The Ugly Reality of Transphobia in the Philippines

Jennifer Laude was found dead in the bathroom. She was slumped on the toiled seat, peppered with black and blue bruises. She also had bruises on her neck. Her feet were also bruised. Reporters are not sure whether she died from the injuries she sustained from the beating that she took, or from being strangled. She was murdered.

Let’s try that again.

Jefferey Laude was found dead in the bathroom. He was slumped on the toilet seat, peppered with black and blue bruises. He also had bruises on his neck. His feet were also bruised. Reporters are not sure whether he died from the injuries he sustained from the beating that he took, or from being strangled. He was murdered.

I’m not here to discuss whether Jeffrey/Jennifer Laude should be considered a he or a she. People can debate on his or her gender all they want, but what we can’t debate about is that this person was the victim of a crime. This person was murdered.

Laude 5

When a person is murdered, regardless of sex or gender, the ethical human response should be outrage or, at least, sorrow. If this tragedy happened to a straight woman or a straight man, that’s exactly the kind of response we could expect from the majority.

However, I don’t think some Filipinos see transgender individuals as people. That’s the only reason I can imagine why there are over 200 comments posted on inquirer.net insulting, cursing, and mocking the murder victim.

Many of these comments express disgust and indignation, not because a person was brutally murdered, but because “a tranny tried to have sex with a straight man”:

Laude 1

Many comments expressed satisfaction that karmic justice was served, not because a murderer was caught, but because “a sinner was punished”:

Laude 2

Some comments even suggested that it was funny, and it was Jennifer’s fault that she was murdered because she was “pretending to be a woman”:

Laude 3

The insults and curses hurled at the victim has even inspired its own photo album in Facebook:

Image 1
 

This attitude towards the transgender is not surprising though, especially in a country with a reputation for being religious and conservative. The Philippines, for one, is the last country without divorce and many of our religious countrymen are proud of being the last stronghold of idiocy.

Unfortunately for the LGBT community, research done by Wade Rowatt and colleagues from Baylor University in the States learned that religiousness and conservatism are the top two factors that account for a person’s homophobia.

Here’s a graph:

Image Source: http://goo.gl/jZSpX1
Image Source: http://goo.gl/jZSpX1

 

It should be no surprise that hate crimes against the LGBT community are tolerated in a country where majority of the people identify as Catholics, Christians, or Muslims; all of them, religions that hate homosexuality.

I can provide a litany of research proving how those who believe themselves to be the holiest of the holy, the most righteous of the righteous, the most faithful of the faithful, the most religious of the religious, the closest to God, are the most determined advocates of hate and bigotry. The most fervent believers of homophobic religious doctrine inevitably become the most homophobic people. When a person is indoctrinated and trained from childhood to hate homosexuality, it’s rather difficult to unlearn it as an adult.

The suspect, obviously, is himself transphobic. He probably can’t tell the difference between a homosexual and a trans-woman. He probably doesn’t give a shit about those subtle differences either. This may sound a little racist, but studies do prove that Americans are less accepting of homosexuality than other westerners and religion may have something to do with it.

Many Filipinos have no empathy for the murder victim, Jennifer/Jefferey Laude, simply because of religion. They were raised to believe that any non-heterosexual person is a Sodomite; a disordered sinner that deserves divine punishment, in the same way the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were punished – with the righteous vengeance of a brutal God.

The Philippines’ religiousness and conservatism simply can’t peacefully co-exist with homosexuality. In the minds of some Filipinos, it might as well be God beating up the victim.

It doesn’t take a genius to understand that the Catholic hierarchy hates LGBT people. Just recently a bishop said that homosexuals should not be invited to the dinner table if there are children present, because impressionable children should not be exposed to something so “intrinsically disordered.”

Some people would argue that homophobic doctrines, like the Bible, don’t necessarily cause homophobia. They say things like, “But the Bible also has verses about love and tolerance…”

Are you serious? The Bible said that homosexuality is an abomination. The Bible also said that an adulteress should be stoned to death. The Bible also said that a rape victim should marry her rapist. Unfortunately, the context for these verses are not explained because the Bible doesn’t have editor’s footnotes. Many believers also suggest it’s “open to interpretation.” Well, anything can be open to interpretation. Even “Dora the Explorer” can be interpreted from a Marxist perspective.

However, there is a limit to the number of ways one can interpret, “Gay = Abomination.” If you think that these verses, as they appear in the Bible, do not at all, inspire prejudice or bigotry, you need a mental health evaluation.

The Bible, along with other homophobic religious doctrines, are books filled with hate. These books don’t belong in any society that aspires for gender equality. As long as there are people who adhere to Biblical authority, to verses that call homosexuals abominations, there will always be members of the LGBT community found dead in toilets and there will always be people celebrating the torture of the victim.

8 comments

  1. Personally, I think the LGBT angle, though the most saleable for media, and the most malleable, for either right wing, or left wing crusaders, is not the real story here.

    The reason this story is of public interest, is that it was an attempt to commit fraud, and the behavior resulted in a retaliation that resulted in death.

    That person lied. that person fooled, that person played with fire, and that person got burned.

    If Jennifer Laude was honest, and told the fired up US Marine who wanted to fuck, that she had a dick, this wouldn’t have happened. He would have walked away. I don’t think anyone will dispute that.

    But no. She played him for the money, she took the risk.

    Moral of the story?

    Being who you are, is fine, but Lying can cost you your life. If you are a liar, suffer the consequences.

    Is there something wrong with being a transvestite? No.

    Is there something wrong with trying to get money from someone by/while pretending to be a biological woman, when you are not? Yes.

    Thats the real point of interest in the Laude story.

    Did the Marine have the right to kill? No.

    Did he have the right to get mad? Yes.

    Thus, this is a case that falls under the category of “Crime of passion”.

    It also falls under the category of a crime, not only instigated by the victim, but instigated with the full intention of lying and deceiving the perpetrator of the crime, for monetary gain.

    In other words, Fraud.

    The crime was a retaliation for Fraud.

    Commit fraud, someone might get mad and kill you.

    You are a victim of Fraud? And you want to retaliate? You will most probably go to jail.

    Its a tragedy on both sides, but it was caused by the person who intended to defraud a client.

  2. What is with you people calling everyone that doesn’t like gayness a homophobe. Disliking something or disagreeing with it does not equal fear of said thing. Even the gays are one thing, but these people that think they’re the opposite sex are coming out of the woodwork nowadays. What is going on in the last 10-15 years with this garbage?

  3. The killing has nothing to do with homophobia and comments are expected and has nothing to do with homophobia either.

    The killing of our fellow sex worker (if our assumptions is correct) s a crime against persons (regardless of who and what you are).

    Are crimes against women and men and girls and boys who are raped and killed almost every week and comments to put the rapist to death constitute heterophobia? of course not!

    The case of Jennifer is something else and more than the risk of HIV or physical violence, it about the risk sex workers take as sex workers (if my assumption is correct that she was a sex worker/GRO/hospitality worker other sources claims she wasn’t but let us see the circumstances). Risk of loosing life, and avoidable death when one does not fully disclose his or her gender identity.

    In the perspective of sex work, lives of transgendered sex workers is at risk in many ways. They have many stories untold, and Jeniffer’s story is one. Given the circumstances her bringing the service man to the hotel herself, stories of transgendered sex workers is reverberating. If the service man really intended to hook up with Jennifer and he knows she was a transgender/transwoman and his purpose was to torture and kill her, i think it is right to say it is hate crime and the element of homophobia is present.

    But as the case unfolds, her story is just like our transgender sex workers who don’t disclose their gender to their partner. This practice also inspired Blakdyaks song “modeling charing” (that I guess everyone listening to even gays themselves enjoys it not knowing the popular song promotes transphobia). The only difference is, Jennifer’s life was taken and by rage.

    We have many cases of sex related killings and violence in this country, victims are girls and boys, gays and lesbians, straight men and women of all ages and all like Jennifer should be put to justice. BECAUSE IT IS A CRIME AGAINST PERSONS! nothing less than it!

    The issue now in the internet is in fact muddled by those who insert homophobia/transphobia elements in the crime and mixing religiously and conservatively-driven homo/transphobia in this case which are totally different issues and scenes.

    There is no more intellectual discourse in these kinds of threads and articles but an increasing misunderstanding of what homophobia and transphobia are all about. So too the the risk transgender people take and to prevent avoidable death through intellectual discussions about ethics in sex work, legalization of sex work, sex worker’s rights, consumer protection and etc. are also lost in the limelight.

  4. A lot of people need to grow.. They are narrow-minded and ignorant, lack morals and do no understand what life really is all about.

  5. I agree with everything on this article. The murder should be fully investigated and the guilty party punished to the full extent of the law, regardless of race and/or nationality. However, the only thing I don’t agree with are the hashtags #junkvfa, #scrapedca, and #usoutofthephilippines. Why throw the baby out with the bathwater? Why involve EDCA in the discussion? I believe the merits of EDCA or any other joint project with the US should be a SEPARATE discussion.

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