For those curious, my search terms were neutral, I was not looking for "fight" language. Search:
Owasso student death (time:last30days)
That's it. Anything that hit that, I looked at. It was all framing things as an "altercation" or "fight". I never saw "assault" or "attack" language anywhere in the first 50 hits. One hit included use of Nex's chosen name, briefly. No hits identified Nex as Cherokee or trans or non-binary or gender nonconforming.
Update from Freedom Oklahoma: "*An earlier version of this post incorrectly identified Nex as a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. We felt it especially important to uplift Nex's Indigenous identity, given the disproportionate harm Two Spirit and Indigiqueer people face and the importance of tribal sovereignty with regard to jurisdiction in the face of alleged criminal acts. We have learned in the time since our statement that Nex's tribal affiliation was misidentified to us, and that Nex is Choctaw, not a citizen of the Cherokee Nation."
Redlands, CA. This disheartening message from Safe Redlands Schools: "The person handling the insurance required for event permits in our local parks has unilaterally decided to politicize the tragic death of a gender queer teenager. What’s wild is she literally told our organizer that no one has EVER asked for a permit for a vigil before. I can’t." They are holding the vigil regardless.
LGBTQ advocacy groups have described Nex’s death as a “hate crime”, and linked it to the “hateful rhetoric spewed by leaders in our state” & the Libs of TikTok account run by far-right social media influencer Chaya Raichik.
I'm a lesbian who was bullied all through public school till I dropped out in 1981 in the middle of my junior year. I attended a fundie Xtian school after that and while I'm now an avowed atheist, I will be forever grateful to the leadership of the school which even though they didn't support my sexual orientation, also just plain did not tolerate the harassment I'd been getting up until then. When I heard this news story I was heartsick for this poor child's tragic fate. I'd like an hour alone with the young women who were responsible for their death, and then we'll all be in jail, I'm afraid.
If it's a fight, the school's only obligation is conflict resolution. If it's an attack, the school would be obligated to defend the targets before an attack happens. And that's more work. Also it's a bummer.
All the circumstances are awfully suggestive of an assault rather than a "fight." I guess you're in a fight if you're defending yourself from an attack, but that context is needed.
I'm trying to stay calm about this because it terrifies me.
I just googled this story to see what came up. A whole slew of news items came up that refered to an attack, not just a fight. Not sure how mainstream these sources are though, and I haven't read through them all. I used the search terms "nex trans attack death oklahoma" I hope the story is gaining traction, because eff that "involved in a fight" victim blaming language.
True, my search terms thinned out many accounts that did not report this as an attack.
And now that I've been reading through even these links, it seems to show a torrent of violence against transgender people in Oklahoma and beyond. It's even worse than I thought. *heavy sigh*
You did put "attack" in your search terms, so nothing without that should show up. Your other terms are also much more likely to be sympathetic: using Nex's chosen name, including "trans" -- this is stuff that wasn't making it into any of the mainstream coverage I saw. I'll give that search a try though, just to see what I see.
For those curious, my search terms were neutral, I was not looking for "fight" language. Search:
Owasso student death (time:last30days)
That's it. Anything that hit that, I looked at. It was all framing things as an "altercation" or "fight". I never saw "assault" or "attack" language anywhere in the first 50 hits. One hit included use of Nex's chosen name, briefly. No hits identified Nex as Cherokee or trans or non-binary or gender nonconforming.
Update from Freedom Oklahoma: "*An earlier version of this post incorrectly identified Nex as a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. We felt it especially important to uplift Nex's Indigenous identity, given the disproportionate harm Two Spirit and Indigiqueer people face and the importance of tribal sovereignty with regard to jurisdiction in the face of alleged criminal acts. We have learned in the time since our statement that Nex's tribal affiliation was misidentified to us, and that Nex is Choctaw, not a citizen of the Cherokee Nation."
Redlands, CA. This disheartening message from Safe Redlands Schools: "The person handling the insurance required for event permits in our local parks has unilaterally decided to politicize the tragic death of a gender queer teenager. What’s wild is she literally told our organizer that no one has EVER asked for a permit for a vigil before. I can’t." They are holding the vigil regardless.
LGBTQ advocacy groups have described Nex’s death as a “hate crime”, and linked it to the “hateful rhetoric spewed by leaders in our state” & the Libs of TikTok account run by far-right social media influencer Chaya Raichik.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/nex-benedict-dead-oklahoma-b2499332.html
Out this morning (Weds), from Judd Legum's Popular Information: https://popular.info/p/nex-benedict-matters
Thank you CD. ♥️
I'm a lesbian who was bullied all through public school till I dropped out in 1981 in the middle of my junior year. I attended a fundie Xtian school after that and while I'm now an avowed atheist, I will be forever grateful to the leadership of the school which even though they didn't support my sexual orientation, also just plain did not tolerate the harassment I'd been getting up until then. When I heard this news story I was heartsick for this poor child's tragic fate. I'd like an hour alone with the young women who were responsible for their death, and then we'll all be in jail, I'm afraid.
If it's a fight, the school's only obligation is conflict resolution. If it's an attack, the school would be obligated to defend the targets before an attack happens. And that's more work. Also it's a bummer.
What is AMAB?
All the circumstances are awfully suggestive of an assault rather than a "fight." I guess you're in a fight if you're defending yourself from an attack, but that context is needed.
I'm trying to stay calm about this because it terrifies me.
Assigned Male At Birth
I just googled this story to see what came up. A whole slew of news items came up that refered to an attack, not just a fight. Not sure how mainstream these sources are though, and I haven't read through them all. I used the search terms "nex trans attack death oklahoma" I hope the story is gaining traction, because eff that "involved in a fight" victim blaming language.
True, my search terms thinned out many accounts that did not report this as an attack.
And now that I've been reading through even these links, it seems to show a torrent of violence against transgender people in Oklahoma and beyond. It's even worse than I thought. *heavy sigh*
And we're living in a society where monsters traffic in encouraging that violence, never being held accountable for what results.
AND as if Ryan Walters isn't bad enough, they now have Chaya Raichik to make things even worse.
You did put "attack" in your search terms, so nothing without that should show up. Your other terms are also much more likely to be sympathetic: using Nex's chosen name, including "trans" -- this is stuff that wasn't making it into any of the mainstream coverage I saw. I'll give that search a try though, just to see what I see.
The article I posted below may help a little.
At least there's this stab at clarity/levity: https://www.freedomoklahoma.org/news/nex-benedict
Fuck.
Seconded.