Nex Benedict
Nex Benedict was 16 years old. They loved their cat, Zeus. They were a straight-A student who enjoyed watching “The Walking Dead”, drawing, reading, and playing Ark and Minecrafts. They enjoyed making up their own recipes. And they were nonbinary.
Nex was brutally beaten at their school. Even after a teacher intervened, Nex was unable to walk, but staff neither assisted them nor called an ambulance. Suffering head injuries, they had to take the bus home, and their grandmother took them to hospital. That hospital released them the same night. The next morning, they were taken back to the hospital, where they died.
Local media reported Nex’s death a week later. Not only did it misgender and deadname them, it also referred to the death as “unexpected”. At the time of writing, there is no indication that the people who murdered Nex will face any consequences.
All this took place in Oklahoma, in a school district repeatedly targeted for the spreading of anti-trans hate. In 2022, teacher Tyler Wrynn was pressured to resign following a hate campaign that targeted him because he was an outspoken ally. This campaign was spear-headed by self-described stochastic terrorist Chaya Raichik, who goes by the username “Libs of Tiktok” and uses her nationwide reach to whip up hate against trans folk and our allies. It has led to multiple bomb threats across the US, many aimed at schools or children’s hospitals. In Oklahoma, she has secured herself a seat on the state’s Department of Education’s Library Media Advisory Committee, which concerns itself with banning anything that even hints that LGBTQIA+ people even exist.
At this point we don’t know how far Raichik’s poison influenced those who killed Nex Benedict. What we do know is that there has been a concerted effort to erase Nex as a nonbinary young person, and to suppress the truth of their murder.
Say Nex’s name.
Celebrate their life.
Never forget.
Rest in perfection, Nex. You are loved.
UPDATE: Nex’s family have said they will conduct their own independent investigation into their child’s death, after police released a statement claiming that the assault – which they downplayed – did not lead to Nex’s death.
That statement conveniently ignored witness reports, and seems just a little too self-serving, particularly in light of this video from Eli, a trans person who graduated from the same school last year. In the video, they reveal a culture of bullying that has led to the suicide of at least one other student, and they bravely relate their own story of being sexually assaulted by a cis male student who said he would “cure” them. When they reported it to the school, they were told to keep it quiet so that it didn’t “ruin” their attacker’s life.
There is no doubt that a toxic culture of bullying, with an extremely nasty transphobic streak, exists at that school – one that is fed by hateful rabble-rousing from internet celebrity bigots, and enabled by the local police. There are probably other students like Eli, like Nex, like the student took their own life after their plight was repeatedly ignored by the school. These are kids. They should be protected and celebrated.
