From a press release:
TULSA, OKLAHOMAOn Feb. 28, more than 350 national, state, and local organizations advocating for equality across the U.S., alongside notable public figures, issued an open letter to Oklahoma legislative leadership urging justice for Nex Benedict, a 16-year-old 2STGNC+ (Two Spirit, transgender, and gender nonconforming+) student of Choctaw heritage who died following an attack in a restroom at Owasso High School in Oklahoma earlier this month.
The letter calls for the immediate removal of Oklahoma state superintendent of public instruction, Ryan Walters, who has a long history of anti-2SLGBTQI+ (two spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex+) rhetoric and policies; and an investigation into the Oklahoma Department of Education to determine what actions and policies have led to a culture where rampant harassment of 2SLGBTQI+ students has been allowed to go unchecked. The letter reads in part:
"We are outraged that a climate of hate and bigotry has been not only allowed to thrive, but encouraged by the person who is responsible for education in the state of Oklahoma. State officials must be held accountable for bringing the politics of hate into Oklahoma's schools and making our most vulnerable youth pay the price."
Signers span Oklahoma-specific civil rights groups, churches and faith denominations, legal groups and unions, and more, to national education and youth advocacy groups, civil rights organizations, women's rights leaders, and equality groups in neighboring states.
In addition to organizational signers, notable names including Kristin Chenoweth, Demi Lovato, Cynthia Nixon, k.d. lang, Jonathan Van Ness, Amy Schneider, Peppermint, ALOK, Emma Roberts and Tommy Dorfman all joined onto the letter.
Nicole McAfee, executive director of Freedom Oklahoma, said in a statement, "The same week as Oklahoma and much of the world was grappling with the news of a 16-year-old Indigenous, 2STGNC+ student left dead after experiencing head trauma in a bathroom fight that involved anti-trans bullying, State Superintendent Ryan Walters and his gubernatorial appointed school board unanimously passed fifteen administrative rules that did everything from ban DEI programs to name Judeo Christian values as the foundations of Oklahoma public education. It's yet another example that not only is Walters out of touch with the needs of Oklahoma students, teachers, and families, but he is willing to continue his work to make public schools in Oklahoma hostile for 2SLGBTQ+ and BIPOC students, no matter the cost. ... There will never truly be justice for a dead student, but Nex's community deserves, at minimum, a full investigation of the State Department of Education, and an end to the Ryan Walters regime."
The letter was organized by Freedom Oklahoma, which works to build an Oklahoma where all 2SLGBTQ+ people have the safety to thrive; the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation's largest LGBTQ+ civil rights organization; GLAAD, the world's leading LGBTQ media advocacy organization; and GLSEN, a multi-racial intergenerational LGBTQ+ organization working nationally and locally to transform K-12 educational systems in the United States.