Since her appointment, Raichik has sought to drag books depicting homosexual and transgender folks, in addition to intercourse schooling, from public college libraries, saying she has discovered “porn” in numerous districts. But her rising position within the state has drawn larger consideration since Nex Benedict, a 16-year-old nonbinary pupil, collapsed and died the day after a Feb. 7 battle in a women’ lavatory at Owasso High School in suburban Tulsa. Family members stated Benedict had been bullied for months for being overtly nonbinary.
Owasso Police Lt. Nick Boatman stated Friday that Benedict didn’t die on account of bodily trauma, in line with preliminary info from the medical expert, and that the division is awaiting the outcomes of toxicology testing to find out the reason for demise. Benedict’s mother and father have questioned that conclusion. Meanwhile, homosexual rights supporters in Oklahoma and elsewhere have continued guilty the battle for Benedict’s demise and to accuse Raichik of bearing some accountability for the battle.
On Thursday, Oklahoma City Councilor Sean Cummings (D) lambasted Raichik for stoking anti-LGBTQ+ hatred within the state, saying she has “blood on her hands.” And Matt Bernstein, a 25-year-old LGBTQ+ content material creator in New York who has been focused by Raichik, stated: “I’m just hearing constantly how Chaya Raichik specifically has caused a rift in the experience of being a queer high-schooler in America.”
As Libs of TikTok, Raichik has been blamed for sparking bomb threats, property harm, capturing threats, written and verbal harassment and different types of violence in opposition to people, hospitals and colleges throughout the nation — together with in Oklahoma, in line with GLAAD, a nonprofit LGBTQ+ advocacy group. In her profile image on X, she is holding a newspaper that reads: “when Libs of TikTok posts, threats increasingly follow.”
In a podcast interview this week concerning the violence that follows her posts, Raichik smiled and stated she’s happy with being referred to as a stochastic terrorist — somebody who conjures up supporters to commit violence by demonizing an individual or group.
“Honestly, like, that makes me feel really important,” Raichik stated.
On Thursday, in an hour-long interview with a Washington Post reporter at a espresso store in Los Angeles, Raichik stated that “bomb threats are bad” and that she believes “people who call in bomb threats should be arrested.” But she stated: “I just don’t know — what does it have to do with me?”
Raichik referred to as Benedict’s demise “very tragic” and “horrible” however stated she believes nonbinary folks shouldn’t be allowed to obtain sure gender-affirming care.
Now time for public feedback, permitting ten totally different individuals who signed as much as converse for 3 minutes.
First is OKC City Councilor Sean Cummings, who goes after @libsoftiktok founder Chaya Raichik for what he says impressed threats to OK colleges and the demise of Nex Benedict pic.twitter.com/pz13eJqdbE— Samson Tamijani (@SamsonReviews) February 22, 2024
Though she holds a seat on the Oklahoma library advisory committee, Raichik stated she has visited the state solely as soon as, in September, when she met with Walters. She tried to talk at a college board assembly to ask a few highschool principal who carried out as a drag queen, however the board denied her request.
Though she hasn’t spent a lot time within the state, Raichik has had an outsize affect on its educators. She stated she determined to become involved in Oklahoma politics after encountering LGBTQ+ lecturers on-line. Oklahomans “unfortunately have a lot of wokeness in a red state, and I’m trying to help,” she stated.
For instance, in August, Raichik posted about an elementary college librarian in Tulsa who had a TikTok video with a graphic that stated, “POV: Teachers in your state are dropping like flies but you are still just not quite finished pushing your woke agenda at the public school.” Raichik shared the video, which had been edited to incorporate the librarian’s identify and college. Shortly afterward, the college obtained a bomb menace.
Walters, the state’s high colleges official, retweeted Raichik’s put up. His workplace didn’t reply to requests for remark. In asserting Raichik’s appointment to the library board, he posted on Facebook that “no one has done more to expose what the radical left is all about than @ChayaRaichik10 and @libsoftiktok.”
Before her rise to on-line fame, Raichik labored as an actual property salesperson in Brooklyn. She created the Twitter account that will finally grow to be Libs of TikTok in November 2020. After attending the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on the U.S. Capitol, she amassed an viewers by selling coronavirus denialism and false tales about youngster intercourse trafficking, along with casting doubt on the outcomes of the 2020 presidential election.
Raichik’s X account was quickly promoted by high-profile right-wing influencers and podcasters together with Joe Rogan. Funding from Seth Dillon — founding father of Babylon Bee, a satirical conservative information website — allowed her to depart her actual property profession and deal with rising the account full-time. (On Thursday, Dillon tweeted that he’d lower ties with Raichik and that the 2 have been “no longer working together.” Raichik instructed The Post that they’d parted methods for “personal reasons.”)
Raichik’s assaults on LGBTQ+ folks escalated by way of 2021 and 2022. She advocated that any instructor who comes out as homosexual to their college students be “fired on the spot.” She referred to as on her followers to contact colleges that have been permitting “boys in the girls’ bathrooms” and pushed the false accusation that colleges have been putting in litter packing containers in bogs for youngsters who establish as cats.
She referred to as adults who educate youngsters about LGBTQ+ identities “abusive,” asserted that being gender-nonconforming is a “mental illness” and referred to colleges as “government-run indoctrination camps” for the LGBTQ+ group. Her followers on X have skyrocketed from round 60,000 in July 2021 to greater than 2.8 million at this time.
In Oklahoma, Raichik has been blamed by homosexual rights advocates for driving lecturers who assist LGBTQ+ youths from their jobs. They embrace former Owasso instructor Tyler Wrynn, who’s nonbinary. After Raichik posted about Wrynn, the instructor stated they obtained an onslaught of demise threats and harassment.
Benedict’s mom, who declined by way of her lawyer to talk to The Post, instructed the Independent that her youngster was offended and upset about Raichik focusing on Wrynn, saying lecturers who assist LGBTQ+ youths are merely “allowing the students to be who they are.”
Sonja, 42, a nonbinary Tulsa resident who spoke on the situation that they be recognized by solely their first identify on account of issues about security, referred to as Raichik’s posts a “terror campaign” in opposition to LGBTQ+ folks and their allies that had created a “hit list” of weak folks.
“What Chaya likes to do is create these incendiary posts, letting followers know, ‘This is your target. This is the villain you should go after,’” Sonja stated. “Then when things get out of hand, she goes back and deletes her posts. She’s pointing people toward Owasso, and things have escalated since then.”
Alec, 19, who graduated from Owasso High School final 12 months, stated issues have grow to be so harmful in Oklahoma for LGBTQ+ youths that he has moved out of state. He spoke on the situation that he be recognized by a nickname for security causes.
“As a person who was in those libraries and saw those bans on books that actually apply to my community, it was very scary seeing my state erasing the LGBTQ community as a whole, and saying that we are pornographic and that we are unacceptable and inappropriate for people to just exist around and to learn about,” Alec stated. “We are simply just existing.”
Of Raichik, he stated, “Seeing her villainize children for existing as queer individuals is disgusting. I think it is dangerous.”
Nicole McAfee, govt director of Freedom Oklahoma, a nonprofit targeted on LGBTQ+ rights, stated even educators who don’t overtly assist queer and trans college students are nervous.
Libs of TikTok “is a platform that’s cited a lot and lifted up by a lot of officials across the state,” McAfee stated. “From what we’ve heard from students, it’s really changed how other students treat them. Students who didn’t have any trouble being openly trans or nonbinary before are now being bullied by class members who are repeating rhetoric that they’re hearing from public officials in the state.”
Evan Powers, a trans pupil at Owasso High School, stated he carries a bulletproof backpack, together with books to make use of in self-defense. “I’m quite honestly scared to go to school every day,” stated Powers, 17, including: “I have been bullied by people that watch Libs of TikTok.”
The ambiance, he stated, makes it nearly inconceivable to get an schooling.
“I want to go to college. I want to learn about the world, and I want to be able to have a safe space,” he stated. “But people that post these things, it’s affecting just being able to sit in a classroom, just being able to sit in a chair and feel safe.”