That's the message that will greet the people of Owasso, Oklahoma, Wednesday, as they open their local paper and find a full-page ad offering compassion and solidarity to Nex's family, the people of Owasso, and the larger LGBTQ+ community.

Owasso is where Nex Benedict—a Choctaw Indigenous, nonbinary 16-year-old—died last month, the day after being physically assaulted in school. This followed sustained bullying that went unaddressed—in a state where Republican elected officials had repeatedly demonized trans and nonbinary youth.

Yesterday was Trans Day of Visibility, a national day to lift up, embrace, and celebrate trans, nonbinary, and gender expansive-people, joy and trans culture. To mark the day and remember Nex, check out the ad that MoveOn members are running in the Owasso Reporter, and share it with friends and family—or use this link to share the image more widely over X (formerly Twitter).

(If you don't have an account on X/Twitter, you can still forward this ad to friends or feel free to post it into the social media of your choice with a message like "Tens of thousands of us came together to demand an investigation into Nex Benedict's death. The investigation is underway, but we haven't forgotten. Check out the message @MoveOn is sending/ We care about the safety of LGBTQ+ people and #WeRememberNex" You can link directly to the image here.)

After Nex's death, nearly 60,000 MoveOn members from all walks of life and all across the country called for an investigation, which is now underway. MoveOn members also submitted hundreds of photos to grieve with Nex's family and community and lift up their memory. Some of these photos are included in this advertisement, and we will deliver all of the images to Nex's family.

But there's so much more to do—to lift up Nex's memory, to mark Trans Day of Visibility, and to fight back against the brutal attacks coming from the right wing against the trans community.

Trans people have always existed. Before colonization, Indigenous people and people across the globe celebrated multiple gender identities outside of the gender binary, which was violently pushed and enforced by European colonizers.^1,2

We can celebrate and observe days like Trans Day of Visibility thanks to fierce Black and brown trans elders like Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, Miss Major, and so many others who came before and after them. We're grounded in the fact that many trans folks, Black folks, and people of color who led the Stonewall uprising in 1969 were faced with police violence and brutality for simply existing. The fight for collective, intersectional, and inclusive liberation—one that amplifies the voices of the most vulnerable members of our communities—is still ongoing.

And while it's important to keep fighting back against all of the violent legislation actively targeting and harming trans people, it's also as important to celebrate trans joy, trans history, and trans communities. That is at the heart of the Trans Day of Visibility.

While this newspaper ad is intended to be a visible and public sign of our solidarity, there is more we can all do and will continue to do to be visible and active supporters of and allies to those who are under attack by rhetoric, actions, and legislation targeting gender identity. The trans and gender-expansive community deserves the right to feel safe and supported, whether that’s at home, at school, or in our communities. This month and always, we must hold space for happiness about how far we’ve come, grieve for those and what we’ve lost along the way, and continue pushing for the collective liberation of all of us, especially trans folks and youth who need our support right now.

P.P.S. Several of Nex's friends have shared that Nex preferred he/him pronouns but also went by they/them pronouns. While we used they/them in this email, we want to acknowledge Nex's gender fluidity as part of embracing Nex's full identity.³

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