The Death of Trans Teen Nex Benedict vs the Libs of TikTok Oklahoma Culture

Nex Benedict, a 16-year-old non-binary student from Oklahoma, tragically died on February 8, 2024, after three girls beat him up in a restroom on Campus. .Nex had been experiencing bullying for over a year due to their gender identity. This alleged bullying reportedly began soon after a law was passed in Oklahoma requiring students to use bathrooms corresponding to their birth certificates and an anti-trans culture emerging in Oklahoma thanks to the involvement of Libs of TikTok in the school system there.

Today we talk about what it is like to be an LGBTQ youth in the state of Oklahoma, and the effects of the death of Nex Benedict. We will be talking to Travis, a youth in the school system, with Scotty Hernandez, the president of PFLAG Oklahoma, and LGBTQ youth advocate, Lance Preston, founder and executive director of Rainbow Youth Project USA, and with Kris Williams, a queer youth advocate working through the Diversity Center of Oklahoma in Oklahoma City.. 

Scotty is also a real estate agent who serves as the Oklahoma president of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals. He ran unsuccessfully for a school board seat in the OKCPS District 4.  Lance, one of our heroes and good friend of the show, founded Rainbow Youth Project as a social welfare organization in response to recent legislation targeting the rights of LGBTQIA+ people, women, Indigenous people, and immigrants in the United States. Kris has  two decades of successful experience in developing queer youth programming; from social support, homeless services, mental health support, and inpatient residential programming. Kris specializes in 2SLGBTQ+ cultural competency trainings and was recently a guest speaker with the Trevor Project at the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention's national conference.

With co-host Brody Levesque