Suicide of Oklahoma Teen Blamed on Opposition to Transgender Agenda

With the decision this past week of the Tulsa, Oklahoma, district attorney not to file charges against anyone involved in a fight in a high school restroom in February — which happened the day before Oklahoma high school sophomore Nex Benedict, a self-described “nonbinary” individual, committed suicide — one would think that this would close the book on the sad episode.

Unfortunately, as we trace the baseless accusations against the Oklahoma Legislature and State Schools Superintendent Ryan Walters leveled by transgender activists, we can expect a continuation of the distortions that have marked the story from the beginning.

Tulsa County’s district attorney, Steve Kunzweiler, issued a statement on Thursday after reviewing the investigation conducted by detectives with the Owasso Police Department. (Owasso is a suburb of Tulsa, where Nex Benedict was a student at Owasso High School). He confirmed the opinion of the detectives that the fight between Benedict and the three other students was an “instance of mutual combat.” He added, “When I review a report and make a decision to file a charge I must be convinced — as is every prosecutor — that a crime was committed and that I have a reasonable belief that a judge or jury would be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime was committed. From all the evidence gathered, this fight was an instance of mutual combat.”

But in the immediate aftermath of the teen’s death on February 8, the narrative pushed by both transgender activists and their willing accomplices in the media was that Nex was assaulted in the restroom by three girls because of her assertion that she was “nonbinary,” that she did not identify as either male or female. (Biologically, she was a female, although she used pronouns like “they” and “them” to describe herself.)

The other girls involved in the restroom altercation have made no public statement, but Benedict made a videotaped statement to police soon after the incident that has been made public. In that statement, she said the three other girls (who are ninth-graders) were picking on her and some of her friends in the restroom, making fun of the way they laughed. (Notice that, even by Benedict’s own statement, the three ninth-graders did not say anything about her claims to be “nonbinary.” It is not known whether her friends also claimed “nonbinary” status.)

Nex retaliated to the verbal teasing by throwing water on them, and the three ninth-graders then attacked her physically. According to Benedict’s statement to the police officer, she fought back, even throwing one of the girls into a paper towel dispenser. Other students in the restroom, not involved in the fight, joined with teachers who entered the restroom in breaking up the fight.

All the girls were then taken to the principal’s office, where they were checked out for injuries. Nex later went to the hospital, where she gave a statement to the police. Her grandmother — who raised her — wanted to file charges, but the officer responded that since Nex had initiated the physical part of the confrontation by throwing water on the other girls, the court would likely view it as a mutual fight.

When Nex died the next day, the media essentially said that she was assaulted in a restroom and received a head injury, leaving the impression that she died from an unprovoked physical assault from three girls bullying her over her “nonbinary” status. In fact, many in the transgender community even blamed the Oklahoma Legislature (which has enacted a law that students must use the restroom that corresponds to their actual sex) and other officials for the assault — claiming that the girls were motivated by anti-transgender rhetoric from those officials.

Specifically targeted was State Schools Superintendent Ryan Walters, who has been a vocal opponent of the LGBTQ+ agenda being pushed in many of Oklahoma’s public schools. Mike Howe, a former Tulsa school principal, verbally attacked Walters at a state school board meeting, following Benedict’s death. “These children who attacked Nex had to be taught to hate.”

First of all, the three girls involved in the altercation have been unfairly ascribed motives (such as “hate” toward a “nonbinary” person) that are unproven. Secondly, kids have been teasing other kids as long as there have been schools — and even before. They make fun of other kids for the way they laugh — as in this case — or the way they dress, or wear their hair. They tease other kids because they have crooked teeth, and then when they get braces, they tease them for having braces. They tease kids for being too short or too tall, too skinny or too fat, for having a big nose or big ears, and many other things. Christian kids often get bullied for being Christians.

Sometimes bullying becomes more serious, especially with the rise of social media. Sometimes kids get physically bullied.

In other words, while bullying is wrong, it is almost as common as the sun coming up in the east. It is not surprising that a student claiming to be neither male nor female might be made fun of. But it should be stressed that there is no evidence that this was the case with these three girls. They might not have even known that Nex claimed to be neither male nor female.

Bullying is wrong, but it is also wrong to make such unsupported accusations that the three girls were bullying Nex because of her claims of being “nonbinary.”

And the charge that the three girls were somehow “inspired” by Superintendent Walters’ anti-LGBTQ+ “rhetoric” is absurd. It is unlikely they had any knowledge of anything Walters had said on the subject, or even who he was. Oklahoma elects, by popular vote, several statewide officials, such as the labor commissioner, the insurance commissioner, the state treasurer, and the state superintendent of public instruction. If any of these three girls even knew who Walters was, they would be unusual ninth-graders, to say the least. Few adults could name many of these officials — or even be able to list the multitude of statewide elected offices.

Then the state medical examiner’s office announced that Benedict did not die of any trauma. A few days later, it was reported that Nex had left a suicide note and that she had died of an overdose of drugs, including antidepressants. She had previously been diagnosed with schizophrenia, which causes individuals suffering from it to hallucinate and have delusions. It has been common for such individuals to come to believe that they are a great historical figure, such as Napoleon or Jesus.

Many years ago, Vicki Lawrence played a new mother in a comedy skit on the popular Carol Burnett Show. When she was asked if she had a boy or a girl, Lawrence responded that it was now 1970, and the child can make that decision when it is 21.

Sadly, what was comedy in 1970 has become reality in 2024, only worse. Now, instead of treating a child needing mental health care, and waiting until the child actually reaches adulthood to make life-changing decisions, the child’s delusions are encouraged, even celebrated.

Rather than publicly admitting they were wrong in their initial accusations — making three ninth-grade girls out to be killers inspired by state politicians — these LGBTQ+ ideologues have continued their baseless charges.