A lot is going on, but it would seem that the liberal media got ahead of their skis again regarding the death of a nonbinary Oklahoma teenager who was involved in a brief bathroom brawl in an alleged bullying incident. Nex Benedict, 16, died on February 8 following this brief melee at Owasso High School, which is located right outside Tulsa. The death is mysterious, as physical trauma isn’t what led to Benedict’s death. This incident loomed in the background of The Washington Post’s Taylor Lorenz’s interview with Libs of TikTok, aka Chaya Raichik, which we’ll get to in a second. First, the incident earned a response from the Biden White House and was threaded into Lorenz's story about Raichik (via Associated Press):
Benedict was able to walk out of the bathroom after the Feb. 7 fight but was taken to a hospital by their family and sent home that night. The next day, paramedics were dispatched to the home for a medical emergency and took Benedict to a hospital emergency room, where they later died, police said.
Nex Benedict’s mother, Sue Benedict, told The Independent that the teen suffered bruises all over their face and eyes in the fight involving a transgender student and three older girls.
The school district has said the students were in the restroom for less than two minutes before the fight was broken up by other students and a staff member.
[…]
While bullying at school is not uncommon, experts say the problem is particularly acute for students who identify as nonbinary or transgender, and particularly for those who are transitioning.
Al Stone-Gebhardt, a transgender man who graduated last year from Tulsa Union Public Schools, less than 15 miles (24 kilometers) from Owasso, said he noticed an increase in anti-trans bullying and discrimination as state lawmakers started to introduce bills targeting trans youths.
“I absolutely felt there was increased tension and vulnerability for trans people to attend school in Oklahoma,” he said. “It got pretty bad.”
There appears to be conflicting information regarding whether Benedict was a victim of bullying or the bully—I’ll just leave this here:
The activist and media-led effort to turn the death of a non-binary teenager into a Matthew Shepard-like myth of anti-trans violence is totally refuted by video of the victim's own words.
— Wesley Yang (@wesyang) February 24, 2024
The myth-making apparatus is still operating at full blast. https://t.co/ViWajhUx4o
Nex Benedict describing the incident in her own words:
— Storm (@stormrobinson) February 24, 2024
The girls didn’t have a history of bullying her as has been claimed in several articles. They had never even seen each other before the incident. She assaulted them first because she thought they were laughing at her. Nex… pic.twitter.com/dQmCQzTqKd
When Lorenz interviewed Libs of TikTok, who wore a crying Lorenz t-shirt to the sit-down, the Washington Post writer also wore a mask outside, making this interview even more entertaining. The dichotomy couldn’t be more defined here. Raichik sits on the Oklahoma Library Media Advisory Committee, which was the linchpin of Lorenz's piece: Raichik’s social media activity is to be blamed for the “terror campaign” against LGBT youth, which led to deadly results in Oklahoma. Benedict’s death was included in Lorenz’s piece as well to massage the narrative (via WaPo):
Absolutely nothing funnier than Taylor Lorenz still wearing a mask outside in late February 2024
— Ian Miller (@ianmSC) February 24, 2024
Not only is the mask useless to begin with, but there’s also massive fit gaps all over her face
Outstanding https://t.co/iiny4Uvljx
Sick!! Taylor Lorenz thinks it’s okay to give kids p*rn in school! She wants your young kids to have photos of gay s*x in elementary school! pic.twitter.com/HTXGZbZrHH
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) February 25, 2024
HIGHLIGHT REEL!!
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) February 25, 2024
Taylor Lorenz equates nose jobs with boys chopping off their d*cks cuz they think they’re girls. She’s okay with p*rn in schools, says Miami will disappear because of climate change, and refuses to say her age! pic.twitter.com/AxPbjJ55yW
Raichik, who operates the social media account Libs of TikTok, has amassed an audience of millions on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, largely by targeting LGBTQ+ people. Last month, Raichik was appointed to the Oklahoma Library Media Advisory Committee by Republican schools superintendent Ryan Walters, a former history teacher who has been called “the state’s top culture warrior” for his opposition to teachers unions and other conservative targets, including LGBTQ+ students’ rights.
[…]
…Oklahoma City Councilor Sean Cummings (D) lambasted Raichik for stoking anti-LGBTQ+ hatred in the state, saying she has “blood on her hands.” And Matt Bernstein, a 25-year-old LGBTQ+ content creator in New York who has been targeted by Raichik, said: “I’m just hearing constantly how Chaya Raichik specifically has caused a rift in the experience of being a queer high-schooler in America.”
[…]
In a podcast interview this week about the violence that follows her posts, Raichik smiled and said she’s proud of being called a stochastic terrorist — someone who inspires supporters to commit violence by demonizing a person or group.
“Honestly, like, that makes me feel really important,” Raichik said.
On Thursday, in an hour-long interview with a Washington Post reporter at a coffee shop in Los Angeles, Raichik said that “bomb threats are bad” and that she believes “people who call in bomb threats should be arrested.” But she said: “I just don’t know — what does it have to do with me?”
[…]
In Oklahoma, Raichik has been blamed by gay rights advocates for driving teachers who support LGBTQ+ youths from their jobs. They include former Owasso teacher Tyler Wrynn, who is nonbinary. After Raichik posted about Wrynn, the teacher said they received an onslaught of death threats and harassment.
Benedict’s mother, who declined through her lawyer to speak to The Post, told the Independent that her child was angry and upset about Raichik targeting Wrynn…
[…]
Sonja, 42, a nonbinary Tulsa resident who spoke on the condition that they be identified by only their first name due to concerns about safety, called Raichik’s posts a “terror campaign” against LGBTQ+ people and their allies that had created a “hit list” of vulnerable people.
“What Chaya likes to do is create these incendiary posts, letting followers know, ‘This is your target. This is the villain you should go after,’” Sonja said. “Then when things get out of hand, she goes back and deletes her posts. She’s pointing people toward Owasso, and things have escalated since then.”
So, you get the gist: Libs of TikTok is a domestic terrorist, except that she’s not. Also, the article described Joe Rogan, whom Raichik has promoted on her account, as “right-wing.” Rogan may no longer identify as a liberal, but he’s not conservative—he supported Bernie Sanders in the 2020 Democratic primaries.
And for all the attacks on Libs of TikTok and the narrative that Benedict was a victim of conservative activism against gender mutilation surgeries for minors and gay porn in libraries, this individual was not beaten to death in a bathroom scuffle. We don't know how Benedict died, so we'll need the toxicology report now.
Surveillance footage from Owasso High School moments after Nex Benedict was allegedly beaten to death in an anti-LGB/TQ+ hate crime shows her walking on her own from the nurse’s office to the principal’s office and then leaving the school with a guardian.
— Storm (@stormrobinson) February 24, 2024
I’m not a doctor or a… pic.twitter.com/qBQvNOxN0H
What is unsurprising in Lorenz's piece unrelated to the Oklahoma incident is her attempt to make Raichik feel responsible for the alleged actions of her supporters and those who comment on her threads. The people who cross the line should be dealt with accordingly, and Raichik supports that, but this incessant need for liberals to make others with whom they disagree feel shame for holding differing views is laughably predictable.
You know the rule: only conservatives should take responsibility for the actions of a few looney toons, but not the Left, who, if we’re playing by these silly rules, endorses the assassination of Supreme Court justices they don’t like. This habit is also indicative of liberals’ degrading respect and support for freedom of speech and association. As for Oklahoma, the supposedly draconian anti-trans laws that are creating an atmosphere of fear that Libs of TikTok has supposedly fostered include no gender mutilations for minors, no biological males in female sports, and no LGBT porn in libraries. You also have to use the restroom that corresponds with the gender assigned to you at birth. There's not much uproar aside from liberals on social media because these laws are popular with voters—some very much so:
Nearly 70% of U.S. adults say that trans athletes should only be allowed to compete on sports teams that correspond with the sex they were assigned at birth, according to a new report from Gallup. https://t.co/c1eCZMRPpk
— NBC News (@NBCNews) June 13, 2023
These are also quite surprising - 77% don't want their children in k-3 to hear about trans identity in public schools, and 70% don't want it up until 5th grade.
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) May 5, 2023
A major indictment of the media that joined the left's political attack on bills they deemed "don't say gay." pic.twitter.com/LBWAMmcqQd
And kudos to Raichik for sitting down with Lorenz, who harassed members of her family and doxxed her before she publicly revealed her name. She also turned the tables on Lorenz, asking her how she felt about her supporters wishing Raichik would commit suicide.
The last claim is false. The original story had a link to her professional license complete with an address for her. @washingtonpost later stealth-edited it out of their article. This dishonesty seems of a piece with the whole report.
— Ed Morrissey (@EdMorrissey) April 19, 2022
Tucker: "Taylor Lorenz is not a reporter. Apart from whining about herself on television, she has no skills. She couldn't do a weather forecast in a rainstorm. She's not a journalist." pic.twitter.com/Qjozmj8hG1
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) April 20, 2022
Until then, we'll keep you updated on Oklahoma.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member