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.
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Attendees gather prior to the start of a candlelight vigil hosted by the Thomas Edison High School Gender and Sexuality Alliance.
Liam James Doyle for MPR News
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.”
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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.
S.J. Amado and their child Zochi Nelsen-Amado snuggle together during a candlelight vigil hosted by the Thomas Edison High School Gender and Sexuality Alliance.
Liam James Doyle for MPR News
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.”
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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.
Rev. Mary Visas of the Federation of Christian Ministries during a candlelight vigil hosted by the Thomas Edison High School Gender and Sexuality Alliance.
Liam James Doyle for MPR News
“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.
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“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.
Jane Robertson of Lino Lakes holds a transgender pride flag during a candlelight vigil hosted by the Thomas Edison High School Gender and Sexuality Alliance.
Liam James Doyle for MPR News
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“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.
A sign is displayed during a candlelight vigil hosted by the Thomas Edison High School Gender and Sexuality Alliance.
A motorcyclist is dead after an early morning crash in Minneapolis Friday morning.
The Minnesota State Patrol said that at 1:20 a.m., a Suzuki Motorcycle going north on I-35W at Johnson Street hit the left side of the median guard rail.
The motorcycle continued north for about another quarter mile before coming to a rest on the right-hand side.
State Patrol said the rider came to rest on the left shoulder. He was later identified as 21-year-old Andrew James Neuberger.
ROCHESTER, Minn. (KTTC) – The Rochester Spartans boys volleyball team played its second game on consecutive nights. The Spartans beat Minneapolis Camden 3-0.
Rochester’s next game will be Tuesday, April 21, at St. Anthony Village at 7:00 p.m.
Seattle-based photographer Nate Gowdy went to Minneapolis twice this year, to document the Department of Homeland Security’s Operation Metro Surge and photographed the civilian efforts to protect their communities from the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement.
“When I arrived in Minneapolis, I expected to find overarmed agents, tear gas clouds, traumatized civilians, and I did. I also found people walking their dogs, running errands, meeting for dinner,” he wrote in his essay in The Stranger. “Daily life continued, but it was unmistakably altered. Community events were canceled. It came through in every conversation with residents: weekend plans became risk assessments about the federal agents operating in residential neighborhoods without visible name tags or badge numbers. Tension lived in lowered voices and furtive glances toward any vehicle with tinted windows.”
“Five years earlier, on January 6, 2021, I photographed the pro-Trump mob as thousands laid siege to the United States Capitol. Claims that “Might Makes Right” exploded into acrid fear. I have an audio recording of that day, when I was deep in the crowd at the Capitol steps, that can still bring back that fear. Wild and chaotic,” he wrote. “In Minnesota, the fear worked differently. It folded itself into school pick-ups, grocery runs, work commutes. People recalculated familiar routes before starting engines. Ordinary traffic drew scrutiny. Conversations sought a lower volume. Or went completely underground. The anxiety was procedural.” Hear more about it here:
