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On Feb. 8, Nex Benedict, a 16-year-old attending Owasso High School in Oklahoma, died following an attack at the hands of their peers.
On March 13, the world learned that their cause of death was suicide.
Unfortunately, this crime, and Nex’s resulting death — as horrific, heartbreaking, and enraging as it is — did not come as a surprise for millions of LGBTQIA+ individuals.
That’s because Nex was nonbinary, and they lived in one of 11 states (including Florida) with legislation regulating bathroom access based on an individual’s sex at birth. Laws that specifically target the safety, and very existence, of transgender, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming individuals.
Nex began experiencing torment from their classmates just a few short months after the implementation of Oklahoma’s bathroom ban, a law that was falsely presented as an effort to ensure student safety. Less than two years after this law went into effect, Nex was attacked at their school for the crime of using the wrong bathroom and committed suicide the following day.
To clarify for anyone who may misunderstand — a child is dead as a result of government-sanctioned bigotry.
Just last fall, the FBI released a report highlighting a startling figure. Between 2021 and 2022, reported hate crimes against LGBTQIA+ individuals had increased by double digits, and those based on gender identity had skyrocketed by over 30%.
While state legislators, both in Florida and across the country, have clutched their pearls and hurled insults and threats against the LGBTQIA+ community — while they claim to be passing bills in the interest of protecting children — they are simultaneously covering their ears and closing their eyes when presented with the reality that they, and their policies, are the very danger they so thoroughly condemn.
I spent over 30 years as a nurse. I cared for patients at the peak of the AIDS epidemic, and I helped to start the first hospice program in Key West caring for those affected by HIV and AIDS. Please believe me when I say that these attacks against members of the LGBTQIA+ community are not new, and the hatred they spring from consistently leads to pain and death. Deaths like those of Matthew Shepard, Dime Doe, the 49 victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting and now Nex Benedict.
Unfortunately, rather than admit to the harm they are causing, Florida lawmakers are doubling down on the attacks against our friends, neighbors and loved ones. They have banned gender-affirming hormone therapy for minors, and drastically limited availability for adults, despite the fact that it has been shown, time and time again, to improve mental health outcomes and reduce suicidality for those who can access it. Not satisfied there, during this legislative session our lawmakers attempted to pass the Transgender Erasure Bill (HB 1639) which, among other changes, would have mandated that insurance companies cover the widely debunked, fraudulent, and dangerous practice of conversion therapy. Regardless of the harm it causes.
Unfortunately, one piece that made it through from that failed legislation is the requirement that drivers licenses may only depict an individual’s sex at birth, rather than the gender they identify as. Laws like these serve no purpose except to cast another blow against the rights, dignity, privacy, and safety of transgender, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming Floridians. They create even more barriers to accessing care, and further rob millions of individuals of the freedom to control their own bodies and lead the lives they choose for themselves.
Rather than address the real issues facing Floridians, our legislators spent this session waging a war against pronouns and drag performances and, when confronted with the contradictions and irrationality of their own laws, they default to casting insults, threats and accusations toward those who dare to question.
I would like to say that Nex’s death will be a wake-up call. That it will result in changed attitudes, and recognition that hateful rhetoric almost always leads to devastating results. But I find myself asking, “Why would this be any different than the rest?”
Nex Benedict was not the first to face attacks based on their identity, nor are they the first to turn to self-harm as a response to that pain. And tragically, they will not be the last. But lawmakers like those who sponsored and voted for HB 1639 don’t seem concerned.
What happened in Oklahoma can happen here. I don’t just say that because of the stark similarities between the laws our two states have passed, the fact that the rate of hate crimes has been climbing, or even because senseless violence could happen anywhere.
I say that because, thanks in part to the actions of legislators, it is already happening everywhere.
Barbara A. Zdravecky is a LWVMC member and community activist who served as Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida’s CEO for 24 years and currently serves as interim CEO for the organization.
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