Oklahoma
What does gender expansive mean? Oklahoma teen’s death puts gender identity in spotlight.
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The death of 16-year-old Nex Benedict in the wake of a fight at an Owasso, Oklahoma, high school has drawn widespread attention after reports that the teen was long bullied for their gender identity, which friends have described as “gender expansive.”
But what does gender expansive mean? According to national LGBTQ+ advocacy group PFLAG, it’s an umbrella term for individuals who don’t align with traditional gender categories, or who expand ideas of gender expression or identity.
“It might be used because someone has identities outside of what’s socially accepted,” said Mackenzie Harte, PFLAG’s manager of learning and inclusion, adding that the term is one they’ve increasingly heard used by parents and educators regarding to youth. “It’s where someone is not conforming to social ideas of what gender should be.”
The term has been around since at least 2012, when LGBTQ+ advocacy organization Human Rights Campaign surveyed more than 10,000 lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer youth across the United States. The term “gender-expansive” emerged from the report to classify youth who didn’t identify with traditional gender roles but were otherwise not confined to one gender narrative or experience.
“This term allows us to talk about youth who don’t meet our ‘traditional’ understandings of gender without putting their identity in a box,” the report read.
Gender expansive is not synonymous with nonbinary, PFLAG notes; even cisgender individuals can embrace the term. Instead, it’s another way of saying gender non-conforming — the more preferred term, according to the group.
“While some parents and allies use the term, gender non-conforming (GNC) is the preferred term by the LGBTQ+ community,” the group says as part of a glossary definition on PFLAG’s website. “It is important to use the term preferred by an individual with whom you are interacting.”
What happened to Nex Benedict?
Nex, a 16-year-old who loved reading, art, and playing Minecraft, was hurt during a fight that erupted in an Owasso High School bathroom on Feb. 7.
That afternoon, officers responded to a local hospital, where Sue Benedict, Nex’s mother, reported the assault and urged police to follow up with school administrators. Nex was later discharged, but the following day Benedict called 911 to report that Nex was having medical issues, including shallow breathing.
According to police, she said Nex had hit their head on the bathroom floor during the altercation. Emergency crews performed CPR before Nex was taken to a Tulsa hospital and pronounced dead.
Police said on Wednesday that an autopsy determined Nex did not die as a result of trauma. But medical examiners have yet to disclose their complete findings.
Oklahoma youth long endured bullying
Family members have said that Nex used the pronouns they/them, and interviews indicate friends believe Nex was still exploring their gender identity at the time of their death.
Executive director Nicole McAfee of Freedom Oklahoma, a group advocating to make the state safer for people of all genders and sexualities, said friends of Nex described them as gender expansive, using they/them pronouns with some people and he/him pronouns with those closest to him.
While it remains unclear whether the altercation involved Nex’s gender identity, the friends said other students had bullied Nex for their gender identity “for well over a year,” McAfee said.
More young adults identifying as nonbinary or transgender
Results of a Pew Research Center survey released in June 2022 showed a record high 5% of young adults identify as transgender or nonbinary. About 1.5% of the U.S. adult population identifies as such, the survey found, and more Americans report knowing someone who is transgender compared to five years ago.
LGBTQ+ advocates attribute the rise to more accurate media representation, the growing visibility of transgender and nonbinary people on social media platforms and the internet, and a broadening of terminology and social acceptance offering previously unavailable avenues for self-expression.
The survey also found growing awareness of terms such as nonbinary and gender fluid, especially among young adults. Both terms refer to individuals who don’t identify as strictly male or female.
The survey was devised by Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan think tank based in Washington, D.C., as part of efforts to better understand the experiences of transgender and nonbinary individuals in a political and social climate that has put gender identity in the spotlight — particularly among Republican candidates looking to sway voters as the 2024 election approaches.
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‘Please do not judge us as Nex was judged’
Jordan Korphage, the school district’s director of communications, has not responded to inquiries about whether the school had gotten prior bullying reports involving Nex or whether the school had any support groups for students of various gender and sexual identities.
But relatives confirmed this week that the family plans to conduct an independent investigation, pleading with officials to “hold those responsible to account and to ensure it never happens again.”
On the GoFundMe page she launched to raise money for funeral expenses, Sue Benedict expressed gratitude for an outpouring of financial and emotional support and apologized for not using Nex’s chosen name in her original post.
“As parents, we were still learning the correct forms,” Benedict wrote. “Please do not judge us as Nex was judged, please do not bully us for our ignorance on the subject. Nex gave us that respect and we are sorry in our grief that we overlooked them. I lost my child, the headstone will have the correct name of their choice.”
Contributing: Christopher Cann, USA TODAY; Molly Young, The Oklahoman
PORTAL TRACKER
Oklahoma State’s newly constructed staff got on the board Saturday, picking up portal commitments on offense and special special teams, so how about some defense?
Three Big 12 defenders have been linked with Oklahoma State via the transfer portal over the past few days, including a pair of former OK Preps standouts. Here’s a look.
Kanijal Thomas, CB, Kansas State
Thomas is an Oklahoman, playing his high school ball at Del City. He visited Stillwater on Saturday, according to On3.
He was a redshirt sophomore for the Wildcats in 2025, playing in seven games as a true freshman in 2023 before an injury saw his sophomore season end two games in.
Thomas played in eight games at K-State in 2025, finishing the year with five tackles, a PBU and a forced fumble. According to PFF, he gave up four catches for 21 yards this season on seven targets.
Now listed at 5-foot-11, 186 pounds, Thomas was a three-star prospect coming out of Del City in the 2023 class. He picked K-State over offers from OSU, Texas Tech, Iowa State and others.
Maurion Horn, CB, Texas Tech
Another Oklahoma kid, Maurion Horn has spent the past four seasons in Lubbock, where he has played in 30 games during that time. According to 247Sports, Horn will visit Stillwater on Monday.
He started all of Tech’s games in 2024, finishing that season with 56 tackles, three tackles for loss and five pass breakups. He played in seven games and dealt with some sort of injury, appearing on Tech’s availability report in Weeks 4, 14 and 15.
Horn has been targeted 88 times in his career, per PFF, where he has allowed just 47 catches.
He was a four-star prospect in the 2022 recruiting class out of Broken Arrow. He ended up picking Tech over offers from OSU, OU, Texas, Baylor, Arkansas and others.
Braylon Rigsby, Edge, Texas Tech
Listed at 6-foot-2, 275 pounds, Braylon Rigsby will join his Texas Tech teammate in Stillwater on Monday, according to 247Sports.
He’s played in 26 games across the past two seasons in Lubbock, accumulating 25 tackles and three tackles for loss during that time.
Per PFF, Rigsby has 21 QB pressures in his career to go with two QB hits.
He hails from Woodsville, Texas, which is near the Louisiana border. Rigsby was a three-star prospect in the 2023 recruiting class, coming in as the No. 861 player in the 247Sports Composite ranking.
Elite Delta Force captured Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife about 2 a.m. Saturday morning.
It happened in the Caracas, the capitol of Venezuela.
Social media posts how strikes ordered by President Trump into Venezuela and its military bases.
News 9 political analyst Scott Mitchell said the relationship between the U.S. and Latin America has not always been smooth and adds so many dominos will fall as a result.
“Venezuela is the beachhead for our adversaries that’s Cuba and Russia and China and Iran and it looks as if this latest situation where that they were assembling Iran swift attack boats that was sort of the last straw,” said Mitchell.
Retired war correspondent Mike Boettcher said the planning on capturing Maduro began in mid-December.
He adds Venezuela is a massive oil supplier whose oil has been taken off the market for years because of sanctions.
He has concerns about what comes next.
“That disrupts a lot of things.It even has an effect on the war in Ukraine, as Russia, you know, has used higher oil revenue because Venezuela’s oil was off the market.Oil prices went up.It helps fund the war in Ukraine,” said Boettcher.
The ramifications could even reach Oklahoma.
“China gets a 30 percent discount on the oil.If Venezuela goes for a more legitimate government and the sanctions are lifting, then they’re flooding the oil markets and that means bad news for the Oklahoma economy,” added Mitchell.
Following the capture of Maduro, President Trump said the U.S. will take control of the oil reserves in Venezuela.
Sources also say there are plans from the current administration to recruit American companies to invest billions of dollars in their oil industry.
A verified video shows the current state of Venezuela after the military operation.
Oklahoma State EDGE Kyran Duhon plans to enter the NCAA transfer portal, On3 has learned. Duhon was a member of the 2024 recruiting class.
Duhon spent one year at Oklahoma State, logged 16 total tackles (eight solo) across nine games. He began his career at UTEP, where he had a productive true freshman season, Duhon finished 2024 with 43 total tackles, including seven sacks and two PBUs.
At UTEP, his one season there resulted in second team All-Conference USA honors. He was also named to the On3 True Freshman All-America Team as well as the the Conference USA All-Freshman team.
However, Duhon’s stay in Stillwater didn’t go as expected. Oklahoma State finished the season with a 1-11 record, which included the Cowboys firing longtime head coach Mike Gundy after a 1-2 start. Doug Meacham was named interim head coach but ended the year 0-9.
Eric Morris has since been named as the program’s next head coach. He comes from North Texas, which finished with an 11-2 record and a trip to the American Conference championship game this past season. However, it doesn’t appear that Duhon will be sticking around during the changing of the guard at Oklahoma State this offseason.
Before college, Duhon was the No. 1,706 overall player in the class, and was recruited as the the No. 165 linebacker during the cycle, per the Rivals Industry Rankings, which is a proprietary algorithm that compiles ratings and rankings from all four primary recruiting media services. He was ranked as the No. 242 overall player out of Texas.
Once the NCAA transfer portal opens on Jan. 2, players can officially enter their names in the NCAA transfer portal and go on to initiate contact with their preferred schools. The portal will be open for 15 days and close on Jan. 16.
Notably, players who are on teams competing in the national championship game are allowed five extra days to make their portal decision. The College Football Playoff championship game will be played on Jan. 19, so the players on those teams will be allowed until Jan. 24 to enter the portal and choose their next school.
To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portal wire. The On3 Transfer Portal Instagram account and Twitter account are excellent resources to stay up to date with the latest moves.
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