GOP Ignores LGBTQ Violence But Politicizes Immigrant Violence
The anti-LGBTQ right wing continues to demonize and persecute the transgender community while trump and the anti-immigrant lobby uses the killing of a Georgia woman as evidence of the failure of President Biden’s immigration policies.
The latest victim of anti-LGBTQ violence was 16-year-old Nex Benedict, a non-binary sophomore student at Owassos (Okla.) High School who committed suicide on Feb. 8 after succumbing to relentless bullying in a state that tops the list in transgender hatred.
After the killing, President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden offered condolences in support of Benedict. Trump was silent as were other Republicans in Congress.
Throughout his presidency, Biden has said that protecting and expanding LGBTQ rights is a priority for his administration. He has reversed many trump-era anti-LGBTQ policies and has issued numerous executive orders to protect against discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation, especially in schools.
“Jill and I are heartbroken by the recent loss of Nex Benedict. Every young person deserves to have the fundamental right and freedom to be who they are, and feel safe and supported at school in their communities,” Biden said in the statement. “Nex Benedict, a kid who just wanted to be accepted, should still be here with us today.”
Benedict has been mourned throughout the transgender community while opponents of the LGBTQ community dug their heels in and claimed that Benedict’s death has been blown out of proportion.
Nex was one of 3,000 students at the grades 9 through 12 Owassos High School on the Cherokee Nation reservation. Nex’s mother and friends said Nex had been bullied for more than a year before taking her life. Nex, who in transgender terms is referred to as “they,” told police they were beaten on Feb. 7 by three girls in the girls’ restroom at Owasso High School, outside of Tulsa. The next day, Nex swallowed enough pills to kill herself.
A recent report from the Trevor Project showed that 36 percent of LGBTQ+ youth surveyed believe they are not likely to live to the age of 35 and many reported high levels of anxiety, depression and self-harm. The Trevor Project is a nonprofit organization founded in 1998 that focuses on suicide prevention efforts among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ) youth.
A national hotline run by the Indianapolis-based Rainbow Youth Project reported receiving more than 200 calls from Oklahoma in the weekend following Nex’s death, more than three times the usual amount, with many mentioning her death, and most reporting having been bullied themselves.
Non-binary people typically identify with a gender that is different from the sex assigned to them at birth, though some non-binary people do not consider themselves transgender. Non-binary people may identify as an intermediate or separate third gender, identify with more than one gender, no gender, or have a fluctuating gender identity.
Since Nex’s death, vigils have been held across the United States as advocacy and civil rights groups pointed to the growing number of anti-LGBT policies and rhetoric. Advocates have called for investigation of the Oklahoma State Department of Education, including removal of Ryan Walters, the Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction. Walters has defended state policies and criticized responses to Benedict’s death as politically motivated.
On March 1, the Office for Civil Rights division of the U.S. Department of Education opened an investigation into the Oklahoma school district following a complaint filed by the Human Rights Campaign.
In 2022, Oklahoma became the first state to prohibit the use of non-binary gender markers on birth certificates. Students are legally required to use a bathroom that corresponds with sex assigned at birth and minors are legally prevented from receiving gender-affirming health care.
Oklahoma legislation under consideration includes new curriculum for public schools to describe gender as an “immutable biological trait,” a ban on changing “sex” on birth certificates, and a requirement for school employees to use pronouns and names for students based only on birth certificates.
Two weeks after Nex’s death, Ryan Walters, the Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction, defended Oklahoma’s anti-LGBT policies in a Feb. 23 interview with The New York Times.
“There’s not multiple genders. There’s two. That’s how God created us,” Walters said. “I think it’s terrible that we’ve had some radical leftists who decided to run with a political agenda and try to weave a narrative that hasn’t been true. You’ve taken a tragedy, and you’ve had some folks try to exploit it for political gain.”
After the autopsy results were released, Walters said the death “is tragic for the family, the community, and our state. The LGBTQ groups pushing a false narrative are one of the biggest threats to our democracy and I remain, more than ever, committed to never backing down from a woke mob.”
Four Republican state senators had convened a legislative update panel on Feb. 23 when a person in the audience asked why the Legislature has “such an obsession with the LGBTQ citizens of Oklahoma and what people do in their personal lives and how they raise their children. The audience member linked Nex’s death to “50 bills targeting the LGBTQ community.”
State Sen. Tom Woods responded that his “heart goes out” in regards to Nex’s suicide and said Oklahoma is a religious, Christian, and moral state whose constituency “doesn’t want that filth in Oklahoma.” Michael Stopp, moderator of the forum and chairman of the Chamber of Commerce Government Affairs Committee, said the death was “terrible” but that the media coverage was “blown out of proportion.”
In January, Walters appointed social media influencer Chaya Raichik, the operator of the “Libs of TikTok” account known for posting virulent, anti-LGBT+ content, to the Oklahoma Department of Education’s Library Media Advisory Committee. In 2022, an Owasso High School teacher resigned after she had been noted in a post by Raichik because she was reported to have “greatly admired” Nex.
Raichik promotes hate speech and transphobia as she posts comments that are often hostile, mocking, or derogatory comments. The site, @LibsofTikTok, has nearly 3 million followers as of February 2024 and has become influential among American conservatives and the right wing, including trump.
Oklahoma Democratic state Rep. Mauree Turner, who became the first publicly non-binary U.S. state lawmaker in 2020, described Nex’s death as “a direct result of a failed administration in a public school that didn’t value the life of a trans student.” The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Oklahoma, and Lambda Legal issued a statement that “The assault on Nex is an inevitable result of the hateful rhetoric and discriminatory legislation targeting Oklahoma trans youth.”
Nex was born in El Paso, Texas. Their biological father relinquished all parental rights when she was two months old and is in prison for abuse. Nex was raised and adopted by her grandmother, Sue Benedict., who is a member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. Nex was not affiliated with the tribe.
On the day of the last attack, Nex told police that the girls assaulted her in the lavatory.
“They came at me. They grabbed on my hair. I grabbed onto them. I threw one of them into a paper towel dispenser and then they got my legs out from under me and got me on the ground,” said Nex who said she was beaten by the girls, and lost consciousness.
Asked by police why Nex didn’t report the bullies’ conduct, she replied, “I didn’t really see the point in it.”
The day after the assault, Susan Benedict found that Nex had collapsed in the family’s living room. Emergency medical technicians arrived to find Nex had died. Toxicology results later showed that Nex had died after ingesting the sedative diphenhydramine and Prozac, an anti-depressant.
In Alabama, the latest target of anti-trans bigots is Molly Bowman, a biological male who identifies as a female. Bowman, a student at Lawson State Community College in Birmingham, was hired to work as an overnight counselor at Space Camp USA Huntsville.
The camp is on the grounds of the U.S. Space & Rocket Center museum near NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. It provides residential and educational programs for children and adults on topics such as space exploration, aviation, and robotics. Run by the Alabama Space Science Exhibit Commission, more than 900,000 campers have attended since its inception in 1982, including several NASA and European Space Agency (ESA) astronauts.
A firestorm of self-righteous protest began after Clay Yarbrough, a parent whose daughter is enrolled at the camp, posted on Facebook that he did not want a “freak” working with his daughter and demanded that Bowman not be permitted to work at the camp. Republican politicians expressed indignant outrage and wasted no time in joining the attack in a state which is as unwelcoming and fearful of the transgender community as is Oklahoma.
“It is imperative that Space Camp remains a safe place for children and young people,” said Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala. “I urge the Space and Rocket Center to ensure that its reputation as a world-renowned camp remains untarnished by the progressive agenda of today.”
State Rep. Mack Butler offered his uninformed comments about the dangers of transgender people mingling with children.
“I know we’re all pretending that this is normal, this is natural,” Butler said. “You’ve got doctors saying this is real. But up until Obama, it was always a mental defect. And he kind of popularized it. And some of it is a fad that is almost becoming a religion with some of these people. You know, we absolutely love these people. We don’t want to hurt anybody or offend anybody. They can pretend all they want. We don’t have to pretend with them. But I do not believe they need to be in charge of children.”
Others who joined the assault included Rep. Dale Strong, R-Ala., Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., and Rep. Gary Palmer, R-Ala.
The issue garnered national attention after it was picked up by Libs of TikTok.
“Many concerned parents are reaching out to us about an alarming situation unfolding at @SpaceCampUSA. Molly Bowman is a man pretending to be a woman who works as a team lead and hall monitor at @SpaceCampUSA for young children,” Raichik wrote on Monday in a tweet that has been viewed more than 2 million times.
The anti-LGBTQ lobby has also been mobilized in Maine to fight a proposal that would make the state a “transgender safe haven.” Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, in a letter signed by 15 other southern attorneys general, threatened to sue Maine if lawmakers approve a bill to shield doctors performing “gender affirming” health care procedures from lawsuits.
The bill would protect patients and health care providers who perform transgender care, abortions or provide in-vitro fertilization, procedures that are illegal in some other states. It would legally protect medical providers and compel the state not to cooperate with lawsuits for performing such care. The bill also could allow for the concealment of medical records from entities pursuing legal action against providers or patients involved in that care.
Since 2022, 15 states have enacted similar shield or refuge laws, protecting medical providers from legal action for providing transgender health care to people who live in states where such care is illegal.
Skrmetti claimed the Maine proposal is an attempt to “contravene” the laws of other states “by imposing on the rest of the country Maine’s views on hotly debated issues such as gender transition surgeries for children.”
“Maine has every right to decide what Maine’s laws are and how those laws should be enforced,” the attorneys general wrote. “But that same right applies to every state. One state cannot control another. The totalitarian impulse to stifle dissent and oppress dissenters has no place in our shared America. State officials would be dragged into legal battles in far-flung jurisdictions, thwarting their ability to focus on protecting their own citizens consistent with their own duly-enacted laws.”
Skrmetti has a history of opposing protections for the LGBTQ community. In January 2023, he filed a brief in support of a 2022 injunction against a sports competition under West Virginia’s 2021 “Save Women’s Sports Act,” preventing transgender students from participating in athletics on teams of “the opposite biological sex.”
Skrmetti also has been involved in drafting a state law restricting public drag performances.
In May 2023, Skrmetti accepted an award from the Tennessee Faith & Freedom Coalition, who proclaimed him a “Defender of Freedom” for his work as attorney general. The group is a self-proclaimed conservative, Christian, anti-Marxist organization.
Another bill pending in Maine would protect gender-affirming health care for transgender minors. The bill provides protections for trans youth and their parents for seeking gender-affirming care as well as having the state take emergency custody of abused trans children if the child is within its borders.
Raichik has joined in the battle against the Maine proposal, making misleading claims about the proposal. Her post incorrectly claimed that the new bill would allow the state to take custody of children if their parents oppose gender transition procedures, including surgery and hormone therapy.
“New proposed bill in Maine says the state can take custody of a kid if the parents oppose s*x change surgery and the chemical castration of their kids,” she wrote, urging people to email legislators whose email addresses she posted.
Another bill that has been approved by the Maine Legislature and is awaiting the governor’s signature, requires MaineCare, the state’s Medicaid program, to cover gender affirming care.
Twenty states currently restrict gender-affirming care for minors and about half a dozen states are considering putting a ban on gender affirming care for people under 18.
Other far right extremists have jumped in against Maine’s new proposals.
Former Fox News and NBC journalist Megyn Kelly retweeted Raichik’s post and added, “This is SICK! Bombard them with emails. This cannot pass.”
Donald Trump Jr. didn’t miss a chance to harangue the LGBTQ community and Democrats.
“They want full control of your kids. They want parents to have no say so they can do whatever they want. These people are evil and insane. Stop this madness,” said the son of the former president.
Republican state Rep. David Haggan, a middle school social studies teacher, added to the confusion with his own frightening misinformation.
“This bill authorizes the kidnapping and massacring of children from other states without parental consent,” Haggan said.
The bill, LD 1735, does not allow the state to take custody in cases of parental opposition to gender-affirming procedures. The bill does block the enforcement of subpoenas and arrests related to gender-affirming health care if such actions are based on the laws of another state that conflict with Maine’s protections. LD 1735 also would enable certain teens from states that have banned child gender-affirming care, including Kentucky or Mississippi , to come to Maine, with or without their family, and access treatment.
At the same time that Republicans are increasing their assaults on LGBTQ rights and protections, they also are campaigning to criminalize and dehumanize immigrants.
The latest example of the campaign against immigration involved Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student at Augusta (Ga.) University, who was abducted and killed on Feb. 22 while she was jogging at the University of Georgia (UGA) in Athens.
Jose Antonio Ibarra, an undocumented immigrant from Venezuela, was charged in the murder. Ibarra had previously been arrested in New York for endangering a child, and he was cited in Georgia for misdemeanor shoplifting in October 2023 along with his brother, Diego Ibarra.
Republicans were quick to capitalize on the arrest as a symptom of Biden failures to police the southern border.
Rep. Mike Collins, R-Ga., representing the district where the murder occurred, invited Riley’s parents to attend the president’s State of the Union Speech last week “to honor Laken and all American victims of illegal alien crime.” The parents declined the offer.
Two other lawmakers introduced the Laken Riley Act, a measure requiring federal immigration authorities to arrest and detain illegal immigrants charged with local theft or burglary. The sponsors are Sen. Ted Budd, R-N.C., and Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., who generated national criticism by her comments after Biden’s State of the Union speech. A companion bill in the House was introduced by Collins.
The measure would require U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to arrest undocumented immigrants who commit theft, burglary, larceny or shoplifting offenses and mandate that those who commit such crimes are detained until they are removed from the United States. The bill also would ensure that states have standing to bring civil actions against federal officials who refuse to enforce immigration law or who violate the law.
“Make no mistake, Laken Riley’s heartbreaking murder was a direct, preventable consequence of willful open border policies by President Biden and his administration,” Britt said. “This commonsense legislation would ensure ICE detains and deports criminal illegal aliens, so more innocent American families do not have to face this kind of unimaginable tragedy.”
Budd was equally up to the task of politicizing a tragedy.
“States should be able to protect their citizens from the Biden administration’s lawless, open border policies by seeking relief in federal court,” Budd said. “That’s why I am joining Sen. Britt to introduce the Senate version of the Laken Riley Act.”
Collins, who represents Georgia’s 10th Congressional District of Athens, the scene of the attack, said the murder is a “wake-up call” for America and that the measure seeks to combat the “illegal crime wave” that he attributes to the ongoing border crisis.
Studies, both nationally and in big cities, consistently show that migrants are far less likely to commit crimes or be convicted of acts of violence than native-born Americans.
Trump has campaigned strongly on claims that Biden is to blame for millions of immigrants entering and “poisoning” the nation. Last weekend, Trump met with Riley’s parents, Jason Riley and Allyson Phillips, during a campaign stop in Rome, Ga.
In an interview by the right wing Breitbart News, trump said the parents “are great people. They lost an angel.” Trump went on to claim that Biden had shown the Riley family “no compassion” in the wake of the murder. Biden had mentioned Riley in his State of the Union address after being taunted by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who called on Biden to “say her name,” words that were imprinted on a pin created by Republicans and memorializing Reilly’s death.
“They’ve been shown no compassion from Biden other than he called out the name with the wrong name,” trump said. “He only called it out because Marjorie Taylor Greene shamed him. It’s like he picked up the pin to try to read it and he didn’t read it very well. These are people who can’t believe what happened to them and can’t believe what he’s doing. They’ll never be the same.”
Trump also referred to “Angel Families,” a term used to describe families of victims killed by undocumented immigrants. Trump has invoked Angel Families to argue for his immigration policy, though some of the families have objected to the politicization of their loved one’s death.
Trump said the left despises the Angel Families.
“They’re hated by the liberals. They’re hated,” Trump said. “The Angel Moms love Trump. The whole thing is crazy. Yet the liberal media and the liberals generally treat them horribly.”
The GOP reaction was painfully familiar to the July 18, 2018, murder of Mollie Cecilia Tibbetts, a 20-year-old University of Iowa student who was murdered by 24-year-old Cristhian Bahena Rivera. Rivera was found guilty of murder and was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Rivera’s immigration status became a politicized issue after it was learned that he had been in the United States illegally. The trump administration and some Republicans, including Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, argued the murder could have been prevented with more restrictive immigration policies.