LGBTQ teen Nex Benedict died by suicide, medical examiner says
An autopsy report released by the Oklahoma’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined that Nex Benedict, a member of the 2SLGBTQ community, died by suicide.
Very sad situation.
Poor kid.
What happened with the bullies that started the fight? Are they being punished for pushing a kid to kill themselves?
Apparently Nex started the fight by pouring water on them. Hard to believe that someone might lash out that way if there wasn't a history of bullying though.
There have been cases prosecuted:
Not exactly harsh sentences:
In May 2011, the case was resolved, after agreements to plead guilty to lesser charges. Five of the defendants were placed on probation, with several also sentenced to community service. The charges against a male student were dropped at the request of the Prince family.
The kids basically got away with murder.
If by punished you mean there local church is giving them an award of being a defender of Christ
Not that I don't have absolute, unshakeable, limitless faith in law enforcement and local school boards, but I genuinely hope Nex's family gets a second autopsy outside Oklahoma. Not least because their initial symptoms seemed to have a lot in common with head injury.
No, it won't bring Nex back. But if they did this, then establish that fact via disinterested parties. The local government and law enforcement are anything but neutral parties here.
If Nex's family is willing, I genuinely hope they are considering getting a second opinion: in many ways, this outcome lets the bullies off the hook . . . and not just the ones in the bathroom.
I don't need to know the details, but I would like to see this conclusion confirmed by another forensic medical examiner elsewhere, and I don't think I'm the only one.
Let's say the coroner isn't full of shit, which I'm not convinced of- what was the cause of the suicide?
Because I'm guessing it had something to do with him (he preferred he/him) having the shit beaten out of him by a bunch of bigots.
I always say Turing was killed by the UK authorities, because he was forced to take medication to chemically castrate himself, because it was illegal to be gay. That changed his personality and drove him to suicide. But IMO it was clearly murder by the state.
When an LGBT person is driven to suicide, it is more often than not murder by the society and people surrounding that person. If in doubt, just look at the statistics, transgender people have way way higher suicide rate than any other demographic. That's obviously not caused by normal untreated depression, it's caused by persecution and lack of acceptance that make life a lot harder for them.
You are absolutely right. We really do need to stop treating suicide universally as cowardice or mental illness. Sometimes people kill themselves because it's the only way out of a cruel world. We need to look at how society allows such cruelty.
This young person was killed by the students that beat them and the school administrators who enforced sexist and trasphobic policies against them. They may not have committed the fatal act, but absent their cruelty, Nex would still be alive today.
We see suicide weaponized by transphobes quite openly from groups like Kiwifarms. We shouldn't play dumb about it, intense enough bullying should be viewed as intent to kill. In a just world, making a person miserable through harassment and assault, leading to their suicide, would land somewhere between manslaughter and murder.
Michelle Carter got convicted of manslaughter for convincing her boyfriend to kill himself. We need to expand that precident.
What makes you think they preferred he/him pronouns? I've seen most sources state they used they/them. Did you know them personally or what are your sources?
During the vigil in Owasso, some participants used masculine pronouns when referring to Benedict, and some friends later told NBC News that Benedict used he/him pronouns primarily and also used they/them pronouns.[57][58] At the Owasso vigil, one participating friend said, "I want to start off by saying that Nex was transgender, and he used he/him pronouns" and "He was so much more than his transness."[58]
What a world we live in where children are dying because people can’t manage to learn some pronouns.
I think it has more to do with trying to dictate the language people use.
If someone doesn't think men can be women and vice-versa, it's kind of patronizing and childish to get upset over it.
Just let them be who they want and find people who accept you for who you are. Trying to change them is an effort in futility.
You have freedom of speech, don't worry. You can walk into work today and tell your boss to go fuck himself. It's completely legal, nobody can stop you. Your boss will definitely fire you on the spot though, and if you show back up on Monday they'll call the police on you for trespassing. That's also completely legal.
Just because it's legal to say something doesn't mean you can say whatever you want to whoever you want without consequences. If you want to routinely insult people to their faces, you are allowed to, but don't expect to have many friends or be welcome many places. If there's a code of conduct, and you willfully violate it, expect to get kicked out of plenty of things.
And if you decide to motivate people to kill themselves, expect serious consequences.
Also, beating someone up is assault, not free speech, this is me humoring you here.
Men can be women and vice-versa
This part says a lot about how knowledgeable a person is on being transgender.
A person is born trans or cis, it's not a choice.
A person can differ from their assigned gender biologically, genetically, mentally, socially, etc. But regardless of HOW they are not cis, it IS fundamentally a part of who they are. A trans woman is not a man and has never been a man. They can change how they present themselves to be more feminine or more masculine, but not their gender. That's determined in the womb.
I can provide sources or more information, but I'm not going to type a huge, well informed comment if it falls on deaf ears. So please let me know if you want more information and I'd be happy to provide it.
And who caused that suicide? The bullies who beat Nex half to death.
I don't know why the media won't tell us the religion of the bullies.
Might call the principal there again and ask.
Press X for doubt.
"2SLGBTQ+ people"
I'm a little behind on my diversity acronyms. What is this?
