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Jason Call here, Jill's campaign manager.
Warning:
This message includes mentions of anti-LGBTQ violence against young
people, as well as suicide. These topics are important, but I
understand if it’s not something you can engage with right now. If you
prefer to skip this message, please help me honor Nex Benedict and my
friend James with a contribution to The
Trevor Project.
Friend --
There is an epidemic of violence
against the LGBTQIA+ community right now, and our kids are in the
crossfire.
By now many of you have likely
heard about the devastating, violent death of Nex Benedict, a
nonbinary Oklahoma teen beaten in their high school bathroom by three
female students who repeatedly smashed Nex’s head on the
floor.
We don’t have all the facts yet,
but here’s what we do know.
Nex had been bullied for months
leading up to this assault and had reported it multiple times. But
school officials reportedly took no action.
Owasso High School has three –
THREE – school resource officers on campus. But none were on hand to
intervene and stop this beating.
School officials admit that they
didn’t call an ambulance for Nex after the beating. But they did call
Nex’s mom – who drove her child to the hospital herself.
The next day, Nex was
dead.
Now, a former student who is also
LGBTQ has come forward about their experiences at Owasso High school,
including claims that school officials routinely covered up violence
and bullying against LGBTQ students – even allowing teachers to use anti-LGBTQ
slurs.
I have to tell you, as a former
public high school teacher, that last part in particular has my blood
boiling.
I grew up in rural Pierce County,
WA – at a time when LGBTQ kids stayed closeted for their own safety.
One of them was my best friend, James.
James was generous, kind, and
passionate about helping people. He brought light into all of our
lives. But his family did not accept him for who he was, and we lost
James to suicide.
I was shattered. We all were.
Rarely have I felt so helpless.
We knew that James was happy when
he was at school – because there he knew he was accepted, and he was
safe. I never forgot that, and when I became a high
school teacher, I made sure my classroom was a safe haven for ALL
kids.
In 18 years of teaching, I had many
students like James. If ANY of my colleagues had used
slurs or demonstrated outright bigotry to any of our students, I would
have kept raising hell until they never saw the inside of a classroom
again.
It is beyond unconscionable that so
many school officials failed Nex, and have clearly been failing their
LGBTQ students for years. But that negligence is no
accident.
We’re only 8 weeks into 2024, and
already there are nearly 500 anti-trans bills on the docket in almost
every state in the nation – including SIXTY in Oklahoma and five here
in Washington state.
The Supreme Court, packed with far
right zealots, has made their intentions clear that they will continue
to strip away our civil rights – and LGBTQ rights are next on the
target list.
When Democrats controlled both
chambers of Congress and the White House, they had the opportunity to
pass robust protections for the LGBTQ community. They didn’t. Instead
they passed a watered down bill that kinda sorta protects marriage equality.
We’re repeatedly told to be patient. That change takes
time. But justice delayed is justice denied – and today, those delays
are deadly. That’s the legacy
of Democrats like my opponent, who was one of the slowest members of
the Democratic caucus to come around on marriage equality or repealing
DOMA.
Every day that we wait to take meaningful action, kids like
Nex are at risk.
I will fight for LGBTQ equality in
Congress as fiercely as I fight for justice for any marginalized
community. Until then, I
urge you to support outstanding groups like The Trevor Project who do
real, front-line work to protect the lives of LGBTQ
youth.
Nex is only a little younger than
my son. They could’ve been my kid. They could’ve been one of my
students.
Nex was, in many ways, a typical
16-year-old. They loved playing Minecraft and watching The Walking
Dead. They loved drawing and reading. And like me, they loved
cats.
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