[ Yes we love our gays, as sure as we love bashing them. But does this also mean we should protect the most vulnerable of their lot, the sex workers who must endure the occasional psychotic homophobe? The answer is : is gay-friendly Pope Francis Catholic? 🙂 ]
ALMOST as an afterthought and nearly needless to say, 99.9% of this letter-length hodgepodge of words and phrases is sourced from the richest of info motherlodes : word-of-mouth, hearsay, urban legend, and deep bias, not the least of which is that most overrated of sources, internet news media.
But as my constant companion and excellent listener, you already know that, right? (That’s my way of saying reader beware, accuracy alert and all that. )
But it really insults the intelligence and taxes the patience of whoever has been witness to the murder of Jeffrey “Jennifer” Laude and the resulting brouhaha that (1) more than the moral outrage of his/her death is the apparent cover-up of the details of the commission of the crime, and (2) the scant regard for the reckless behavior of American servicemen that is the consequence of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) between Pilipinas and Estados Unidos. Number (1) is bad enough, but (2) ensures that this sort of thing will not just recur, but will be overlooked and therefore flourish with impunity.
Imagine buying a mislabeled product, bringing it home and finding out it only looked like what you wanted. What do you do? Let me guess. You bring it back to the mall with the receipt, demand a refund (or at the very least an exchange) and come back none the worse for wear. A no-brainer, right?
Let’s extend the analogy a bit. We’re all adults here. (For the kids, you’ll be adults soon right?) You’re a hot-blooded young stud, you’ve had a bit to drink, after two weeks of non-stop work on a boat in the middle of the sea. Not only that, you’re starved for a bit of action. A sweet young thing is in front of you and you can’t wait to bring her somewhere dark and cozy, so you can do dark and cozy things. After a bit of negotiation, you do just that, bring her to the said dark and cozy place, where you do a lot of necking and smooching, and a lot of other things that can’t be mentioned here. Along the way you discover that the sweet young thing isn’t what he/she actually is but is more like you, meaning she has all your junk.
Do you say sorry for the foreplay, no matter how enthusiastic, but I’ve just lost interest, and vacate the premises ASAP? Do you return said not-so sweet young thing to wherever you met and part ways? Or do you throw a fit or tantrum, demand your money back, and hopefully try your luck again?
You might do one, two or all of those things. But you certainly don’t beat the sweet young thing up, and break every bone in his/her body and drown him/her in the bathtub. Because you’re not a crazy, psychotic and homophobic person who reacts as such just because you found someone who has a dick and balls attractive. (Sorry for the language, but that’s how it is.)
I’m not even sure if Jenny Laude was such (yes, let’s at least call her by her preferred name), but our gay prostitutes are among the most vulnerable in the gay community. I can’t even imagine the hurt, ridicule, not to mention the danger they expose themselves to, just to earn a living. I can’t go any further.
The protection afforded by the US Government to US Marine Joseph Scott Pemberton is natural and expected. They will do nothing short of bribe, lie, and conceal the truth to get said US Marine out of the proverbial jam. Wouldn’t you do the same if one of your citizens were in mortal danger of a long prison sentence in a foreign country? The problem is, while doing so, justice would be denied to one of our own, who just happens to be a transgender Pinoy/Pinay, Jennifer Laude.
If you wanna continue being outraged, you are certainly free to read on in ph.news.yahoo.com. I just want to commend Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago who is at least entertaining while picking apart the way details of the crime are being obfuscated :
Chief Superintendent Theresa Ann Cid, chief of the Philippine National Police Crime Laboratory, said evidence recovered at the crime scene included strands of hair, two used condoms, blood and urine samples. The PNP is still completing the tests on the evidence.
Told about the condoms, Santiago remarked: “At least we can safely say that the suspect, or what they call in America as a person of interest, ejaculated twice. Would that be correct?”
Cid replied, “Not necessarily, your honor. The first condom has fresh seminal fluid, with fecal material. The second condom seems not to have the presence of semen… Apparently, they were used.”
Chief Inspector Reynaldo Dave, PNP medico-legal officer, said it was safe to say that the condoms were used in anal sex. The police experts, however, said they could not conclude that the semen samples belonged to Pemberton.
“If he was a male, how does he have sex with the Marine?” Santiago asked.
“I just have to corroborate with the findings on condoms and the other pieces of evidence,” Dave replied. “We can safely conclude (anal or rectal sex).”
Santiago said anal sex is “the usual method for transgenders.” (duh)
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For every Vice Ganda in the super limelight, and every Diego in Mixed Nuts, we probably have a hundred or so Jennifer Laudes who face the dangers of getting beaten up, or worse, getting killed while trying to earn a little money. Yes we love our gays in the Philippines, but we should also protect them. Apologies for the scatterbrained and haphazard way I put this together today. Jennifer deserved a little better. She still does.