His name was Nex. 

      Nex was 16. He liked Minecraft, drawing, The Walking Dead, and playing with his cat. 

      Now, he can’t enjoy any of those things anymore because he is dead. 

      On Feb. 8, 16-year-old Nex Benedict was pronounced dead in Owasso, Oklahoma. Police initially ruled the cause of death as unknown, but here’s a fact: one day earlier, Benedict was assaulted in a bathroom (which he was required to use; Oklahoma lawmakers made a bill decreeing that people must use the bathroom that corresponds to their assigned sex) by three older students after standing up for himself when they started mocking him and a friend. His head was bashed into a paper towel dispenser and on the ground multiple times, and his grandmother reported to The Daily Beast that his face was “totally battered.” 

      Despite the severity of the issue, no medical help was called for. No one checked on the sophomore, who was covered head-to-toe in bruises. Instead, the school administration “followed protocol” and suspended him. It is unknown whether the girls were suspended. A school resource officer discouraged Benedict because “he essentially started it” by standing up for himself, according to PinkNews.

      The next day, Benedict collapsed. His grandmother took him to the hospital, where he was declared dead. On March 14, medical examiners announced that he died by suicide. 

      Of course, there was severe backlash over this situation – as there should be. People flooded the school’s social media accounts with comments demanding action against the students who attacked Benedict. However, instead of holding the students responsible for their disgusting actions, all comment sections on these accounts were set to limited mode. 

     There are multiple issues with this situation. One is glaringly clear: Nex’s suicide was the result of blatant transphobia. This isn’t the first time that hateful policies have resulted in death, and it definitely won’t be the last.

     2023 saw a record of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation being introduced into law; 510 bills were produced – three times the number of bills introduced in 2022. CNN reports that “Along with a renewed push to ban access to gender-affirming health care for transgender youth, there was a heavy focus on regulating curriculum in public schools, including discussions around gender identity and sexuality.” 

     Along with that, many states – namely Florida – are in the process of banning what they call “critical race theory.” Here’s what critical race theory is: CRT  “states that U.S. social institutions (e.g., the criminal justice system, education system, labor market, housing market, and healthcare system) are laced with racism embedded in laws, regulations, rules, and procedures that lead to differential outcomes by race,” according to brookings.edu. 

However, due to the spread of misinformation (thanks, Fox News!), many perceive it to be calling every single White person a racist, which is the exact opposite of what it’s trying to teach.

     A push for the ban of discussions about “controversial” subjects such as race, gender, and sexual/romantic orientation is a push for hateful rhetoric to take its place. That is just a fact. It has come about again and again during history, and it continues to be a problem today.

     What is puzzling about this is that these laws are barely even true half of the time. Regarding the anti-LGBTQ+ legislation in education, Gillian Bransetter, communications strategist for the ACLU, says, “[These bills] rely on this sort of paranoid idea that teachers are secretly encouraging your kids to identify as trans, and then not telling you about it.” This is the same paranoia that led to hundreds of thousands of Japanese-Americans being detained in internment camps in World War II. It’s the same paranoia that led to the Salem Witch Trials. It’s the same paranoia that hurt millions of queer people during the AIDs epidemic. 

     Paranoia leads to conflict. Conflict leads to action. Action laced in paranoia leads to tragedy. 

     Nex Benedict’s death was the result of very active transphobia in the U.S. He shouldn’t have had to use the bathroom that he was assaulted in; he was in the girl’s room because of a bill, which states that it, “direct[s] certain schools to require certain restrooms or changing areas to be used by individuals based on their sex.” The house author, Danny Williams, told the Associated Press that the bill “is to protect our children.”

     Well, look at what ‘protecting the children’ has done. In an effort to ‘protect our children,’ hate is being spewed left and right. Placing bathroom bans and restricting education to ‘protect the children’ has resulted in various bouts of devastation. Discriminatory rhetoric is an accomplice to eventual tragedy.

       Now, an innocent child is dead. 

       And that innocent child’s name was Nex.