I Had Life-Changing Surgery The Same Week A Nonbinary Teen Died. It Made Me Face A Sinister Truth.

In February 2024, I had top surgery — a form of gender-affirming care that was recently labeled “mutilation” by the president of the United States in one of the many heinous executive orders he issued since his inauguration. Walters has argued publicly that nonbinary and transgender people do not exist, adding to recent arguments made by other conservatives who have coined and weaponized the made-up term “transgenderism,” labeling it an ideology of “wokeness.” A teacher at Owasso High School whom Nex admired — whom Nex probably felt comfortable being themself with — was forced to resign in 2022 after Chaya Raichik, the online personality behind Libs of TikTok, the far-right social media account, criticized him publicly. It’s clear Nex’s school district does not care about the comfort of queer and trans kids, nor does it care if students are made to feel “othered.” Owasso trans students have cited strict bathroom laws and anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric as the impetus for constant bullying, which will only become more dangerous with Trump’s recent executive order targeting educators who support their LGBTQ+ students. It’s hard to trust a corrupt system hellbent on making queer and trans kids’ lives a living hell, but even if that statement was true, perhaps what they should have said was “the decedent did not die as a result of head trauma.” Because for too many queer and trans kids in Oklahoma, to attend school is trauma. Courtesy of Jackie Domenus For some, Nex Benedict’s death was just another tragedy, just another “that’s a shame” on a long list of atrocities America has become numb to.