2-spirit and Indigiqueer communities mourn non-binary teen's death in Oklahoma
CBC
Members of the two-spirit, Indigiqueer, and Indigenous transgender communities are mourning the death of a non-binary 16-year-old teen in Oklahoma earlier this month.
Nex Benedict died the day after a violent confrontation in a high school bathroom in Owasso, Okla., near Tulsa. Owasso police said in a statement preliminary autopsy results indicate the teen did not die as a result of injuries sustained in the fight.
Benedict's mother is enrolled with the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and the school where the incident took place is located within the Cherokee Nation reservation. Benedict's family said Benedict experienced bullying from their classmates due to their gender identity.
The story has sparked cross-border reaction from 2SLGBTQ+ community members, reflecting on their own experiences as well as the current climate for Indigenous youth.
"Many of us are in mourning," said Jade Lacosse, an Anishinaabe and adopted Tlingit two-spirit trans woman in Whitehorse.
"This was a young child that very few of us were directly connected to but they're still a relative, they are still a two-spirit relative in the way that our community sees things. Something that affects one of us affects all of us."
Lacosse said the statement from police appears to be about placing blame rather than taking responsibility for discrimination.
"A young two-spirit child, one of our relations, died … and it's a direct result of transphobia," Lacosse said.
"The way that they died doesn't change that."
Shawnee Kish, a Mohawk two-spirit singer-songwriter and activist, said it's "horribly sad."
"There's a 16-year-old young person that should have lived an entire life and now doesn't get the chance to," Kish said.
Kish, whose mother is from Six Nations of the Grand River in Ontario, said what happened to Nex hits close to home.
Kish said that she received several messages after posting Nex's story on social media, some from other Indigenous people denying the existence of two-spirit people currently and pre-colonially.
"It's hard to know that that mentality, belief system, that hate … still exists and it's very very strong," she said.
