CV NEWS FEED // After a 16-year-old Oklahoma girl died the day following a fight in her school bathroom, many LGBTQ activists began to use the unclear circumstances of her death as a rallying cry to garner support for their movement.
In 2022, Republican Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed SB 615 into law. The legislation better known as the “bathroom bill” directed “certain schools to require certain restrooms or changing areas to be used by individuals based on their [biological] sex.” The purpose of the legislation, Stitt said, was to prevent men from using women’s bathrooms.
Earlier this month, a number of individuals in the LGBTQ movement attempted to attribute the law to the tragic February 8 death of Nex Benedict, a female high school student who reportedly identified as “nonbinary.”
A Friday article in the LGBT magazine Them stated:
In the wake of Benedict’s death, mourners are criticizing the school’s response, condemning Republican-sponsored, anti-trans state policies, and looking for the truth amid numerous conflicting reports that sprung up following the attack.
The left-wing The New Republic made a similar claim, purporting that the girl “was the victim of transphobic torment from school bullies that started at the beginning of the 2023 school year, just a handful of months after the state signed into law a transgender bathroom ban, mandating that students use restrooms that match the sex listed on their birth certificates.”
Furthermore, Rep. Ritchie Torres, D-NY, called for the federal government to investigate the circumstances of Benedict’s death.
“I fear a dangerous climate of right-wing anti-LQBTQ+ rhetoric played a role in the unjust end to a young promising life,” the New York City congressman said.
Torres is a co-chair of the pro-LGBTQ Congressional Equality Caucus.
Benedict passed away at the age of 16, one day after she was involved in what has been described as a “physical altercation” with fellow female students. According to The New York Times, the incident took place in a girl’s bathroom at Owasso High School.
The Times reported that Benedict’s grandmother “said that after the altercation at the school, she was told that Nex had been suspended for two weeks.”
“After coming home from the initial visit to the hospital, she said, Nex complained of a sore head,” the Times continued. “The next day, Nex collapsed at home and was rushed to the hospital, [the grandmother] said.”
However, the available facts surrounding Benedict’s death do not seem to match up with the activists’ claims.
KOTV reported Wednesday that “Owasso Police say their investigation revealed the death of 16-year-old Nex Benedict was not related to their [sic] injuries after the physical altercation at the school.”
That day, the police force stated that according to “[p]reliminary information from the medical examiner’s office,” a “complete autopsy was performed and indicated that [Benedict] did not die as a result of trauma” from the fight.
“At this time, any further comments on the cause of death are currently pending until toxicology results and other ancillary testing results are received,” the police statement continued. “The official autopsy report will be available at a later date.”
KOTV is an Oklahoma-based affiliate of CBS. The station noted at the time that the investigation into Benedict’s death was still ongoing.
>> HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS WALK OUT AFTER SCHOOLS LET BOYS USE GIRLS’ BATHROOMS <<
Owasso Public Schools issued a statement Tuesday addressing the “speculation and misinformation surrounding the case” which the district noted “has intensified in recent days.”
“Students were in the restroom for less than two (2) minutes and the physical altercation was broken up by other students who were present in the restroom at the time, along with a staff member who was supervising outside of the restroom,” the school district indicated.
“Once the altercation was broken up, all students involved in the altercation walked under their own power to the assistant principal’s office and nurse’s office,” it continued.
Author and gender ideology critic Chad Felix Greene took to X (formerly Twitter) writing, “The positioning of this incident as a direct result of ‘anti-LGBTQ’ policies, including bathroom policies, is purely political.”
Greene indicated that since the student was “nonbinary or gender fluid,” policies keeping boys out of girls’ bathrooms “would not apply here.”
“The mom said she was bullied, no details,” he added.
The popular X account Libs of Tik Tok appeared to agree with Greene’s assertion that the activists were primarily driven by politics, and not genuine sympathy for the deceased.
“Trans activists are LOSING THEIR MINDS because police determined the Oklahoma teen didn’t die as a result of trauma from the school fight,” posted the account:
Shouldn’t they be relieved that kids aren’t being beaten to de*th at school like they previously thought?
I’m starting to think this all just political for them…
