Expert: Nex Benedict Was ‘Abused and Mistreated’ Not Only by Her Father but also by ‘a Political Agenda’

In early February, tragic news headlines surfaced of the death of Nex Benedict, a 16-year-old girl who identified as nonbinary. The left-wing media characterized her as a victim of bullying over her self-proclaimed identity. Benedict was involved in a physical altercation at school on February 7, and on February 8, her passing was announced. A “transphobic slaying” is how some characterized the events. Since then, more details have emerged that cast doubt on this framing.

“The narrative that a 16-year-old nonbinary student’s death was the result of anti-LGBT bullying was too juicy a framing for much of the mainstream media to pass up,” National Review’s Brittany Bernstein wrote. “Now, after the release of Nex Benedict’s full autopsy report from the Oklahoma medical examiner on March 27, we know that Benedict’s death did not result from the alleged school attack by her peers. Instead, the death has been ruled a suicide, as there were ‘massive’ amounts of Benadryl in the teen’s blood.” Additionally, the medical examiner’s report revealed Benedict suffered from “bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety, self-harm (cutting), chronic tobacco abuse and chronic marijuana abuse.”

Evidently, Benedict, prior to the altercation, already had severe mental and physical trauma occurring in her life. But that doesn’t end with the abuse of drugs and the intense emotional burdens. Bernstein emphasized that “court records obtained by Red State reveal the girl grew up with a troubled home life, having been repeatedly sexually abused by her father from the time she was nine to eleven years old. She told investigators her father anally raped her when she was nine years old and that he had molested her for years.”

“It’s tremendously sad,” said guest host and former Congressman Jody Hice on Tuesday’s episode of “Washington Watch.” He added, “It provides, though, yet another example of how the Left’s extreme push of gender ideology can capture vulnerable children, who then all too often end up becoming casualties.”

Dr. Jennifer Bauwens, a licensed therapist and clinical researcher who serves as Family Research Council’s director of the Center for Family Studies, said that when she first saw the medical examiner report, “I thought to myself, this sounds like a trauma victim story. She had anxiety, depression, and she was self-harming and using substances like marijuana. She was using them chronically. These are all things that point to someone with a trauma history.”

According to Bauwens, these signs were fairly prominent and warranted a deeper investigation well before the time of her death. “But instead,” she continued, not only was Benedict “abused and mistreated in her lifetime, but now in her own death, she’s been abused and mistreated by a political agenda.” And it’s “so disheartening to see someone’s deep pain and abuse be used for the purposes of advancing an agenda,” Bauwens lamented.

Hice agreed, “It is … angering and maddening … how the Left jumps on this whole story for the purpose of pushing a radical, harmful left-wing agenda, accusing Republicans … of having blood on their hands for passing laws to try to … prevent this kind of thing.” And Bauwens emphasized that in addition to the Left’s tendency to quickly and wrongfully accuse others, “the facts are so lacking on their side, the science is so lacking.” When the facts and the science are increasingly showing how harmful transgender procedures are, Bauwens pointed out, “the only narrative that they really have is this idea … [that] kids are being bullied.”

Ultimately, she contended, “we have people who aren’t willing to look at root issues, and they’re just pushing an agenda and a narrative the best they can.” But the question, Hice said, is why is the Left “pushing policies that are so harmful to children? What is behind it?” Bauwens believes the answer to these questions has origins in the 20th century.

“You have a guy named Magnus Hirschfeld, and he started an organization” called “the Sexual Sciences and Eugenics,” she said, which then “influenced” Harry Benjamin to establish the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH). And these men were in the same circle as Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood. All of this ties together to form “the backdrop” of what eugenics is, Bauwens stated.

Bauwens went on to argue that in the realm of eugenics, “you’re playing God.” She continued, “You’re playing God with people and human beings,” because it’s rooted in “this idea that I can create my own world, my own reality.”

Bauwens conveyed that schools, specifically the Ivy Leagues, were originally created to “propagate the gospel” and “raise up missionaries.” But today, we see how the LGBT ideology, in particular, has infiltrated these institutions. The “spiritual component and mission has been twisted to where now they are pushing their own gospel,” Hice added.

It boils down to the fact, as Bauwens explained, that “this ideology … often finds its way into … vulnerable children … who’ve been broken in some way, who’ve been wounded in some way … [and] it further promotes a disconnection from that child’s true identity and to who God has truly created them to be.” The reality is, she asserted, “we have a generation that is very sexually broken, very broken in their identity,” and they need the church to be “ready to steward such a generation and also help raise them up.”

Lives are “transformed by an encounter with Christ,” which is important “not only for these children, but for our entire generation,” Hice concluded.