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tigerrsmn · 2 months

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"Say their name!"

Call and response at the Twin Cities vigil for Nex Benedict, organized by Thomas Edison High Gender and Sexuality Alliance.

[It is important to say their name. What’s their name?

(Crowd) Nex Benedict!

Say their name.

(Crowd) Nex Benedict!

Say their name.

(Crowd) Nex Benedict!]

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tigerrsmn · 2 months

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"You all being here is just a wonderful moment and just a wonderful thing."

Thomas Edison High student speaking at the Twin Cities vigil for Nex Benedict, organized by Thomas Edison High Gender and Sexuality Alliance.

[I had no intentions of speaking tonight, but I figured I might as well. Like so many of us standing up here on this stage tonight, I am a student of Edison High School, and hearing about what happened to Nex made me really think about what is going on in the world, in the country, just kind of everywhere. And again, I had no intentions of coming up here tonight.

(Crowd) Proud of you!

So I don't really have much to say aside from what I've heard about Nex, I would have loved to have meet them, and I thought we might have could have been friends had I had the opportunity to one day maybe down the line. And you all being here is just a wonderful moment and just a wonderful thing. So, yeah. Thank you.]

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tigerrsmn · 2 months

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"Don't go home tonight and think this is the end, that you did your job, that you don't have to do anything after this. The fight never stops."

A student organizer gives closing remarks and thanks community for coming out to the Twin Cities vigil for Nex Benedict, organized by Thomas Edison High Gender and Sexuality Alliance. (transcript below)

[I just wanted to thank you all for coming today. It really means a lot to all of us and a lot of people here.

(Crowd) Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! You're amazing! Y'all are amazing!

I just want to say one more thing. Like, don't go home tonight and think this is the end, that you did your job, that you don't have to do anything after this. The fight never stops. It is lifelong. It is sadly going to keep happening for generations unless we do something about it. So keep fighting. Thank you for coming. Thanks.

(Crowd) Thank you. Thank you!]

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tigerrsmn · 2 months

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"We're here demanding that we are treated better."

Keeda Johnson, Thomas Edison High School student, speaking at the Twin Cities vigil for Nex Benedict, organized by Thomas Edison Gender and Sexuality Alliance. (transcript below)

[My name is Keeda Johnson. I'm a student at Edison High School, and I wanted to say that right now in the bathrooms, we have two gender neutral bathrooms. They are single stalls and they all have a lock and their own sink. They're almost always occupied by somebody doing something they're not supposed to be doing in those bathrooms.

It's hard to go to a gender neutral bathroom at our school. We often have to go to the nurse and ask to go to the nurse to go to the bathroom like we're sick. It's unacceptable. We're here demanding that we are treated better. And even though people love to point to the fact that gay marriage is legal and say that there's no more homophobia in the country, but there is, and it's continuing to happen.

Today at the vigil, we have channeled an amazing energy, and we have a good community together. And the students talking are also going to talk about the student union. There's going to be a student union. And it's--we have some posters and flyers for it, and we'd love to community organize and do more things like this by students, for students. We’ve got to stand up for what we need. It's true. Education is our right. So there's some flyers and any student interested, come and get some right here. All right.]

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tigerrsmn · 2 months

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"I don't want to hear in another 25, that we have another Matthew Shepard, that we have another Nex Benedict. We need to protect our kids now."

Amelia Marquez (she/they), Thomas Edison High teacher, speaking at the Twin Cities vigil for Nex Benedict, organized by Thomas Edison High Gender and Sexuality Alliance. (transcript below)

[My name is Miss Amelia Marquez, as I am commonly getting told I am now. Um, my pronouns are she and they and I apologize, I lost my voice last night, uh, screaming at somebody that said that educators are only worth a 3% wage increase.

(Crowd) You sound great.

(Crowd 2) Yeah, you sound great.

I see you. Um, as a teacher--as a trans and two spirit teacher--I want to offer all of my sympathies to my little cousin, Nex. Things like this should not be happening. But I can tell you, as somebody that grew up and is a trans refuge here in your lovely state from the state of Montana, that it continues to happen. I have students that I had to leave back in Montana that continued to beg, that I can help them, that their home was not safe for them, that they needed protection. But I needed to take care of myself. I needed to put my air mask on before I protected other people, and I promised them I would not stop fighting for them a single day of my life. My students are precious to me. Absolutely precious. They also get me to do wild things like this. I plea with each and every one of you, especially my cisgender friends and relatives, and in our lovely crowd tonight.

Please don't stop talking. Get out there. These kids should not be afraid to go to the bathroom in our public schools here in Minneapolis, in Saint Paul. It is necessary that our school districts start to look at the funding that was passed this legislative session, thanks to that fucking phenomenal queer caucus--sorry kids--and that we start to actually make change happen. Real change doesn't happen from the top down. Real change happens from the bottom up. And we need, we need for our school districts here in the city as a trans refuge area, to start to act, to start to make these schools safer, to make it so that those little babies back in Montana have a place when they get over here. Because I can tell you, many of them in conservative America are planning to come out here. Please make it a safe place for them. Make it so we do not have future situations. I don't want to hear in another 25, that we have another Matthew Shepard, that we have another Nex Benedict. We need to protect our kids now. Thank you.]

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tigerrsmn · 2 months

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"Demand justice for Nex Benedict and students like them."

Thomas Edison High School student, Jake Crowl, speaking at the Twin Cities vigil for Nex Benedict, organized by Thomas Edison High Gender and Sexuality Alliance. (transcript below)

[Um, so I am actually our next speaker. Hello. My name is Jake Crowl. I'm an 18 year old transgender student at Thomas Edison High School in North East Minneapolis. Nex Benedict was a 16 year old non-binary and two spirit child of the Choctaw Nation. Nex was a straight-A student at Owasso High School in Oklahoma. They had a beautiful cat named Zeus. They loved cooking and being in nature. They loved comics like The Walking Dead and playing Minecraft. Nex was out for just 28 days as non-binary to their peers before their passing.

I'm so, so sorry that your peers failed you. I'm sorry that your school failed you. I'm sorry that everyone who was supposed to be protecting you failed to do so. Rest in peace, Nex Benedict. You were a beautiful soul and a wonderful human. I hope you understand how much you were loved and how much you are cherished.

This October will mark 25 years since the torture and death of Matthew Shepard. After 25 years, why are our transgender and two spirit children still not safe in schools? Why are our babies dying and no one is doing anything? I come before you to beg your representatives, to beg your schools to protect, to demand solid protections for our transgender and two spirit students. Demand justice for Nex Benedict and students like them.]

#nex benedict #protect intersex lives #protect trans youth #protect trans lives #protect trans kids #native lives matter #community #nonbinary #vigil #anti trans violence #mmir #trans rights #minneapolis #twin cities #minnesota #enby #gnc #matthew shepard

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tigerrsmn · 2 months

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"Many decades ago, I transitioned and I have not one single regret. And here's what I can tell you from that perspective. Cultivate your strength. And when you don't feel strong any longer, turn to your loved ones and your community and find more strength with them and cultivate your resilience. And when you feel like you can't go on any longer, find someone's hand to hold and go on together. Cultivate your joy, because living well indeed is a good revenge. But cultivate your joy. And when it seems to have fled, throw a party and let other people bring trans and queer and non-binary and two spirit joy to you, and lend your brilliant strength and resilience and joy to everyone else who needs it."

Rev. Justin Sabia-Tanis, associate professor at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, speaking at the Twin Cities vigil for Nex Benedict, organized by Thomas Edison High Gender and Sexuality Alliance. (transcript below)

[As a trans man standing before you today, I declare to you, you are standing on holy ground. This is holy ground because we remember Nex Benedict. It is holy ground because we gather as non-binary, as two-spirit, as trans people, and as those who support and love us. You are in a sacred place tonight. There is so much living and loving art and beauty from Nex that the world will miss, because Nex is no longer among us. And we grieve in this circle tonight.

And I worked teaching ethics and justice, and I see people out there who are perpetuating lies about us, saying that we are a danger when we are the ones in danger, that we are a threat when we are threatened. In order to get more votes or make more talking points, they lie and say that they are protecting vulnerable young people from extremism when it is their extreme laws that force children and teens and young people into increasingly violent circumstances. We know they are lying because if they genuinely cared about us, they would be outraged at every incident that happens in the bathroom. Every child bullied and beaten would be a cause for outrage as it is for us. But they are silent.

If they cared, they would stand up each and every time one of us is hurled threats or fists against us. And they do not. And worst of all, they're using their religion and faith to justify their lies and their silence and their bias. Those who make anti-trans laws and encourage their passage are complicit in the deaths and the acts of violence that occur because of what they say and because of the laws that they pass. And we must--

(Crowd) Say it again!

Those who make anti-trans laws and encourage their passage are complicit in each act of violence that occurs because of what they say against us and the laws they pass. We must and will hold them accountable for their actions. So let me tell you the truth. The Bible they cite is filled with calls to love your neighbor as yourself and to care for those who are different and those who are vulnerable. I won't go into it, but there are story after story in which eunuch people who live outside the binary are the heroes of the story, the ones who are included. And the Bible says that all of creation, including each and every one of us, is good and very good. Never believe anyone who tells you otherwise. Whether or not you're a person of faith, I hope you hear this message that you are good, very, very good at the core of your being. I believe that God calls each of us to discover our authentic self and our very heart, and that living that truth, living that authenticity, is being faithful to the holy voice that you hear within you.

Many decades ago, I transitioned and I have not one single regret. And here's what I can tell you from that perspective. Cultivate your strength. And when you don't feel strong any longer, turn to your loved ones and your community and find more strength with them and cultivate your resilience. And when you feel like you can't go on any longer, find someone's hand to hold and go on together. Cultivate your joy, because living well indeed is a good revenge. But cultivate your joy. And when it seems to have fled, throw a party and let other people bring trans and queer and non-binary and two spirit joy to you, and lend your brilliant strength and resilience and joy to everyone else who needs it. This is holy ground tonight. It is holy because we gather here to remember Nex Benedict. It is holy because you and I are here and we are sacred, holy people. Thank you.]

#nex benedict #trans rights #protect trans kids #protect trans youth #protect trans lives #protect intersex lives #nonbinary #gnc #two spirit #mmir #faith #twin cities #minneapolis #minnesota #vigil #anti trans violence

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tigerrsmn · 2 months

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"Let the memories of our lost loved ones be the heavenly firmament that lights our loving, joyful liberation movement for all to see. Let us commit together to remember Nex's light, and let us once more recommit to doing everything in our power to never be here again."

Rep. Leigh Finke (she/her) speaking at the Twin Cities vigil for Nex Benedict, organized by Thomas Edison Gender and Sexuality Alliance. (transcript below)

[Hello, everyone. Can you hear me in the back? I don't think I can turn it up, but I can try to raise my voice. Okay. Excuse me. Hello, everyone. I am so moved to see you all here this evening. Despite the tragic circumstances that have brought us here, I am grateful to be with you. I feel the goodness and the strength and the power of our gathering, as I always do when the trans community convenes. If you don't know me, my name is Leigh Finke. My pronouns are she, her, hers. I serve in the Minnesota Legislature and am the chair of the queer legislative caucus. I am here at the invitation of Thomas Edison High Gender and Sexuality Alliance. Thank you so much to the student organizers behind this event for recognizing--yes, yes--for recognizing the importance of gathering us here together to grieve for Nex Benedict.

Nex died in Oklahoma 15 days ago, one day after they were assaulted in the bathroom of Owasso High School. They were a stranger to us up here in Minnesota, but Nex is part of our queer family. In the 15 days since Nex's death, we have learned that they loved hard rock music and playing Minecraft. We have heard about their love for their cat, Zeus. We have heard of the light and the big dreams that Nex carried inside of them. According to loved ones, Nex had a caring and generous spirit. Nex sounds like the kind of kid we would all have loved to know. It is tragic to learn of such a wonderful life only after that life has been ended by violence.

In the days since this news broke, I find myself unable to stop apologizing to Nex. I am sorry for what happened to you. I am sorry that you will not live to find your way in this world, that you will not find love and feel heartbreak and find love again, once or twice or ten times over. I am sorry that you won't experience the radical joy of queer adulthood. I am sorry that you will not live the fullest realities of a whole human life. You should have had that. You deserved to have everything and you won't. And I am so sorry. And tonight, seeing so many young faces gathered here for this purpose, I want to say to you also, I am sorry. I am sorry to all of the trans and non-binary and two spirit people. Whatever age you are, whatever stage you are at in your process of becoming, whether you are out or not yet out or not yet even aware that one day you will be out; I am sorry. You should not have to live in a world where your kin are killed for the fact of their existence. You should not have to hold inside of you what you feel tonight. And finally, I am sorry to have to tell you that you always will. This is the tragic reality of the movement for queer liberation.

There is a timeline of death that binds us. 30 years from now, you will tell people that 2024 is the year Nex Benedict died. You will tell them how this moment shaped you. You will remember Nex in your mind forever. Whichever image it is that you conjure up here tonight, in your mind, you will hold it forever. You will carry Nex with you as my generation of queers carry Matthew Shepard with us. I was 17 in 1998 when Matthew was murdered by his peers in a small town in Wyoming. I was a closeted queer kid at the time, and I cried and cried like we all did. In my mind right now, I see Matthew in black and white, holding a phone between his head and his shoulder. I don't know why this photo of Matthew was the one that I have clung to, but I see it when I think of him. You will carry Nex with you, as many of us carry Brandon Teena. Brandon, I see in color, an old worn photo of a young man, unsmiling, blinking into the camera. He sits in a car on some night on some road in some small town in Nebraska. Just a random photo splashed across a newspaper in the 90s and on the internet, taken not long before Brandon was murdered by his peers in 1993. These are the faces seared in my brain, but they are not the only ones that should be. In the years since the murders of Brandon and Matthew countless black, brown and indigenous members of our trans and queer family have been murdered. Dozens of our family members are murdered every year across the country. Savannah Ryan Williams, descendant of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa, was murdered only two months ago, not far from where we stand.

And now we are gathered for our non-binary family member, Nex Benedict, descendant from the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, killed by their peers at 16. 16 years old and a whole life ahead. It is too heartbreaking. It is too common. Nex has taken their place on the timeline of our losses. Let the memories of our lost loved ones be the heavenly firmament that lights our loving, joyful liberation movement for all to see. Let us commit together to remember Nex's light, and let us once more recommit to doing everything in our power to never be here again. Thank you.]

#nex benedict #minneapolis #minnesota #twin cities #state legislatures #leigh finke #protect trans kids #protect trans youth #protect intersex lives #gnc #nonbinary #mmir #brandon teena #matthew shepard #savannah ryan williams #trans rights

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tigerrsmn · 2 months

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GSA student organizer, Kam, speaking at the Twin Cities vigil for Nex Benedict, organized by Thomas Edison High Gender and Sexuality Alliance. (transcript below)

[Hello, my name is Kam and this is something I wrote for Nex and his family.

Sorry for what you had to go through alone in that short period of time. Sorry that you couldn't feel safe. And to your family, I send my deepest remorse for the pain they have to feel and now experience. I wish the world was safe for queer people, but there are battles and looks everywhere we go. The best we can do is at least try to fight back, even if it's only a little. To those fighting their battles alone, please do know that you aren't alone. ]

#nex benedict #vigil #protect trans lives #protect trans kids #protect trans youth #trans rights #trans community #community #twin cities #minneapolis #minnesota #protect intersex lives #gnc #nonbinary #enby #activism

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tigerrsmn · 2 months

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Twin Cities vigil for Nex Benedict, organized by Thomas Edison High Gender and Sexuality Alliance.

#nex benedict #protect trans kids #protect trans lives #protect trans youth #transgender #nonbinary #intersex #protect intersex lives #gnc #enby #activism #vigil #trans rights #minneapolis #minnesota #twin cities

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tigerrsmn · 2 months

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"...we will not let despair win. We will see Nex in all the community and things that bring us joy. We will organize and fight, rest, rinse and repeat. We will see Nex in each other and so we will honor and care and protect one another. And we will honor and care and protect our trans kids so this doesn’t happen again."

The incredible co-founder of and Intersex Services Coordinator for TIGERRS, Ly Chayim (they/it/he), speaking at the Twin Cities vigil for Nex Benedict, organized by Thomas Edison High Gender and Sexuality Alliance. (transcript below)

[Ly Two Electric Boogaloo! Hello, everyone. Before I start my speech I also just want to bring light to Jacob Williamson who was an eighteen year old who also died in the past week. He was a trans man. I just have not seen people talking about him and I wanted to have a moment for him. Also before I start the speech I’d like to say “Hello” and “Thank you for being here” on behalf of Representative Liish Kozlowski who couldn’t be here because they have to be there for their own kiddo, but we talked earlier this week and they would like me to remind you that Nex and Savannah are a part of the Missing and Murdered Women and Two-Spirit Indigenous Relatives we have lost. We must uplift and fight for MMIR as much as we fight for trans youth as a whole.

Notes from this week:

I get to make a house I don’t need to go in debt for and also travel without using a car.

It’s building, exploring, crafting, adventuring, and just having fun.

It’s basically just a normal sandbox game with more creatures.

Um, the cats of course. Another note: (From a google search) Zeus is considered the ruler, protector, and father of all humans.

I promise these are not random notes in my notebook. Zeus is the name of Nex’s cat and one of Nex’s favorite games was Minecraft. I work at TIGERRS, an organization for Trans, Intersex, and Gender-Expansive kids — an organization that is youth lead and where those youth decided to create a Minecraft server an exact week before Nex’s murder. And I will be calling it a murder. These are our kids’ favorite things about the game. Nex was sixteen. They liked rock music and head banging. They were kind. They were a straight-A student. And the worst part is, they shouldn’t of had to be. They should have been able to be failing every class, to have been kind of a jerk, and to have the most niche interests the world has ever heard of. They shouldn’t have had to work to be respected. They were a child. They deserved to just be respected. But the beautiful thing is despite how terrible world the can be, they were kind, they were patient. They were remembered for lights, for being a light. Which is why you are here today.

I see Nex in the kids I work with. I see Nex in my little sibling, the same age as them, in them being sixteen, tenth grade, loving Minecraft, nonbinary, and asking them their favorite things about the game. And them looking in the mirror and seeing Nex’s burial shroud instead of their own reflections. When Nex was attacked, they were attacked with another trans friend. A friend who deserves and needs support right now. A friend who deserves flowers and light while they’re still alive, much like the kids here. Nex’s sister is also queer, also dealing with the hate their sibling faces. Our kids here deal with the same, seeing people like them once again not making it to old age. And so in the name of Nex’s love for their friend and their sibling, we will not let despair win. We will see Nex in all the community and things that bring us joy. We will organize and fight, rest, rinse and repeat. We will see Nex in each other and so we will honor and care and protect one another. And we will honor and care and protect our trans kids so this doesn’t happen again. Minnesota is intimately intertwined with what just happened in Oklahoma. We just lost Savannah in Minneapolis to a similar murder. A murder that is using the Trans Panic Defense to plead “not guilty”. The Trans Panic Defense needs to be banned in Minnesota.

This is the homework I am assigning to you today:

Contact your representatives, they’re trying to pass anti trans legislation here and we will not let that happen (I have the website on how to find your rep here up front if you wanna come up here) And you’re going to yell at them for making this state a trans refuge state, but not protecting our native trans siblings from murder. Side note: shoutout to Leigh Finke, who just spoke, Liish Kozlowski, Athena Hollins for doing the work. We see you, we love you, and we need you.

Find a trans youth in the crowd, take the crumpled $20 in your pocket and give it to them so they can go buy a rock album or go to the cat cafe or buy Minecraft or whatever else trans kids don’t get to do because we make them grow up too early. And you will ask them their favorite things, and all of the trans people in your life their favorite things. So if something happens they are not just known as a number. They’re known for naming a cat Zeus, for being patient, for teaching their friends how to head bang safely (by the way, if you’re going to head bang, please do that).

In the words of Aurora Levins Morales, slightly tweaked for tonight, “Imagine winning, this is your sacred task, this is your power. Imagine every detail of winning, the exact smell of the summer streets in which children celebrate themselves, not as an act of revolution, but as an act of every day life. Hold hands, share water, keep imagining so that we and the children of our children’s children can live.” Our struggles are always holding hands. From the genocide of Palestinians, to the genocide of trans people, to the genocide of Native folks and the genocide of people who are in the center of that Venn Diagram. We must be steadfast in solidarity.

This murder happened after attacks on their school district by Chaiya Raichik and Ryan Walters — may they be haunted forever — for having a queer teacher. As school board races start here, pay attention. Do whatever you can to make schools safer for trans students and Native students here. Reach out to trans students across their state borders when you can. Cis people, do better. I do not just mean cis men. Cis women, also get your act together. Kids shouldn’t be fighting for themselves, that’s our job. It is also our job to call an ambulance when needed. Be uncomfortable, invest in mutual aid, flood the streets with tambourines and singing and screaming and cries so that people must pay attention to your love for us. Trans folks, hold each other, uplift each other, also get out on the streets. They are yours. Another world is possible.

May Nex’s memory be a blessing, may be found in everything you do for community, may be rooted in the earth in the cycle of rebirth, may you remember them in stories of gods in the sky, may you remember that they were not alone. They were loved. They are still loved. And the fight continues on. There’s more to their memory than just an excuse and reason to fight, than just being a number, than a vigil. They’re when our kids say their favorite things with a smile. ]

#tigerrs #nex benedict #vigil #twin cities #minneosta #minneapolis #protect trans youth #protect trans kids #protect trans lives #protect intersex lives #transgender #gnc #nonbinary #intersex #nonprofit #activism #genderqueer #enby

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tigerrsmn · 2 months

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TIGERRS joined teens and families from the Twin Cities at a vigil for Nex Benedict on Friday. The vigil was hosted by Thomas Edison High Gender and Sexuality Alliance in North East Minneapolis.

#nex benedict #nonprofit #vigil #protect trans lives #protect trans kids #transgender #trans rights #trans community #community #twin cities #minneapolis #protect intersex lives #nonbinary #tigerrs #minnesota #intersex rights #genderqueer #enby #gnc

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tigerrsmn · 3 months

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Happy 5th birthday, TIGERRS! Here's a highlight of our last year and all the fun stuff we've been able to do with our community.

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