Funders for LGBTQ Issues is heartbroken by the loss of Nex Benedict, a nonbinary high school sophomore of Choctaw ancestry who died as a result of being brutally beaten at Owasso High School in Oklahoma. Nex was a straight-A student. They liked cats and Minecraft and they deserved to live a life full of joy, abundance and the most mundane aspects of everyday living. 

Their death, alongside the deaths of so many trans and gender expansive folks, was preventable and directly tied to the violence of the state. Over the last several years, we’ve seen legislative attacks on trans and gender nonconforming people skyrocket. We’ve seen youth policed for just trying to live authentic lives. These draconian assaults, as hard as they try, cannot hide the simple truth that trans people have always and will always continue to exist. 

At Funders for LGBTQ Issues, we are working toward our vision of a world where all queer, trans, and gender nonconforming people are liberated, loved, valued, respected, and thriving. It is hard at times like this to see this new world beyond the horror of the moment— where it is not only legislation but rhetoric that threatens the lives of our queer and trans youth of color. 

The moment we are living in is not normal. We are in a state of emergency and have been for years and we continue to call on philanthropy to fund this moment with the urgency it deserves. Living authentically should not be a death sentence; our youth deserve to live. 

So we keep fighting for them in honor of the lives of Nex and of other LGBTQ youth who met untimely deaths before them. We hope wherever they are that they are now free.