined caste system.
reverence for the sanctity of life, for the right people.
This is so fucking sad
But for the creator of The Libs of Tiktok, it's a day to celebrate 🥂
How weird is it that without knowing what that account was I couldn't tell if it's far right or far left.
But yeah, it's far right.
In case everyone wasn’t aware, Ryan Walters hired Chaya/Libs of TikTok to check our libraries.
This is exactly the outcome they (republicans, the police, Elon Musk, etc.) want.
They were 16, people that beat them up were "older girls". Surely they will charge them as adults right?
Nah they will just claim religious persecution and "it will ruin their life" throw in them "fearing for their safety" being the right race and gender. At most they are looking at community service.
I think the system is going to suddenly find a lot of excuses not to do that. Hell I wouldn't be surprised if the police suddenly decided they had no place enforcing adult laws in school and saying this is a learning moment...
I think the system is going to suddenly find a lot of excuses not to do that.
I mean, they're young girls and probably white so the justice system is going to do everything it can to avoid holding them accountable before you even get to it being a nonbinary victim in a red state. Even if they're charged and convicted as adults I'd be shocked if they get worse than probation and maybe a suspended sentence at worst. Names withheld by media, of course.
Conservatism is a plague of oppression, violence and death. It always has been. There is no place in a modern society for conservatism.
When you see your conservative neighbors, co-workers and relatives, remember they killed this innocent child. They did this.
Ancient Roman Conservatives (Optimates, cause of course) "Look when you lift their skirts, you find a Populare (Democrat). We need to bring back traditional values!"
Since the days of yore, always about traditional fucking values.
And like now they aren’t. It’s a factionalized past constructed by the traditionalists.
I'm not going to aggressively confront my simple conservative acquaintances as if they themselves did this, but I do think it's a moral obligation to root out and identify why our acquaintances support a regressive, fearful, and hateful brand of politics. Like any sale made, it has to be the customer's choice, or at least the illusion of choice. You'll never convert anyone to a more Leftist brand of looking at the world if your ideology seems aggressive or unhinged. We're trying to make conservatism look less ideal than leftism.
When you see your conservative neighbors, co-workers and relatives, remember they killed this innocent child. They did this.
Obviously they did not.
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 the afternoon of 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 Owasso Fire Department medics arrived to find Nex had stopped breathing. Nex was taken to the St. Francis Pediatric Emergency Room where they were later declared dead.
This child's blood is on their hands. Not just the kids who did the physical beating, but also the conservatives who set up a culture where this is acceptable.
Try to join the rest of us in reality when you can.
"Owasso police issued a subsequent statement on 21 February to say that an autopsy indicated that Nex had not died as a result of trauma." STFU
Pro-life, until they arent what expected, then fuck those people. The conservative religious are very hateful.
Hey now, they don't care about em after they're born! Especially it they are poor or not Christian & white enough.
@return2ozma Conservatives see this and applaud. This makes them happy. It puts a smile on their faces, but then they'll turn around and argue online that it's not about blind hate. They all know, deep down, that they're evil pieces of shit. They DO KNOW and perform all sorts of mental gymnastics to half convince themselves otherwise.
Every time they see the evil they're doing in the world this hypocritical dichotomy churns in their brains, and I hope on their deathbed they're consumed by it.
Yeah seriously. I thought they were pro life..?
Not pro-life, but anti-choice.
You'll notice this trend continues beyond the topic of women's health.
History will remember them the way we remember the racists who upheld Jim Crow in the American south.
Assuming that there will be history of course.
While it might be true that conservatist culture is a big reason why this person is now dead, I don't think the majority of any group is celebrating on this. And it's dehumanizing to paint any group like that.
This makes me sick to my stomach. This poor person just wanted to be themselves. Fuck our society, time to start over
All the panic from Right-Wing cultists has real danger for people. I’m so sorry that people failed Nex. I hope people will be held accountable.
Direct result of the bathroom laws and other transphobic policies because it emboldens the most fucked up to act out and think they can get away with it (as they probably will)
Teenage girls are psychotic, getting into fights with a trans kid and beating them to a pulp. How many psychotically violent teens are in schools?
All of them. Some are better at self control, but none of us were sane.
Seriously. How can anyone expect us to be when our skull meatballs were still congealing?
I’m sure every American here has stories. The only reason I and my friends were never bullied much was early on in 6th grade, I stuffed a jock into their locker.
The thing was he was trying to stuff a friend of mine in a locker; with his coach as hall monitor (“boys will be boys,”).
For the record the only thing that I could get to fit was his head and shoulders. Also, the fire dept was breaking out the jaws of life when the lunch lady showed up with bacon grease… so he spent the first ten or so minutes of every class trying to make shit up about that… while everyone knew.
Edit to clarify: this isn’t to detract how awful this is, and from trans hate. Just pointing out bullying in schools has been a thing since long before I was in school; and it’s gotten worse. Schools are underfunded, under staffed and over stuffed (with students.); and that’s entirely by design. If “normal” people have stories… I shudder to think of what that kid and other trans kids have to go through.
I find it hard to believe he got stuck that badly.
A lot. I may not have been aware that I was trans back when I was a kid but growing up became a very lonely existence once girls and boys isolated themselves into their little tribes. When the siloing process sticks you with a peer group that implicitly knows you to be an ill fit and even when you try to get along your brain doesn't register that gendered sense of "this is a person who acts and thinks like me" you don't as a habit really make very close friends.
Kids are very good at forming hardcore social bonds where they let their sense of individual identity slip in favor of their group. While I didn't experience trans hate growing up directly persay being placed in situations where you just can't make decent bonds tends to make you an easy target for being ripped to shreds as somebody else's exercise of building pack solidarity. It takes very little for children to find justification to be violent.
It is very disgusting to see.
This is exactly what the GOP wants. It's only going to embolden them to spread this horseshit.
Yeah… sounds like Oklahoma.
Just saw this morning that the police are saying the death was not caused by injuries from the fight.
Conservative thinking killed this beautiful child. Every conservative is to blame.
Does this logic apply to crimes committed by immigrants?
"Immigrant thinking killed this beautiful child. Every immigrant is to blame."
Hmmmm, I'm not sure what immigrant ideology is, or where all the oppressive legislation that immigrants passed is, but I'm sure you can find a way to scapegoat people you hate.
You know the drill, just keep asking more and more absurd questions with confidence, and when someone says you are driving people to a hateful conclusion with loaded questions, you can just say "what, I can't ask questions anymore? What happened to free speech?"
Immigrants don't as a group do everything in their political power to fuck people over...
Republicans and Conservatives do.
I think we should try to answer this rather than just down voting. I think the difference is that conservative thinking led to the policy that led to the person being targeted, and possibly also to a climate of intolerance that made the attacker/s feel like they had the support of the community to do that. We're not really talking about who is too blame for this individual instance (obviously that's the person/s who manslaughtered this child). We're talking bigger picture.
When an immigrant commits a crime, I suppose you would argue that liberal thinking created the situation where that could happen, but I think it's a false equivalence. Big picture immigrants don't disproportionately commit crime, and there are major benefits that come with immigration. While trans people absolutely are disproportionately the victims of violence, and there are no real benefits to transphobic policies.
I guess I haven't done great at this, please other people build on this reply, it just felt wrong to see a fair enough question just being downvoted with no reply.
?????
Somehow I'm reminded of Dead Poets' Society even though the specifics are quite different. But it seems like something (the overall culture?) is pushing a whole lot of confusion on children that wasn't there 20 years ago.
But also, teenagers can be real shits sometimes. I had my part of that, and the weirdest thing I was was being a bit nerdy and socially inept.
Still waiting for the day people take this seriously. Maybe just a couple more decades to go :/
This has always been the intent.
the people who make the laws simply do not care about dead trans people. to them that is one step closer to the world they want.
Delusional fuckers
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_they_came_...
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.
Of course not. Empowering women, poc and the LGBTQ+ community would actively hurt them being in power. So better to make laws to keep those groups at the bottom.
"dead trans people were going to vote for the other guys anyhow" - Republicans
This was always the plan!
Since head trauma was ruled out, I wonder what happened 💉
I wonder what happened to you.. 🤡
Should have been a Destiny fan, then this wouldn’t have happened. /s
Absolutely gross, disgusting, evil, impossible to reason with.
Unrelated: what kind of name is "Nex"?
What kind of names are Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Judas, Jesus? They are all just the sound of meat flapping around.
What kind of names are Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Judas, Jesus?
Historically established names which the populous, in near unanimity, decided are good and worth reusing. Call me old fashioned if you want, but I'd rather see yet another John than someone named mr. mxyzptlk