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| In his three years as state superintendent for Oklahoma’s public schools, Ryan Walters, a former high school history teacher, has transformed himself into one of the most strident culture warriors in a state known for sharp-edged conservative politics. Following the death earlier this month of a 16-year-old nonbinary student a day after an altercation in a high school girls’ bathroom, gay and transgender advocates accused Mr. Walters of having fomented an atmosphere of dangerous intolerance within public schools. In his first interview reacting to the death of the student, Nex Benedict, Mr. Walters told The New York Times that the death was a tragedy, but that it did not change his views on how questions of gender should be handled in schools. “There’s not multiple genders. There’s two. That’s how God created us,” Mr. Walters said, saying he did not believe that nonbinary or transgender people exist. He said that Oklahoma schools would not allow students to use preferred names or pronouns that differ from their birth sex. “You always treat individuals with dignity or respect, because they’re made in God’s image,” Mr. Walters said. “But that doesn’t change truth.” —The New York Times, February 23, 2024. A state senator [Oklahoma Republican State Sen. Tom Woods] said during a public forum in Tahlequah that LGBTQ+ people are “filth,” and that he and his constituents don’t want them in “our state.” —Tahlequah Daily Press, February 23, 2024. The police released video of the student, Nex Benedict, recounting the altercation a day before their death, which has drawn national scrutiny. —The New York Times, February 24, 2024 |
People insist flyover country
gets a bad rap. It’s a place of trigger
happy Trumpy fundamentalists
and bigots, dull and flat, filled with hate
incensed that Jackson could be replaced
by Tubman on the twenty where school
principals don’t call ambulances
when students are beaten for being
who they are and thanks to someone named
Chaya you can’t access the works of Toni
Morrison or Kwame Alexander don’t you dare
mention Harry Potter.
In the past I’ve insisted
you can find fine dining
excellent wine
and terrific company anywhere
beauty is in the eye of the beholder
the flatlands are profound places
perfect for soul searching silence
and now there are fine vineyards
everywhere, even places where few
people if anyone speak French.
But I feel prepared to recant
any previous defense
because you won’t be killed
for using a bathroom
just anywhere.
The State of Oklahoma has decided
it officially, legally hates people
who see themselves as people
first, rather than female or male
and so a person
—aren’t we all people first—
named Nex died
after they
used a bathroom for girls
but some other girls backed
by the State of Oklahoma
decided Nex shouldn’t
because they wouldn’t
say (like Beyoncé once did)
if I were a boy
it makes me think of the old bad days
when people of color had to piss
their pants because of No Service
they could not be caught taking a leak
in the street or out back of a building
since the law
always in vigilante hands
would catch them dead
for answering nature’s call.
Oh, nature. Evil since Eve ate the apple.
The State of Oklahoma seems to think
nothing has changed since fictional Adam
couldn’t die when someone reached into
his chest cavity—in a time before antiseptics—
and stole his rib, to plant in the Earth
all so this curious miracle could be betrayed
by one of only two genders.
I want to ask those legislators
in flyover Oklahoma and the 10
states whose lawgivers spend their
time snooping in stalls
(I want to ask my question preferably
to their face)
And who’s the snake?
Jeremy Nathan Marks lives in Canada. Recent work appears/will appear in Terrain.org, Belt, Rattle, Wilderness House, Mad In America, Writers Resist, Poetica Review, and Unlikely Stories. Jeremy’s latest book is Flint River published by Alien Buddha Press 2023.
