JENNIFER Laude and the fatal attack against her jarred many of us. The nature of the crime committed against Laude was brutal and deserved condemnation in and by itself. Equally discomfiting were the facts that the alleged killer was an American serviceman, Marine Pfc. Joseph Scott Pemberton, here for war exercises under the mantle of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) and the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (Edca) between the Philippine and United States Governments.
There are valid fears that the legal action taken in response to the crime could end up as a reprise of an earlier case -- the rape charges in 2005 against US serviceman Lance Corporal Daniel Smith who was subsequently acquitted. Jennifer Laude also called public attention to a category of gender identities and expressions that is not particularly understood among Filipinos today.
Jennifer Laude is a transgender woman, or as some would put it, a transPinay. Still struggling with what ironically is also a binary lesbians and gay men, or more commonly referred to as tomboy at bakla -- many Filipinos found all the more difficult to accept the notion of a transgender woman.
Laude, while born with male genitalia, identified with being a woman, and was definitely not a gay man.
Gay men might express themselves by dressing and acting in feminine ways, but they would still be males who happen to be attracted to other men. Being transgender is not a sexual orientation. A transgender person may be heterosexual, homosexual or bisexual. Jennifer Laude was a transgender woman who was attracted to men and could be said therefore to be a transPinay heterosexual.
Faced with the unacceptable notion of a person that could not be put under one of only two acceptable categories, for some it would be easier to deny the very existence of such a person. This “denial” can be done in a variety of ways, most of which are quite unreasonable.
The slew of very negative remarks attacking Laude in the comments section of online news pages suggested this. More than just examples of victim-blaming and gay-bashing, a few comments were of the tone that Laude deserved to be killed, that is, rendered non-existent. A quote from the 2003 report “Outlaws and In-Laws: Your Guide to LGBT Rights, Same-Sex Relationships and Canadian Law” could very well be describing the response of many Filipinos to Laude today, “the notion that there are two and only two genders is one of the most basic ideas in our binary Western way of thinking. Transgender people challenge our very understanding of the world. And we make them pay the cost of our confusion by their suffering.”
The efforts of UP Min Mentefuwaley, an organization of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender individuals in the University of the Philippines Mindanao, to conduct activities exposing the rest of the academic community to issues concerning sexual orientations, gender identities and expressions are important. They provide alternative views about topics that tend to be approached through the lens of absolutism, or the tendency to regard things, particularly those that we value, as “absolute, not relative, dependent or changeable” (Dictionary.com).
Transgender individuals who have gone through sexual reassignment encounter many difficulties. For one, they are unable to change their legal name from male to female, and vice-versa. This, according to Mai Lagman of Rainbow Rights Network, and the absence and refusal of services needed by transgender individuals, are rooted on the non-recognition by government and society of their gender identity.
From a sexual rights perspective, legal names do not constitute the core of holistic identity and can therefore be altered to better reflect changing identities. However, this is lost on those who would tie identity to the absolutes of biology. From the vantage point of Rainbow Rights Network, the challenge then is not only for Congress to pass the Anti-Discrimination Bill, which has been pending in the last 13 years, but to also legislate a Gender Recognition Law.
Security sector response to the events concerning Marc Sueselbeck, the German fiancé of Jennifer Laude who subsequently came to the Philippines and along with Laude’s family and their legal counsel Atty. Harry Roque made public their protest against the handling of the case against Pemberton, also deserved comment.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) commended Technical Sergeant Mariano Pamittan, the soldier who was shoved aside by Sueselbeck when he tried to get near the facility where Pemberton was detained. According to Rappler, Pamittan was cited and awarded a plaque of recognition by no less than Armed Forces chief General Gregorio Catapang Jr. for ”discipline and patience," "professionalism," and "exemplary composure under pressure when he was arrogantly shoved and debased by Sueselbeck in front of many people.”
Upon the request of the AFP, the Bureau of Immigration later prevented Sueselbeck from leaving the country on the day of his scheduled departure so that deportation proceedings could be initiated against him on the grounds of “undesirability.” The military also filed disbarment charges with the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) against Atty. Roque for alleged violation of the Code of Professional Responsibility. All these in the name of upholding law and order; such a fine display of absolutism, even if directed at the wrong parties.
One wonders if these actuations by the AFP were really a case of, on the one hand, overcompensating, to make up for the Philippine security sector’s lack of power over the suspect Pemberton, and against the entire American politico-military establishment; or on the other hand, plain smoke and mirrors, to sideline attention, or at least trick the public into thinking that something is being done about the case of Laude.
We are not totally helpless against the rigidities imposed by binarism and absolutism, and which are being spread, wittingly or otherwise, through new media and the actions of those in authority. There are tools of analysis that are useful, such as intersectionality.
In the case of Laude, intersectionality enables us to critically understand how sexual orientations and gender identities and expressions intersect with other conditions that cause discrimination such as social status/class, ethnicity, physical, mental and other abilities, and also geopolitics, so that we can act on and push back against invisibility, othering and hatred.
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