A month after Nex Benedict’s death: Crisis calls, anti-LGBTQ+ both on the rise in Oklahoma

National and local LGBTQ+ advocates spoke this week about Nex Benedict’s death and the anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric surrounding the tragedy, one month after a reported altercation involving the 16-year-old.

Advocates blamed Oklahoma state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters for fueling hateful sentiments toward Oklahoma’s LGBTQ+ community, and called for an explanation from the Oklahoma State Department of Education and Owasso Public Schools.

Oklahoma City native Sara Cunningham, the founder of Free Mom Hugs, said the state government is ripping protections from the LGBTQ+ community, but vowed to continue efforts to combat these attempts.

“If you don’t hear the cry of the oppressed, then you are not listening,” Cunningham said.

What happened to Nex Benedict?

Benedict was a 16-year-old Owasso High School student who died in February after sustaining injuries in an altercation on school grounds. Medical examiners are still completing their investigation into what caused the death of Benedict, but police said Feb. 21 that an autopsy determined Nex did not die as a result of trauma.

News of the high school sophomore’s death has generated widespread attention, in part because of the student’s gender-expansive identity and claims of bullying that led up to the fight.

Critics blame Nex Benedict’s death on anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric from Ryan Walters, ‘Libs of TikTok’

Critics and LGBTQ+ advocates argue negativity amplified by Walters and right-wing social media accounts has fed aggression toward LGBTQ+ individuals.

Chasten Buttigieg, an LGBTQ+ advocate and spouse of U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg, said Walters is failing to keep students like Benedict safe in schools by hiring anti-LGBTQ+ people to prominent positions, such as Chaya Raichik, the creator of right-wing social media account “Libs of TikTok.”

In January, Raichik was named to an Oklahoma library media advisory committee by Walters.

“You’re bringing in somebody who’s famous for riling up people on the internet, who traffics in arrangement engagement, as I like to call it, and you’re putting them in a position of power specifically related to the education of young children,” Chasten said.

Raichik is not qualified to be on the advisory committee, Chasten said, adding that he wants to see qualified people in Oklahoma education who care about the state’s students.

Oklahoma consistently ranks low in terms of education, recently ranking second to last. Chasten said this is what Walters should be focusing on.

“Every kid deserves a classroom where it is OK to be themselves, to focus on their learning and know that the adults in power have their backs,” Chasten said. “Nex was robbed of that opportunity, and the state superintendent should be extremely embarrassed.”

Ryan Walters, ‘Libs of TikTok’ respond to criticism

In response to criticism from LGBTQ+ advocates blaming Benedict’s death on Walters’ rhetoric, state Education Department spokesperson Dan Isett said Walters is heartbroken by Benedict’s death, and that the “radical left” is using the situation in a “political game.”

“What we have seen is the radical left and their allies in the liberal media taking partial information, distorting it, and exploiting the death of a young Oklahoman to play a desperate political game,” Isett said. “It is another example of the extreme gender ideology the left wants to push on our schools.”

Raichik has denied on social media the claims suggesting she played a role in Benedict’s death.

HRC launches separate Owasso High investigation, citing lack of trust in Walters, state Department of Education

Last week, Owasso High School confirmed the U.S. Department of Education will launch a civil rights investigation into the district.

The investigation will look into allegations that Owasso Public Schools failed to adequately address reports of sex-based harassment.

During the Thursday news conference, Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said the HRC doesn’t have faith in Walters to investigate Owasso High School, and the organization is seeking an explanation of what happened on Feb. 7, and what led up to it.

Robinson said the organization also is seeking answers as to how the school district and its administration handle anti-LGBTQ+ harassment.

The group also is asking the U.S. Department of Education to investigate the state Education Department’s role in Benedict’s death.

“Nex had a whole life left to live and it’s no coincidence that what happened to them happened in the state where elected officials and adults like Superintendent Ryan Walters have repeatedly villainized trans kids,” Robinson said.

In a statement from an Owasso Public Schools spokesperson, the spokesperson said the safety and security of the district’s students is its top priority, adding that it’s committed to fostering a safe and inclusive environment for everyone.

The spokesperson said all reported bullying accusations are investigated by administrators and reviewed by the district’s director of safety and security.

According to the spokesperson, Owasso High School students go to an assembly at the beginning of each school year where they’re introduced to their school resource officers and district’s director of safety and security and review the school district’s handbook with school leaders.

Crisis calls increased after Nex Benedict’s death

Lance Preston, founder and executive director of the Rainbow Youth Project, said after Benedict’s death, the organization’s crisis call center received 1,000 contacts from Oklahoma in February, and the large majority of those occurred after Benedict’s death was reported in the news. He said 87% of those callers reported bullying in Oklahoma schools.

Preston said typically, the call center receives an average of 350 contacts from Oklahoma each month.

In March 2023, it received 63 Oklahoma calls. That number shot up to 406 the following July, and 453 in August amid anti-LGBTQ+ policies and rhetoric from elected officials, Preston said.

The Rainbow Youth Project has been assisting three other students at Owasso High School who reported incidences of bullying starting last September.

After Benedict’s death, several former and current Owasso students told The Oklahoman they recognized their own experiences in Benedict’s story. They described instances of repeated bullying and harassment over their gender identities and sexualities and said they often felt administrators failed to appropriately intervene.

So far this year, the hotline has received 3,331 calls, and 81% of those highlight bullying across the country as a key factor behind the caller’s emotional distress, Preston said.

“These kids are hurting, not only from Nex Benedict’s tragic death, but they’re hurting from the political rhetoric that Ryan Walters continues to spew even after (Benedict’s) death,” Preston said.

Advocacy group tracks anti-LGBTQ+ incidents after Nex Benedict’s death

Although the exact details of the fight are unclear, Benedict’s family and friends have said Benedict was routinely bullied because of their gender identity.

The FBI’s 2022 crime report showed that anti-LGBTQ+ hate crime reports increased from the previous year, with a 13.8% hump in reports based on sexual orientation and a 32.9% increase in reported hate crimes based on gender identity.

Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation began sorting reported anti-LGBTQ+ incidences in Oklahoma after Benedict’s death. The organizations data reports 18 incidents since September 2022.

Nex Benedict’s Choctaw heritage points to broader crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people

Benedict was of Choctaw heritage, and Nicole McAfee, executive director of Freedom Oklahoma, said policy isolation of those who are trans or 2-Spirit isn’t new. They added that it’s not that different from Indigenous, 2-Spirit and queer youth who often didn’t survive forced removal and placement into residential boarding schools, which caused a loss of language for gender expansiveness and queerness.

“But, we remember and we’ve unearthed old language and develop new language and documented our own histories, and still, too many people in Oklahoma see 2SLGBTQ+ folks as something they can take apart so they can understand how to socialize us away from queerness or tried to wipe us from existence once again,” McAfee said.

McAfee said Benedict was an Indigenous person who died on Indigenous land, which speaks to the larger missing and murdered Indigenous relatives crisis.

It also speaks to the McGirt v. Oklahoma decision and whether there should be federal and tribal agencies engaged in the investigation into Benedict’s death, McAfee said.

Anti-LGBTQ+ bills crowd Oklahoma Legislature

At the beginning of Oklahoma’s 2024 legislative session, over 50 bills targeting members of the LGBTQ+ community were filed during the 2024 legislative session in Oklahoma, and about a handful advanced from committee.

These bills target public school activities and curriculum related to LGBTQ+ topics, speech and expression and would allow certain religious exemptions.

Robinson said she’s seen the impact that anti-LGBTQ+ bills have had on families.

“I’ve made too many phone calls to parents who have lost a child to hatred,” Robinson said. “I’ve tried to comfort children who have been traumatized by bullies and bigots — many of those bullies being adult elected officials.”

McAfee said Oklahoma politicians are political posturing and advancing laws and policies that create a hostile environment among the state’s vulnerable residents.

At the same time, state politicians are either ignoring the death of Benedict and pretending LGBTQ+ Oklahomans are some sort of myth, McAfee said, or they’re clarifying their disgust for the state’s queer community.

They said Oklahoma leaders and enforcers of the status quo are trying to make the state unsafe for LGBTQ+ youth, but queer advocates will dismantle every obstacle to protect them.