In recent years, rights for transgender individuals have been threatened. Photo courtesy of Anna Moneymaker/New York Times
On April 4, the Gender and Sexuality Union held a vigil for Nex Benedict, a nonbinary student who passed away in February after an altercation at their Oklahoma highschool. When three girls began to mock Benedict and their friends in the bathroom, Benedict threw water at the trio; the girls then cornered and began to beat Benedict, eventually knocking them to the floor, where they lost consciousness. Although Benedict was taken to the emergency room after the incident, their death, a day later, was ultimately ruled a suicide by the coroner. Officially, details of the case remain fuzzy, including the extent of Benedict’s injuries, the nature of the bullying, and the school’s level of responsibility in Benedict’s death. Many news sources have obscured or outright denied Benedict’s gender identity and its relation to their death. What is clear is that violence against trans people is not only prevalent, but increasing, spurred by anti-trans legislation. Benedict had been experiencing bullying over the past year, and Oklahoma is notorious for anti-trans legislation and sentiment. Students are forbidden from using bathrooms that do not correspond with their birth sex, and minors cannot receive gender-affirming care. Senator Tom Woods said in response to Benedict’s death, “We are a Republican state — supermajority — in the House and Senate. I represent a constituency that doesn’t want that filth in Oklahoma.”
According to the Trevor Project, an initiative that provides support to LGBTQ+ youth, 52% of LGBTQ+ kids have been bullied during the past year compared to an average of 20% of high school students. For students attending LGBTQ+ friendly schools, this rate drops to 46%. Queer students are also four times as likely as cis-het students to commit suicide. Much of anti-trans rhetoric centers around “protecting children” from a perceived threat — predation by others or transitioning themselves. Yet no studies support the claim that trans people are more likely to commit violent crimes than cisgender people, or that cis women experience harassment or predation by trans women in public restrooms. Indeed, trans people are four times as likely to be victims of a violent crime. In 2022, according to the FBI, hate crimes committed against LGBTQ+ victims increased by 32% percent, with more than 2,400 incidents. This surge of anti-trans violence is fomented by a new wave of legislation seeking to codify birth sex as law, thus preventing trans people from receiving adequate healthcare, as well as ousting them from spaces matching their identities. In 2018, Californian Congressional candidate Jazmina Saavedra hurled insults at a trans woman using the women’s restroom until she left the area. In 2022, a transgender man was beaten for using the women’s restroom at a campground in Ohio, which he was required to do per the instructions of the camp owner.
Legislation allegedly seeking to protect people makes no provision for trans’ people’s safety, especially endangering children and teenagers, who are especially vulnerable to attacks inside their communities and families. Only ten states require sexual education to include discussions of sexuality and gender identity, while seven states either outright forbid teaching students about sexuality and gender identity or obligate teachers to present such topics in a negative light. For instance, Arizona prohibits curriculum from “portray[ing] homosexuality in a positive manner,” while Oklahoma requires it to be taught that homosexuality is “responsible for contact with the AIDS virus.” Conservatives believe that education surrounding LGBTQ+ topics will indoctrinate children into queer “ideology,” yet no data supports this conclusion. While teaching students about queer identities lowers rates of bullying in schools, it is not supported that students are swayed toward a certain sexuality or gender expression.
Conservative groups advocate for a rigid gender binary, not only exposing trans people, and especially trans children, to ridicule, but also revoking their agency over their own bodies and gender identities. Despite conservative fears that transitioning is an irreparable harm, frequently citing cases of detransition, the data reveals that trans people display an overwhelming increase in life satisfaction after transitioning. In a survey of 90,000 trans people, 98% of people who underwent hormone treatment reported increased satisfaction with their lives. Another study, pooling over 7,000 trans patients, shows that the rate of people detransitioning after surgery hovers around 1%. A further study of 2,242 detransitioners found that the majority detransitioned due to exterior social pressure, discrimination, sexual assault, and difficult school environments.
Currently, 539 anti-trans bills are being considered across forty-one states. Many trans people and their families are fleeing anti-queer states such as Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas and Florida due to their harsh laws and uncomfortable atmospheres. Children like Benedict are currently facing harassment and danger, unable to express themselves how they wish, bullied due to their gender expression, and often facing mental health issues due the former issues. As legislation is rolled out across the country, terrible tragedies like Benedict’s death are becoming more and more common. “To me, it doesn’t matter if Nex passed from a traumatic brain injury or if they passed from suicide. What matters is the fact that they died after getting bullied, and that is the story for so many other students. I’ve been close to ending it myself because of bullying. It’s not new for so many students,” said a student who attends Benedict’s high school.