Vigil attendees crowded the pews, aisle and back hall of the West Hollywood United Church of Christ, with many sitting outside and watching through UCC's Facebook Livestream (Gladys B. Vargas / CALÓ News)
More than a hundred community members overflowed the West Hollywood United Church of Christ (UCC) in Hollywood Sunday night to honor the life and death of Oklahoma teenager Nex Benedict.
Benedict was a 16-year-old trans student of Choctaw ancestry who died suddenly on Feb. 8, the day after they were involved in a physical altercation with three older girls in an Owasso High School bathroom. As the public awaits official autopsy results confirming the cause of Benedict’s sudden death, supporters in several states have organized gatherings to honor his life, and advocate for trans youth like him.
Organizers Xodiak Rose, Ryan Cassata, and Shane Ivan Nash coordinated the Feb. 26 service, which included remarks from BIPOC trans or two-spirit leaders and advisory board members, and local politicians. The ceremonies also featured creative performances by Rose, Drag King Twinka Masala, and the Trans Chorus of Los Angeles.
“Nex Benedict, I did not know you, but I pray for you and this is the best way I know how,” Anthony Daniel Padilla, a Trans Advisory Board Member for the city of West Hollywood, said after reciting a Catholic prayer in Spanish. “I pray for you and everyone in our trans community that is dying just because there are people who don’t understand us.”
Vigil attendees were invited to write prayers honoring the range of their emotions. Photo by Gladys B. Vargas
Nonbinary Trans Latina activist Rose Montoya spoke against the bathroom bill signed by Oklahoma governor Kevin Stitt in 2023, which began requiring public school students to use bathrooms for their gender assigned at birth. According to the Independent, who spoke with Benedict’s mother, students started bullying Benedict only a few months after Gov. Stitt signed the bill into law.
“It was absolutely no coincidence that this happened in a public restroom,” Montoya said. “Nex was forced to use the bathroom of their assigned gender after the state legislature signed a bill aimed to, in their words, ‘protect children.’ I would like to ask though, how is our government protecting trans and nonbinary children?”
“We exist because we protect us,” Rose said in their remarks. “We exist because we stand up for us.”
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