What happened to Benedict?

The death of 16-year-old Nex Benedict in the wake of a fight at a high school in Owasso, Oklahoma, has drawn widespread attention after reports that the teen was long bullied for their gender identity, which friends have described as “gender-expansive.”

But what does gender-expansive mean? According to national LGBTQ+ advocacy group PFLAG, it’s an umbrella term for people who don’t align with traditional gender categories, or who expand ideas of gender expression or identity.

“It might be used because someone has identities outside of what’s socially accepted,” said Mackenzie Harte, PFLAG’s manager of learning and inclusion, adding that the term is one they’ve increasingly heard used by parents and educators regarding young people. “It’s where someone is not conforming to social ideas of what gender should be.”

The term has been around since at least 2012, when the LGBTQ+ advocacy organization Human Rights Campaign surveyed more than 10,000 lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer youth across the United States. The term “gender-expansive” emerged from the report to classify youths who didn’t identify with traditional gender roles but were otherwise not confined to one gender narrative or experience.

“This term allows us to talk about youth who don’t meet our ‘traditional’ understandings of gender without putting their identity in a box,” the report read.

Gender-expansive is not synonymous with nonbinary, PFLAG notes; even cisgender people can embrace the term. Instead, it’s another way of saying gender-nonconforming − the more preferred term, according to the group.

“While some parents and allies use the term, gender nonconforming (GNC) is the preferred term by the LGBTQ+ community,” the group says as part of a glossary definition on PFLAG’s website.

“It is important to use the term preferred by an individual with whom you are interacting.”

Nex, a 16-year-old who loved reading, art and playing Minecraft, was hurt during a fight that erupted in an Owasso High School bathroom Feb. 7.

That afternoon, officers responded to a local hospital, where Sue Benedict, Nex’s mother, reported the assault and urged police to follow up with school administrators. Nex was later discharged, but the next day their mother called 911 to report that Nex was having medical problems, including shallow breathing.

According to police, she said, Nex had hit their head on the bathroom floor during the altercation. Emergency crews responded and performed CPR before Nex was taken to a hospital in Tulsa and pronounced dead.

Police said Wednesday that an autopsy determined Nex did not die as a result of trauma, but medical examiners have yet to disclose their complete findings.