Inside InterCommunity: March 2024

It saddens me to have to say the name of a victim of brutal violence during March. Transgender Day of Visibility is observed on March 31 of each year. It is meant to be a day of joy and celebration of transgender and gender nonconforming individuals, who honor their lives and recognize their love of life and joy in being authentically themselves.

Nex Benedict was a 16-year-old of Choctaw Nation ancestry living in Owasso, Oklahoma. Nex identified as two-spirit and non-binary. On February 7, 2024, Nex was violently beaten up in the school restroom. The three students who attacked Nex slammed their head on the floor until Nex lost consciousness. There are disputed reports about how school officials handled the situation; however, no notification was made to the school nurse or principal and no mandatory report was filed. Police were notified later that night by Nex’s grandmother. Nex was rushed to the hospital the following day, where they were pronounced dead. Several news outlets have reported that Nex’s death was ruled a suicide, though results from an independent autopsy have not been issued.

Transphobia and violence against transgender and non-binary individuals have been on the rise in the United States and the world in general. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) released its annual crime report for 2022 showing that anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes were up sharply from the prior year with a 13.8% increase in reports based on sexual orientation and a shocking 32.9% jump in reported crimes based on gender identity. Statistics show that 66% of all deaths due to violence within the transgender and gender-nonconforming community are of Black transwomen or transfeminine individuals.