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
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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.”
Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)
Sunday, February 18, 2024 at 11:46:51p EST
The patriarch of a right-wing Canadian family of 11 had had just about enough of gay people in his country. “We didn’t feel safe for our children there in the future anymore,” father Arend Feenstra told Russian media. “There’s a lot of left-wing ideology, LGBTQ, trans, just a lot of things that we don’t agree with that they teach there now, and we wanted to get away from that for our children.”
Yeah, if there’s one place that’s just not safe for kids, it’s Canada. Russia would be soooo much safer.
So Arend (and wife Anneesa) sold everything they had to move to sunny Russia and raise eight of their nine kids with “orthodox” values. They also gladly took donations on their social media platform from fellow right-wingers, all so they could live in Vladimir Putin’s wonderland. Russian officials assured them that they would work with them to get them established, and even help them get a farm. They did all of this just three weeks ago; long story short, they lived happily ever after.
Except they didn’t.
First, according to the family, the Russian bank where they moved the proceeds from selling their farm and belongings? It immediately froze their assets. The amount of money seemed suspicious, Arend states in a Feb. 9 video. I guess it would, since so many Russians outside of Putin’s circle are dirt poor. As a result, the family didn’t have money to live on—apparently those nice Russian officials offering to help them had disappeared.
Since no one in the family speaks Russian, they’ve also had a bear of a time trying to argue for their money—because Russia doesn’t require any bank, or any business, to hire English translators. In the meantime, they discovered that Russia is a pretty damn miserable place to be right now.
TikTok user Ukrainian.Networking translated a Russian Federation Reported Media story in a snarky post.
The Russian reporter noted that Anneesa spoke her mind in a since-deleted video on the family’s “Countryside Acres” YouTube channel.
“I’m very disappointed in this country at this point. I’m ready to jump on a plane and get out of here. We’ve hit the first snag where you have to engage logic in this country and it’s very, very frustrating.”
Hoooo boy. They just arrived and already she’s insulted Russia. Now, I’m not saying Russia doesn’t have freedom of the press, but it’s really just freedom to praise Putin and the country he controls. Anything that resembles criticism in Russia is NOT taken as kindly as it is in our godless Western dystopias. I’m also not suggesting that Russian officials paid the family a visit to remind them of where they are, but I will point out that Arendquickly posted an apology video to the Countryside Acres channel, saying that his wife misspoke and they’d deleted the video.
In that video, he reiterated that no, Russia is really, really great (subtext: “Please don’t push me out of a window”) and he spoke of his hope to resolve the issue with the bank. Commenters weren’t so sure, or kind. They pointed out that the bank will likely never release their funds and it is more likely that he will be recognized as a foreign agent.
At this point, I’m not sure the Countryside Acres farming gig is going to work out. Patriarch Arend should have agreed to be used as a tool for Russian state media. I mean, if you are going to be a Russian Asset, might as well go all-in.
I’m willing to bet that living in a country that grants gay people basic civil rights might not be looking so bad now. I was wondering if the family is desperately trying to split, so I looked up how difficult it is to leave Russia. According to the BBC, you can leave “as long as you have money and have not been called up to the army.”
Even if only for his kids’ sakes, let’s hope Arend’s only lost his money.
Comment Award goes to Laughing Gravy: “I’ll bet back home they used to whine about immigrants who don’t know the language, who have no money, who expect the government to hand them a house and a job, and who complain when they don’t get everything they want.”
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the Feenstra family has six children; they have nine. That version also said that Anneesa voiced discontent with Russia in an interview with a Russian reporter. Her statements were made in a since-deleted Countryside Acres YouTube video, which was cited by the Russian reporter.
If there are any smart kids they’ll realize their parents aren’t role model but rather cautionary tales. Whatever dad would do, I need to do the opposite.
I see Trump’s young supporters — 20 year olds — and think to myself, “What total and utter child-abuse those poor things must have suffered growing up — for them to harbor so much hate and bigotry in their young hearts.”
You’re witnessing it. Christians in this nation are hostage takers. Those kids will then become just like their parents or they risk their lives trying to become who they should be.
OH yes. It wasn’t just child abuse, but an upbringing of loneliness, an unloving family, material wealth valued over real values, and so much more. The root of Trumpism is sad state of childhood in America the past several decades.
Being gay or bi runs in families. The polygenic influence on basic traits like that is strong, so maybe most of the kids are gay or bi, maybe none are, depending on what genetic gifts they get from their parents.
But – given the dad’s paranoia about gay people, it’s likely he’s fighting his own sexuality. So, yeah, maybe 10 of them are bi.
That was my first thought. And it reminds me of nitwit Mel Gibson’s homophobic rants in the ’90s; considering his huge number of siblings, you know they ain’t all str8!
That, and the fear that if our society violates ‘god’s laws’ he will get really really angry and smite everyone, even the righteous who failed to stop it.
That’s what I was going to say. Fuck the parents, they made their straw bed, let them lie on it. But the kids are innocent victims of their patents’ bigotry and stupidity.
But there is bread in the stores! Also, what are the chances that out of 9 kids a couple of them will fall somewhere under our rainbow. 2S, they call it in Canada, which is how I have felt my entire life.
And that child would be disowned more likely then not. Way too many people out there who think bigots stop being them if someone in their family comes out. Not the case.
A study some years ago, finding that children of same-sex parents were as healthy and well-adjusted as children of mixed-gender couples, also found that they were indeed more empathetic, less tied to traditional gender roles, and more likely to come out if they were LGBTQ+ themselves.
To be fair, conservatives view those last three as negatives.
But seriously, the study I remember is that children of same-sex parents actually had *better* upbringings than children of same-sex parents. Did better in school, etc.
Quick, suppress this evidence and start posting videos about how wonderful things are there for anti-wokies! This is an emigrant pipeline we need to encourage.
West Virginia GOP Passes Deranged Bill That Could Put Librarians in Jail
State Republicans are taking the war on books to the next level.
JOSHUA LOTT/THE WASHINGTON POST/GETTY IMAGES
The Republican-controlled West Virginia House of Delegates has passed a bill that could see librarians facing jail time.
House Bill 4654 passed the chamber Friday by a vote of 85–12, along party lines. The bill would remove criminal exemptions for schools, public libraries, and museums that distribute or display “obscene matter” to a minor, even if the minor’s parent or guardian is present. Any employees of those institutions found guilty of giving minors obscene matter can face fines of up to $25,000, up to five years in prison, or both.
The incredibly short piece of legislation gives no indication of how the new rules would affect paintings or sculptures that feature nude figures, or books that include descriptions or definitions of sexual conduct. Obscenity laws are incredibly hard to enforce, because definitions of obscenity still largely come down to individual interpretation.
As a result, there will likely be more reports of obscenity, made by people who are either more conservative or just nervous about accidentally breaking the law. And since libraries and public schools often operate on very tight budgets, they are unlikely to have the budget to fight a surge in lawsuits.
“It is going to cost our counties and our librarians when these matters go to the court system,” House Minority Leader Sean Hornbuckle told The Parkersburg News and Sentinel. “Because this is still vague, I’m scared.”
“This is a very dangerous bill.”
House Minority Whip Shawn Fluharty warned that the legislation could inspire many lawsuits over books that staff members don’t even realize are problematic. “The librarians on staff might not know if a book has obscene matter in it or may or may not have shown it to someone, but because it was in the facility and it was sitting on a shelf, it could still be prosecuted,” he said.
The bill has now been sent to the state Senate, which the GOP also controls (along with the governor’s office).
Republicans across the country have increasingly sought to ban books, claiming they are protecting minors from seeing inappropriately sexual content. But most of the books being pulled from shelves tend to discuss race, gender, and sexuality.
Seemingly innocuous texts have also gotten caught up in the fray. School districts in Florida have pulled the dictionary from library shelves for including definitions of sexual conduct and have drawn over children’s picture books.
There’s also the inclusion of museums in there, and “obscene matter” could encompass, say, the entire Italian Renaissance in paintings and statuary — never mind Mapplethorpe. Even the religious stuff has full nudal frontity, and that includes the madonna-and-child school.
Read the full article. My first report on the bill is here. The bill’s author, state Sen. Mark Pody, has appeared here many times for his attacks on same-sex marriage. In 2016, he sought to “nullify” the Supreme Court’s Obergefell ruling. In 2017, he sponsored a bill calling for Tennessee to defy Obergefell entirely, and literally fled protesters at his press conference. In 2019, he filed the “Tennessee Natural Marriage Bill” that would void same-sex marriages, something he says God told him to do. In 2020, he filed a fourth attempt to make the bible the official book of Tennessee. In 2021, he filed a bill that would allow fathers to block abortions by their partners.
If you are a notary, government official, or religious figure in the state of Tennessee, you should refuse to solemnize ANY marriages between heterosexual couples as a violation of your conscience until Bill Lee's ghastly and unconstitutional law is put where it belongs. pic.twitter.com/VxGTFeZxtC
🚨New: Tennessee Republican Governor Bill Lee has signed a bill allowing public officials to refuse to perform same-sex marriages. pic.twitter.com/R1QmPAlvyz
A 16-year-old non-binary student in Oklahoma named Nex Benedict died following a physical altercation they had in a school bathroom with three students that bullied them since 2023. Libs of TikTok’s Chaya Raichik is now being accused of sharing indirect responsibility for the hate crime for the fact that she helped cultivate a toxic climate of anti-LGBTQ+ hate at the school by targeting one of the school’s pro-LGBTQ+ teachers that lead to a “scandal” that rocked the small town. We’ll break down the details in this video.
What Beau is referring to is an N.B or transgender teen who was brutally assaulted in a girls’ bathroom. Notice that the attacks on trans and non-binary people in bathrooms got much worse at the urging of right wing hate preachers / politicians. Notice it is the rhetoric is always that trans people will hurt your daughters, but the facts show that is wrong. It is the trans people being hurt by cis people. For needing to use a toilet. I did not post the quote but in the first article it mentions Ryan Walters, Oklahoma’s superintendent of public instruction, is facing intense scrutiny over his ties to Chaya Raichik, the figure behind the far-right Libs of TikTok hate account, and for their outspoken stance against transgender rights. Hugs. Scottie
The grandmother, Sue Benedict, told The Independent that her child had been the subject of months of intensifying bullying that began earlier in 2023 after Oklahoma’s Republican-led government banned transgender students from using school bathrooms that align with their gender identity.Benedict told their grandmother that they and another trans student had fought the other students in the bathroom, according to the Independent. The teen told her they’d hit their head on the floor. “Nex did not see themselves as male or female,” Sue Benedict said. “Nex saw themselves right down the middle. I was still learning about it, Nex was teaching me that.” https://news.yahoo.com/oklahoma-transgender-student-dies-allegedly-125629309.html
Nex Dagny Benedict killed Oklahoma non binary student beaten classmates bathroom Owasso High School
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What is nonbinary?
A nonbinary person experiences their gender identity and/or gender expression outside of the binary categories of “man” and “woman.” Other words may be used by nonbinary people to describe their gender more specifically, including agender, bigender, demigender and pangender.
Some nonbinary people call themselves transgender and consider themselves part of the transgender community, while others do not.
“Nonbinary is an umbrella term that encompasses many different ways to understand one’s gender,” according to GLAAD.
What is transgender?
Transgender describes a person whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth.
A person can be transgender without having gone through a transition — the process in which a person brings their gender expression and/or their body into alignment with their gender identity. A transition can include a social transition, legal transition and medical transition.
What is cisgender?
Cisgender refers to a person who is not transgender, and whose gender identity aligns with the sex they were assigned at birth.
