Outside the Minneapolis Teacher’s Federation, on a chilly Friday evening, gatherers held candles to mourn, celebrate and honor the life of Nex Benedict, a 16-year-old nonbinary student who died after a fight at Owasso High School in Oklahoma.  

Benedict identified as nonbinary, a term used by people who identify with a gender that is not male or female, a person whose gender identity is more expansive. 

Student organizers from the Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA) at Edison High School in northeast Minneapolis organized the vigil in honor of Nex.  

“Everybody in GSA thought if we act now, it might create a big enough impact to at least show some respect for Nex,” said Kam, a GSA high school student organizer.

Throughout the evening, speakers called for political action in Minnesota and across the country to honor Nex Benedict’s life and to protect the safety of transgender youth.   

“This is holy ground tonight because we gather to remember Nex Benedict,” said Rev. Justin Sabia-Tanis, associate professor at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities. “It is holy because we gather here to remember Nex Benedict. It is holy because you and I are here, and we are sacred, holy people.” 

Sabia-Tanis spoke out against anti-transgender policymaking, including bills passed in several states that restrict transgender people from using the bathrooms that fit their gender. 

“Those who make anti-trans laws and encourage their passage are complicit in each act of violence that occur because of what they say and because of the laws that they pass,” Sabia-Tanis said.

Rep. Leigh Finke, DFL-St. Paul, is the chair of the Queer Legislative Caucus. She said in the days since the news broke, she finds herself “unable to stop apologizing to Nex.” 

“I am sorry you will not find your way in this world,” said Finke, “I’m sorry you will not experience the radical joy of queer adulthood. I am sorry you will not live the fullest realities of a whole human life.” 

Several of the evening’s speakers addressed Nex Benedict’s death as a part of the epidemic of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Relatives. Benedict’s mother was a citizen of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. 

Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, a member of the White Earth Nation, added to the calls for accountability on the part of policymakers, including Gov. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma. In 2022, Stitt signed a bill requiring public school students to use bathrooms according to the gender listed on their birth certificates. 

“This did not happen on accident. Policies have consequences,” said Flanagan. 

Flanagan observed that she and Stitt, a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, are the only two Native Americans to hold executive offices in state government across the country.  

“As an Anishinaabekwe, I cannot say that it is all right with our Indigenous values that our children are bullied and made to suffer and are hurting,” said Flanagan.  

“It is not who we are. That is not where we come from, and we will continue to do everything in the state of Minnesota, but that is not enough,” said Flanagan. 

GSA student organizers say they need bathroom solutions 

Student organizers with Gender and Sexual Alliance organizers were accompanied at the vigil by their teacher Amelia Marquez.  

Marquez recalled moving from Montana to seek greater safety in Minnesota as a transgender person and called on allies of transgender youth in helping to create safe spaces in schools. 

“These kids should not be afraid to go to the bathroom to go to in our schools here in Minneapolis and St. Paul,” said Marquez. 

GSA student organizer Keeda Johnson said students need “bathroom solutions.” “We need a community who is going to stick up for our LGBTQ+ rights,” said Johnson. 

“The genderqueer students have to stand and sit and sometimes even to go the nurse like we are sick because we have to go to the bathroom,” said Johnson. “It’s humiliating to have to go to the nurse and say ‘we have to pee’ because there is not a bathroom that fits our gender identity. It hurts, it makes me at least feel like something is wrong.” 

Johnson encouraged youth to seek out resources which affirm their gender identity.