Thank you to Ten Bears for the link. This is what the entire Israeli genocide has been about. The removing of any Palestinian people so they can have the land. If you read the article notice how the Jewish assholes say that Palestinians can come back and live there also, as complete subjective servants with no rights to do as the settlers order them to do. This has always been what this entire thing has been about. Hugs. Scottie
Israeli settlers and right-wing activists seen building an ‘outpost’ inside Erez Crossing, February 29, 2024, photo: Oren Ziv
Over 100 Israelis stormed Erez Crossing at the northern tip of Gaza yesterday afternoon in the most significant attempt to re-establish Jewish settlements in the Strip since the war began. A small number managed to cross several hundred meters into Gaza before being intercepted by Israeli soldiers, while around 20 others entered the area between the two walls comprising the barrier that encages the Strip. There, they established an “outpost” in the style seen commonly in the West Bank, building for several hours without the army or police interfering.
From the first moments of the war, it was clear that right-wing Israeli politicians and settler leaders sensed an opportunity to radically shift the status quo in Israel-Palestine. For months, calls to resettle Gaza — often in the same breath as calling to expel the Strip’s 2.3 million Palestinian residents — have been getting louder, not least at a major conference in Jerusalem in January at which senior officials laid out their plans. In parallel, right-wing activists — mostly youth — have been coming regularly to the Gaza fence to demonstrate against the entry of humanitarian aid into the Strip. Yesterday’s action, however, marked a new peak in their activities.
At around 2 p.m., activists began gathering at a train station in the southern Israeli city of Sderot, close to Gaza. At that initial meeting point — for what was ostensibly a “protest” honoring Harel Sharvit, a settler who was killed while serving in Gaza — the mood was calm, even sleepy. A police car drove past, unmoved by the scene. From there, the activists drove in private cars toward the Erez Checkpoint, the only civilian crossing point between Israel and the Gaza Strip, which has been defined by the Israeli army as a “closed military zone” since it was briefly taken over by Palestinians amid the Hamas-led October 7 attacks on southern Israel.
As they approached the checkpoint, the activists got out of their cars and began marching. At this point, they were met by another convoy of vehicles full of “hilltop youth” — young, violent settlers who regularly establish new outposts across the West Bank and attack Palestinians to force them off their land. At least two of them were armed with rifles of the kind used by the military, and they brought construction materials to build an outpost.
At a certain point, some of them started running toward the checkpoint and managed to cross it unhindered, with the few soldiers present unable to stop them. In the space between the two walls enclosing the Strip about 20 of them began erecting two structures using the materials they had brought: wooden planks and poles, and iron sheets for the roofs. Meanwhile, a handful of settler youth ran further inside Gaza, again unhindered by soldiers.
Israeli settlers and right-wing activists rush through Erez Crossing, February 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv)
Israeli settlers and right-wing activists rush through Erez Crossing, February 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv)
On the soldiers’ radios, the message came through that a number of people had crossed into Gaza, and military jeeps and even two tanks were sent to look for them. About half an hour later, a military jeep brought the youth back to the Israeli side of the crossing, without arresting them. They exited the jeep to applause from the other activists, joining the bigger group as they chanted, “It’s ours.”
For several hours, those who had crossed into the space between the two walls continued building the outpost — which they named New Nisanit, after one of the settlements in Gaza that was evacuated as part of the 2005 “disengagement” — without interference. As in the West Bank, the soldiers stood nearby and provided protection, rather than trying to stop them.
‘This is our country’
Amiel Pozen and David Remer, both 18, were two of the settlers who managed to cross around 500 meters into Gaza. After being picked up and dropped back at the checkpoint by the Israeli army, the pair spoke to +972.
“There was no fear of being inside [Gaza], the Holy One is with us and the IDF is here helping us,” Remer said. “We came here [because] we wanted to go home. I live in a community of deportees from Gush Katif [the Jewish settlement bloc inside Gaza that was evacuated in 2005], and we wanted to go back. After everything that happened, there’s no doubt that we have to go back.
“The feeling is very good, like coming home,” Remer continued. “It is ours. The Holy One, blessed be He, said it is ours. If we will not be there, we know what will be there.”
Israeli settlers and right-wing activists cross through a hole in the fence near Erez Crossing, February 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv)
Israeli settlers and right-wing activists cross through a hole in the fence near Erez Crossing, February 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv)
Pozen added: “We have come to represent the entire public, the Jewish people. We want to return to the whole Land of Israel, to all parts of our Holy Land. There are no ‘two states for two peoples’ — that’s not right. The people of Israel belong to the Land of Israel.”
Regarding the possibility of persuading the government to support resettling Gaza, Pozen said: “I would like the government to understand [what] the majority of the people already understood: We are here. It is ours. There is no political or international obstacle. We don’t need to consider anyone else. It is an internal matter. We need to go to Gaza, destroy all the terror there, and build there ourselves.”
Another of the settlers intercepted by the army after crossing further into Gaza showed his friends a photo he took on his phone of a strawberry plant in a Palestinian field, saying: “Look how beautiful the country is.”
Over the course of the evening, settler youth continued to bypass the army and run to the outpost. Many of them did so by crawling through a hole in the fence that was likely created during the events of October 7, until soldiers brought a bulldozer to close it with dirt.
Many of the youth were from the same organizations that have spent the past several weeks attempting — often successfully — to block humanitarian aid from entering Gaza. In their eyes, there is a connection between withholding aid to Palestinians and re-establishing Jewish settlements in Gaza: both are seen as a means toward achieving a decisive “victory.”
Israeli settlers and right-wing activists transport construction materials to the Erez Crossing area, February 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv)
Israeli settlers and right-wing activists transport construction materials to the Erez Crossing area, February 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv)
Mechi Fendel, a right-wing activist from Sderot, told 972: “We came here to declare that the day after this war is over, we must settle, we must spread Jewish towns all over the Gaza Strip. Because without that, it’s going to become a hornet’s nest. You can’t leave a vacuum. There’s no reason why we want that to happen again. I live one kilometer away from the Gaza Strip. I can’t have terrorists as neighbors — and they showed their true colors on October 7.”
Regarding the construction of the outpost near the fence, she explained: ”It’s a symbolic act, showing that we built two houses. They came in with these big pieces of wood and they actually built two structures here in the Gaza Strip. Of course it’s symbolic because they’re not going to stay here tonight. But the point is this is where we have to be. This is our country. We cannot let a full strip of land be unsettled.”
And what would happen to the Palestinians in Gaza if Jewish settlements were to be established? “If they’re willing to take Israeli jurisdiction, if they’re willing to have us come in and control their education system and help them financially, then let them stay if they’re peaceful,” Fendel said. “I so far haven’t found a Palestinian that’s peaceful. As I described, Palestinian workers [who worked inside Israel] for tens of years became terrorists in a second.
“I think that the government, when it sees that we are behind them, that the people want this, the government will be for it,” she continued. “Because the government also doesn’t want a hornet’s nest of terrorists cropping up. I think that if we have the people and the willingness and we show that we’re there, we’re brave, and we want to do it, the government will help us.”
‘First the soldiers stormed in, now the settlers’
The dynamics were reminiscent of typical scenes in the West Bank, with settlers being given freedom of action while the soldiers stood idly by — despite being inside a closed military zone and some of them even entering a combat zone. Some of the soldiers could be seen hugging the activists. One soldier told +972 that the soldiers support the activists and that the problem is “the media that wants action, to film soldiers beating Jews.”
Israeli settlers and right-wing activists transport construction materials to the Erez Crossing area, February 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv)
Israeli settlers and right-wing activists transport construction materials to the Erez Crossing area, February 29, 2024. (Oren Ziv)
Even though soldiers have the authority to detain Israeli citizens — and have detained journalists and other civilians who approached the fence in recent months — they invariably avoid detaining settlers who break the law in the West Bank, and this was the case yesterday too. One of the activists, who told +972 that he was an off-duty soldier and wore his military weapon over civilian clothes, said he left the area early because soldiers warned him they would “kick [him] out of the army.”
The soldiers spoke calmly with the activists, including the well-known Kahanist Baruch Marzel who arrived at a later stage. “It’s like the soldiers who stormed [into Gaza] — now they [the settler youth] are storming,” Marzel said to one of the soldiers.
Later on, when they were leaving, Marzel told +972 that the action reminded him of the “first settlement in Sebastia” — a village near Nablus in the West Bank where, some 50 years ago, a group of settlers from the Gush Emunim movement attempted to establish a Jewish settlement and defied the government’s attempts to evict them until it relented. He added that the main issue for him is not settling Gaza but deporting the Palestinians to “all the countries that support them.”
A security official present at the scene expressed to +972 his displeasure that the activists had been able to cross the checkpoint with such ease. “If they managed to enter Gaza, that means [Palestinians] can also enter in the opposite direction,” he said.
Police officers who arrived at the scene acted with the same indifference as the soldiers. They seemed to be in no hurry to intervene, and initially arrested only one protester. After sunset, around 7 p.m., some of the activists began to leave, and the rest were subsequently dispersed by police. A total of nine people were arrested and taken to a police station last night.
In response to an inquiry from +972 last night, a police spokesperson stated: “Israel Police forces were called in the afternoon to near the Erez Crossing, after protesters arrived and a handful of them crossed the fence into the Gaza Strip in violation of a general’s order. In light of the real danger to the protesters’ lives, the police forces were forced to operate within the territory of the Gaza Strip, where some of the protesters confronted them and refused to leave, which left the police no choice but to arrest nine of them for the offenses of violating a general’s order and failing [to obey] a police officer.
“The protesters were brought to the police station for questioning, at the end of which it will be decided which of them will be brought before the Court of Appeal tomorrow for a discussion of his case.” Police did not respond to another request for information today about whether those arrested were charged, but it seems they were released last night.
Oren Ziv is a photojournalist, reporter for Local Call, and a founding member of the Activestills photography collective.
About 972 Magazine: Our team has been devastated by the horrific events of this latest war. The world is reeling from Israel’s unprecedented onslaught on Gaza, inflicting mass devastation and death upon besieged Palestinians, as well as the atrocious attack and kidnappings by Hamas in Israel on October 7. Our hearts are with all the people and communities facing this violence.
We are in an extraordinarily dangerous era in Israel-Palestine. The bloodshed has reached extreme levels of brutality and threatens to engulf the entire region. Emboldened settlers in the West Bank, backed by the army, are seizing the opportunity to intensify their attacks on Palestinians. The most far-right government in Israel’s history is ramping up its policing of dissent, using the cover of war to silence Palestinian citizens and left-wing Jews who object to its policies.
This escalation has a very clear context, one that +972 has spent the past 14 years covering: Israeli society’s growing racism and militarism, entrenched occupation and apartheid, and a normalized siege on Gaza.
We are well positioned to cover this perilous moment – but we need your help to do it. This terrible period will challenge the humanity of all of those working for a better future in this land. Palestinians and Israelis are already organizing and strategizing to put up the fight of their lives.
Can we count on your support ? +972 Magazine is a leading media voice of this movement, a desperately needed platform where Palestinian and Israeli journalists, activists, and thinkers can report on and analyze what is happening, guided by humanism, equality, and justice. Join us.
Flat out, I love this show. The show runs Monday to Friday, with Emma running the show on Thursdays, which is Sam’s day off. The show is about three hours long, divided into two parts. The free half is mostly news and interviews, and the fun half is with calls and IMs. Now don’t panic, if you are poor like me you can still see the entire show. There are two ways. First if you can not afford it they give free memberships if you need one. Or do what I do. The way I do it can be a pain in the butt, but it works. Wait until the show starts on YouTube. Open the live broadcast, then in the description box they include the link to the fun half. Click that and it switches to the entire show. Now as long as you don’t close the browser you have the link to the entire show for free. You don’t have to watch it all then, like any YouTube video or live stream, you can pause it and go do things, often I will start watching it and finish in the morning, leaving the computer tab open all night. Anyway, here are the clips. I especially like the ones that showed how clearly Israel was lying and got caught, and how the republicans had to admit that they did not have anything on Biden. Plus the one of right wing media correcting tRump’s claims of winning the election was fun to watch. Hugs. Scottie
Now we move to the horrible lies Israel has told. Hugs. Scottie
I recently posted about this interview. It shows that Raichik is incredibly stupid, uninformed, and loves the attention she is getting. She feels important right now, something it is clear she did not have before. She is a troll, feeling good only when tearing others down, she is not interested in educating her self or becoming a better person. She may have been a kid ignored in school or been the bully to fit in with the group of lowlifes, but she clearly is unfit to be on any library or school book banning boards. Also clear from the interview she is a white supremacist. Yes she thinks whites have a better culture than others do. She doesn’t seem to value anything but her fundamentalist world view and her white privilege. She clings to lies because she doesn’t want to believe or take the effort to learn the truth. Hugs. Scottie
Libs Of TikTok creator Chaya Raichik is livid after this weekend’s Washington Post interview revealed her to be an admitted and unrepentant liar who revels in accusations of having incited terrorism, which Raichik says makes her feel “important.”
Today she writes this about the reporter:
Just to summarize my interview with Taylor Lorenz:
– she’s not at all concerned about our open border and millions of people invading our country – she’s pro mutilation and castration of minors – she wants p*rn in schools – she wants the media to be allowed to defame me with impunity – she wants me to be responsible for all reactions, comments, and actions that happen after I post a tiktok but doesn’t want to take responsibility for what happens after her reporting on me – she’s a lizard person – she’s scared of people knowing her age – she’s still wearing a mask outdoors in 2024
Lorenz has said she is immuno-compromised. Of note, “lizard person” is a common QAnon claim about people they accuse of pedophilia. Many of them actually believe in literal so-called “reptilians.”
Just to summarize my interview with Taylor Lorenz:
– she’s not at all concerned about our open border and millions of people invading our country – she’s pro mutilation and castration of minors – she wants p*rn in schools – she wants the media to be allowed to defame me with…
I think the most charitable thing you can say about Chaya Raichik is that she’s not very bright and is just a stupid person who managed to become famous for also being a psychopath.
I ask myself who is worse, her, or her supporters. But, I think as rotten and disgusting as that piece of trash is, it’s her supporters that are worse, because they are so low they take their cues from someone like her. Without them, she’d be nothing, or in a mental-care home.
Person who sics terrorists against LGBT and other innocent folks around the country with one post is upset that she didn’t come out looking so good in the newspaper? Oh how sad for her. She’s lucky our side doesn’t do stochastic terrorism.
The goal here is to keep pushing the idea that there is no one born with a gender identity different from what the doctor might see when he holds you up after birth. No one, just as no one is born gay or lesbian. It is a lifestyle choice of course, kids rebelling after being groomed / recruited by those other horrible people that chose that lifestyle. That means keeping reinforcing it is child abuse to let your kids socially transition. It is child abuse to let boys grow long hair, to let girls cut their hair. It is child abuse to let a boy where a dress or skirt. The horror of it all. You know what might fix it, make those trans boys kids marry an older straight man when they first display the idea of being a boy. 8 maybe, 10, definitely by 12. Get them pregnant will show them they are not a boy.
If you are someone that believes any of the above you are wrong, you are a bigot, you are drastically misinformed / uninformed. You are holding on to ideas that were debunked decades ago. This is about reinforcing Christian church doctrines / ideas into laws, schools, and forcing everyone to live by them. This is about errasing the LGBTQIA from society and vilifying them by making them the horrible boogieman that kids should be terrified of. Remember the 1950s school films telling boys to beware the homosexual who was always out to snatch them, take them somewhere, then raping them making them homosexuals also, a future danger to other boys. Boys Beware: This 1955 educational film warns against “the dangers of homosexuality,” which is described as “a sickness of the mind.” The ten minute video was produced by the Unified School District and the Police Department of Inglewood, California. That is the world these people love, that they think is real and wants to force the country to return to. Often they cloak it in god says, but it really is about their own comfort, their own feelings, their own hates and bigotry. Hugs. Scottie
There is a video I tried every way I can think of to embed in the post. It won’t show up so I am going to take it out and just put up the link there in its spot. Hugs. Scottie
Gov. Greg Abbott said those who fail to report instances of minors receiving gender-affirming medical care could face “criminal penalties.”
Texas Governor Greg Abbott speaks during a press conference in the Permian Basin, in Midland, Texas, on Feb. 1, 2022.Eli Hartman / Odessa American via AP file
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is calling on “licensed professionals” and “members of the general public” to report the parents of transgender minors to state authorities if it appears the minors are receiving gender-affirming medical care.
The directive was part of a letter Abbott, a Republican, sent Tuesday to the Department of Family and Protective Services, calling on it to “conduct a prompt and thorough investigation” of any reported instances of minors undergoing “elective procedures for gender transitioning.”
Abbott’s letter follows an opinion released Monday by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, which stated that allowing minors to receive transition care such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgery is child abuse under state law.
Paxton issued the opinion after the Legislature failed last year to pass a bill that would have made it a felony alongside physical and sexual abuse to provide such care to minors. An opinion is an interpretation of existing law; it does not change the law itself but can affect how it is enforced.
In Tuesday’s letter, Abbott tasked licensed professionals who work with children — including teachers, nurses and doctors — and “members of the general public” with reporting such claims. He added that state law “provides criminal penalties for failure to report such child abuse.”
Advocates allege that both Paxton’s opinion and Abbott’s letter are politically motivated, noting that they were released just ahead of the March 1 Republican primary and that both men face a crowded field of contenders in their re-election bids.
Adri Pèrez, policy and advocacy strategist for LGBTQ equality at the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas, said Paxton is trying to distract from the problems plaguing his campaign. He is awaiting trial for a 2015 indictment on charges of securities fraud, and he is under investigation by the FBI over allegations of bribery and abuse of office. Paxton’s office did not return a request for comment.
“There’s no court in Texas or the entire country that has ever found that gender-affirming care can constitute child abuse,” Pèrez said.
Brian Klosterboer, a staff attorney at the ACLU of Texas, said in a statement that neither the opinion nor the letter have a legal effect and “cannot change Texas law nor usurp the constitutional rights of Texas families.”
“But they spread fear and misinformation and could spur false reporting of child abuse at a time when DFPS is already facing a crisis in our state’s foster care system,” Klosterboer stated. “The law is clear that parents, guardians, and doctors can provide transgender youth with treatment in accordance with prevailing standards of care. Any parent or guardian who loves and supports their child and is taking them to a licensed health care provider is not engaging in child abuse.”
It’s unclear whether Abbott and Paxton can force the Department of Family and Protective Services and other state agencies to investigate claims of child abuse against the parents of trans kids without passing legislation that changes the law.
At least one county-level official has said he will not enforce Abbott’s directive. Christian Menefee, the elected attorney who represents Department of Family and Protective Services in civil child abuse cases in Harris County, where Houston is, said in a statement that Paxton and Abbott “are ignoring medical professionals and intentionally misrepresenting the law to the detriment of transgender children and their families.”
“My office will not participate in these bad faith political games,” he said. “As the lawyers handling these cases, we owe a duty of candor to the courts about what the law really says. We’ll continue to follow the laws on the books — not General Paxton’s politically motivated and legally incorrect ‘opinion.’”
Over the last year, nearly two dozen states considered legislation that would bar access to some or all gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors. Some states, including Texas, considered bills that would’ve charged parents or doctors who provide transition care with a felony. Only two states — Arkansas and Tennessee — have enacted restrictions on such care for minors, and a federal judge blocked Arkansas’ law from taking effect in July.
“Conservative officials in Texas and other states across the country should stop inserting themselves into health care decisions that create needless tension between pediatricians and their patients,” Karine Jean-Pierre, the deputy principal press secretary for the White House, told the paper. “No parent should face the agony of a politician standing in the way of accessing life-saving care for their child.”
Rachel Levine, assistant secretary for health and the first openly transgender Senate-confirmed federal official, added that the Department of Health and Human Services “stands with transgender youth and their medical providers.”
“Our nation’s leading pediatricians support evidence-based, gender affirming care for transgender young people,” she said.
Supporters of restrictions on gender-affirming care argue that minors cannot consent to care that includes permanent changes to their bodies. Advocates note that all relevant major medical organizations — including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychological Association — say that gender-affirming care is medically necessary for transgender youth and is backed by decades of research.
The Endocrine Society, an international medical organization for the field of endocrinology, which includes the study of hormones, said in a statement Wednesday that Abbott’s directive “rejects evidence-based transgender medical care.”
“Medical evidence, not politics, should inform treatment decisions,” the group said in a statement. “The governor’s directive reflects widespread misinformation about gender-affirming care. When young children experience feelings that their gender identity does not match the sex recorded at birth, the first course of action is to support the child in exploring their gender identity and to provide mental health support, as needed.”
The Endocrine Society added that its clinical practice guideline recommends only reversible treatments for adolescents, such as puberty blockers, after they have entered puberty. Older adolescents “who demonstrate the ability to provide informed consent to partially irreversible treatment and experience persistent gender incongruence” can start hormone therapy. The guideline also recommends delaying surgery until the age of legal majority, which is 18 in most states.
If you do not recognize this it is from a Chick tract called The Last Generation. It was about what our side was supposedly going to do. It is always projection.
They are not going to stop because they know that there is no one to enforce the constitution. There is nothing the federal government can do and they know this and will act accordingly.
“Reports?” I assume /s? But seriously, circumcision is obviously elective surgery an infant can’t consent to. Gender affirming care (seldom surgery) is only done with consent and years of medical consultation.
So, if a 17 year old girl gets a boob job because it makes her feel better about her body, is that considered gender affirming care to Abbott and those like him? I’m betting he couldn’t articulate why that doesn’t count for him… not that he has to try with his base, of course.
In the past 10 years, we have relived a good chunk of the 20th century. We have experienced pre and post WW2. I have a much greater understanding of that time period now.
Thank you to Ten Bears for this very important video. This needs much more air time. Russia is an enemy of our country and a sizable part of the Republican Party is owned by Russia and the leader of that party is actively spouting Russian talking points while promoting Putin. Hugs. Scottie
This trash thinks he is both a Christian and worth to be a legislator. There is no Christian state! The US by the constitution can not have a state / national religion, and children who are not following their strict church doctrines are not filth. A 16 year old was beaten in a bathroom for being different! In the US. And this clown is proud of it. Is that what we want the US to be, to look like? I saw this and I was stunned at the absolute inhumanity of what he is saying. Hugs. Scottie
“We are a religious state and we are going to fight it to keep that filth out of the state of Oklahoma because we are a Christian state — we are a moral state. We want to lower taxes and let people be able to live and work and go to the faith they choose.
“We are a Republican state and I’m going to vote my district, and I’m going to vote my values, and we don’t want that in the state of Oklahoma.” GOP Oklahoma state Sen. Tom Woods, when asked about the death of nonbinary teen student Nex Benedict.
Listen to the applause below.
After a non-binary teen’s death, GOP lawmakers were asked why they obsessed over the lives of LGBTQ people.
State Sen. Tom Woods gave the worst possible answer: he wanted to “keep that filth out of the state of Oklahoma because we are a Christian state.”https://t.co/HrIOkhRVXA
There’s a lot to be disgusted by here, but do not overlook the fact that Christian nationalist language is being used to justify the death of a non-binary student — with absolute authority & confidence. ———
That “filth” was A CHILD !! To use one of their own parlances, “That was one of God’s children” of whose demise this cruel, evil, self-righteous & souless creature glories in.
White Nationalists absolutely believe that. I remember having a step dad who was a licensed Pastor who was one of them. Blacks and Jews were also singled out as Satan’s spawn and therefore hating and even killing them was seen as righteous.
Dehumanizing people makes it easy to be cruel to them.
So my take away here is in your/Oklahoma’s definition of”filth “ is non binary children . The sooner they commit suicide or die off the better Oklahoma will be. It’s so damming Christian of you . You heartless cold bigoted snot . How the fuck can you even look at yourself in a mirror. No I guess you type cast no image
Well, they already passed a law here in Oklahoma to take away the option for non binary people to change their birth certificate and they proposed a bill this legislative session to do the same for the rest of us.
Please understand I read this article, but I can not go back through and colorize it. I have nothing to say I have not screamed already. Please do notice this is being driven by Christian hate and bigotry. The groups pushing this are proud of it, that they are Christians. Are they? Read about Vinny Langworthy, a trans boy followed into bathrooms with people trying to take pictures of him under the bathroom stall doors. Tell me again who are the real sex perverts? I thought Christians leaders were for keeping families together, but here they have broken up families as one parent needs to take a trans child out of state leaving the other parent behind. Sorry people there is a lot in this article, and I have reached over load. I am trying desperately not to cry, I have been up all night not able to sleep and I seriously I just want all the hate to stop. Please, just for a few hours at least. Maybe I will watch more of the Picard series Ron got me, but then … See I had almost cleared two weeks of old tabs tonight, I rushed through others blogs I saved, I answered comments, I was going good. But the last few stories of hate and bigotry have finally broken me. Hugs. Scottie
————————————————————————————————————
Nex Benedict died on February 8, one day after a fight in a Owasso High School bathroom in which they were beaten. (COURTESY OF THE BENEDICT FAMILY)
LGBTQ+ community members in the state are vowing resilience with a message that “we’re not going anywhere” after the 16-year-old nonbinary student’s death.
As news broke this week about the death of 16-year-old nonbinary student Nex Benedict, who died after a fight in a school bathroom, crisis calls to an Oklahoma LGBTQ+ support organization more than quadrupled — with 69 percent of callers referencing Benedict.
As parents, youth and the larger community grapple with the news, Lance Preston, the executive director of the Rainbow Youth Project, said he wants queer youth to know they are well-supported in the state.
“We have an entire army that is standing beside them,” Preston said. “People are not going to ignore them.”
Benedict died on February 8, one day after a fight in a Owasso High School bathroom in which they were beaten. It is unclear if the incident was hate motivated due to Benedict’s gender, but the youth had reported increasing anti-transgender bullying throughout the school year after Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed into law a bill requiring students to use a bathroom that aligned with their sex assigned at birth.
Owasso Public Schools said in a statement that school officials responded appropriately to the fight and have cooperated with the Owasso Police Department’s investigation into Benedict’s death. The district said that all of the students involved walked on their own to the assistant principal’s office and were medically evaluated, per school policy, by a nurse.
“While it was determined that ambulance service was not required, out of an abundance of caution, it was recommended to one parent that their student visit a medical facility for further examination,” the district said in its statement.
Owasso Police said Wednesday that a preliminary autopsy indicates Benedict didn’t die of trauma and that officials are waiting for the results of a toxicology report, which could take months.
The district declined to provide details about the disciplinary measures taken against students involved in the fight due to federal privacy laws. Benedict’s mother told The Independent that Owasso High School officials told her that her child would be suspended for two weeks for the physical altercation. She added that Benedict explained that the fight now linked to their death involved them and a transgender classmate against three girls, all older.
Preston said he has seen a shift in the parents of trans kids.
“It’s kind of been an awakening moment for them,” he said. “Whether they were supportive before, now they’ve kind of gone into that hyper-supportive mode to make sure that they’re doing everything right.”
One mom called Preston on Tuesday crying.
“She had misused a pronoun [with her transgender child] and corrected it immediately but was worried to death that that was going to be enough to harm her child.”
We send our children out into this world every day in fear of something like this happening.
Chelsea Richardson
Chelsea Richardson, whose transgender son Vinny Langworthy survived his own bathroom harassment in high school, made the decision to stay in Oklahoma and provide safe places for kids like her son by opening a bookstore.
Richardson was at her store, getting ready for her grand opening, when the alert about Benedict hit her phone. She felt her heart hit her stomach.
“We send our children out into this world every day in fear of something like this happening,” she said.
Langworthy was out as transgender for his entire time at Harding Charter Preparatory, about two hours southwest of Owasso. He socially and medically transitioned as he got older, and other students started to read him as male. One day, another student took a photo of his feet and legs from under a bathroom stall and posted it to Snapchat, he said. The photo was captioned with an anti-trans slur.
“It was definitely just a hard situation to navigate or always feel like you’re being watched,” Langworthy said.
No longer safe to use student bathrooms, Langworthy used the teachers’ bathrooms, a change that made him late for class or prevented him from using a bathroom at all. He started coming home with urinary tract infections.
Queer kids here are not safe in schools.
Vinny Langworthy
He graduated without a solution. Now 18, he said the news of Benedict and the alleged bullying they faced infuriated him.
“Students should be protected and taken care of no matter their gender identity,” he said. “Queer kids here are not safe in schools.”
Eridian Dempsey of Stand with Trans, which supports transgender youth and their families, said that bullied LGBTQ+ are often disciplined by schools rather than supported by them.
“That happens all the time,” said Dempsey, who is an intern with Stand with Trans, part of the organization’s Youth Advisory Board and its Therapy Assistance Program coordinator. “It’s essentially scapegoating the trans child even though they didn’t necessarily do anything and they were defending themselves if they even fought back. If they didn’t, why are they being blamed in the first place?”
It’s not clear if Benedict and their transgender classmate were in the bathroom together to offer protection to each other, but Dempsey recommends that trans students and their supporters take part in an effort called I’ll Go With You in which allies accompany trans youth into restrooms and other spaces where they may be concerned about their safety.
“They have buttons that people will wear to show that they’re willing to go to the bathroom to help keep trans individuals safe,” Dempsey said.
Although these efforts help, they don’t address why trans youth are targets of bullying and abuse in the first place. Dempsey said that state and local policies contribute to the problem.
“One hundred percent there’s no doubt about it that when the state says we are not OK with trans people living as who they are, then that tells the kids in the schools, ‘If you don’t feel OK with trans people, good for you,’” Dempsey said.
Benedict’s mother learned about the bullying the teen reportedly endured in early 2023, months after the governor signed a bill that mandated students to use only school bathrooms that correspond with their sex assigned at birth.
The bullying Benedict endured reportedly started in early 2023, shortly after Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt signed a bill that mandated students to use only school bathrooms that correspond with their sex assigned at birth. (COURTESY OF THE BENEDICT FAMILY)
Rachel Laser, CEO and president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said in a statement that Stitt and Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters have contributed to the hostile climate against LGBTQ+ youth in the state through their efforts to integrate anti-trans laws and fundamentalist Christianity into public schools.
“Oklahoma approved the nation’s first religious public school, which will discriminate against LGBTQ+ students, and Walters appointed Chaya Raichik of Libs of TikTok, unqualified internet bully, to ban books and oversee school safety,” Laser said. “The hostile, Christian Nationalist environment Walters and Stitt have nurtured in Oklahoma public schools has created a permission structure for anti-LGBTQ+ persecution, and it’s no surprise that teens noticed.”
Cait Smith, director of LGBTQI+ policy at liberal think tank the Center for American Progress, said that when young trans people hear that lawmakers are debating their very existence in state governments, it is extremely harmful. They pointed out that last year more than 60 percent of anti-LBGTQ+ bills introduced into states nationwide specifically targeted youth.
“When we have anti-LGBT bills talking about what schools should and shouldn’t do, it takes away the ability of school staff and families to make those decisions among themselves, among the experts and folks that are closest to the schools and students,” Smith said. “Really, this should be up to families. It should be up to students in schools to be able to foster and find the right policies to foster safe and affirming environments at school.”
Nicole Pointdexter and her son said they were not in a position to stay and fight. The two fled the state for Colorado after Stitt signed a gender-affirming care ban for youth last May.
“They broke up my family,” she said. “I have two boys that still live in Oklahoma.”
Pointdexter and her ex-husband amicably co-parent their three children. In Oklahoma, Poindexter and her ex lived a five-minute walk from each other, and the kids traveled between houses. All of the adults, including the parents’ new partners, enjoyed family meals together. But the gender-affirming care ban made it impossible for Pointdexter’s trans son to stay in Oklahoma. Her ex-husband couldn’t leave his job. Her twin boys didn’t want to give up their spots on their baseball team.
“It was incredibly difficult to make that decision,” she said.
According to research from The Trevor Project, which works to prevent suicide among LGBTQ+ youth, 90 percent of LGBTQ+ youth in Oklahoma say that recent politics have negatively impacted their well-being sometimes or frequently. Forty-seven percent reported that they’ve been physically threatened or harmed because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. Only 31 percent agreed that their school was an LGBTQ+-affirming space.
“Young people deserve to go to school without fearing for their safety, regardless of their identity,” said Janson Wu, senior director of state advocacy and government affairs at The Trevor Project. “We hope that leaders in Oklahoma and across the U.S. wake up to the reality that targeting trans and nonbinary youth has real and dire consequences.”
When trans youth and their families hear about tragedies like Benedict’s death, it escalates their anxiety by reinforcing the message that it’s not OK to be trans, Dempsey said. Parents worry that they can’t keep their trans children safe in hostile schools with a hostile political climate to match. Parents with bullied trans children need to document each incident carefully, including which school personnel they asked to intervene and the outcomes of their meetings with those officials, Dempsey recommended.
I want those people who are going to school today who might be scared to know that there are people fighting for them.
Chelsea Richardson
They also said that parents should try to openly communicate with their children on an ongoing basis because children may not bring up that they’re being bullied in a conversation unprompted.
Smith wants trans students who feel scared in the wake of Benedict’s death to know that they’re not alone.
“It is scary to see this happen to a member of your community,” they said. “We are going to keep fighting. We’re going to keep pushing back against harmful policies. In the meantime, I want those people who are going to school today who might be scared to know that there are people fighting for them.”
Richardson wants them to know that, too. She has already received threats because she plans on opening a welcoming book store. She isn’t scared.
“I’ve never liked a bully, and I’ve never backed down from a bully,” she said. “So I’m kind of like … let’s do this. We’re not going anywhere. You’re not gonna bully us out of this state.”
Israeli settlers and right-wing activists seen building an ‘outpost’ inside Erez Crossing, February 29, 2024, photo: Oren Ziv
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