Transgender, Transnational, Transpinay: Jennifer Laude and Trans Necropolitics in the Philippines
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TRANSGENDER, TRANSNATIONAL, TRANSPINAY: JENNIFER LAUDE AND TRANS NECROPOLITICS IN THE PHILIPPINES Zachary Frial Faculty Advisor: You-Me Park A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Award of Honors in Culture and Politics Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University Spring 2018 Table of Contents Introduction: Gendered Bodies, Sovereign Bodies .................................................................... 1 Securing/Subduing the Asia-Pacific ......................................................................................... 2 Literature Review...................................................................................................................... 3 Methodology and Chapter Organization ................................................................................... 4 Keywords ....................................................................................................................................... 6 Transpinay................................................................................................................................. 6 Transnational............................................................................................................................. 8 Neocolonial ............................................................................................................................... 9 Necropolitical .......................................................................................................................... 10 CHAPTER 1: Jennifer Laude-as-“Symbol of the Oppressed Nation” .................................. 12 The Cisgender Gaze and the Abject Trans Body: ................................................................... 13 Abject Humor: Beauty Pageants and Suffer SiReyna: ............................................................ 14 Gloc 9’s “Sirena”: Pageantry of Suffering: ............................................................................ 16 Ang Ladlad and the Anti-Discrimination Bill:.................................................................. 18 National Day of Outrage: Capturing the Cisgender Gaze: ..................................................... 20 Conclusion: Returning the Gaze: ............................................................................................ 22 CHAPTER 2: Jennifer Laude-as-Transnational Migrant ...................................................... 24 Agency and Desire: ................................................................................................................. 25 Instrumentalizing the Excess: ................................................................................................. 27 Desiring Labor: ....................................................................................................................... 28 “Virtuous Third World Subjects”: .................................................................................... 29 Disciplining Desires: ........................................................................................................ 31 Transnational Limbo: .............................................................................................................. 31 Citizen-Wives and Strategy-Driven Love: ........................................................................ 33 Conclusion: Desiring Life, Desiring Death: ........................................................................... 35 CHAPTER 3: Jennifer Laude-as-“Collateral Damage” ......................................................... 37 Liberty and Liability: .............................................................................................................. 38 The Sexscapes of Subic Bay: .................................................................................................. 39 The Other Side of Paradise: .................................................................................................... 41 Making Way for Paradise: ................................................................................................ 43 “Pimps of the Nation”: ............................................................................................................ 45 Conclusion: Finding Feminist Resistance:.............................................................................. 46 CHAPTER 4: Jennifer Laude-as-Breadwinner ....................................................................... 48 Circulating Family Care:......................................................................................................... 49 Creative Excess:................................................................................................................ 52 Becoming “Both Mother and Father”: .................................................................................... 55 Conclusion: Engendering Trans Being: .................................................................................. 57 Epilogue: Trans Necropolitics in the Age of Duterte ............................................................... 58 Virtual Migrants: ..................................................................................................................... 59 “Rich Person VIP, Poor Person RIP”: .................................................................................... 62 Conclusion: ............................................................................................................................. 64 Works Cited ................................................................................................................................. 65 Frial 1 Introduction: Gendered Bodies, Sovereign Bodies On the night of October 11, 2014, Filipina woman Jennifer Laude was drowned by U.S. marine Private First Class Joseph Scott Pemberton, who argued that Laude had deceived and “raped” him by failing to disclose she was transgender. The murder took place in the city of Olongapo, its Magsaysay Drive well-known for catering to the sexual pleasures of U.S. servicemen stationed at its naval base in Subic Bay.1 After Pemberton was accused and scheduled for trial, U.S. authorities refused to hand him over to the Philippine National Police, even after he was convicted. The United States cited that Pemberton was protected under the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) of 1998, which gave the U.S. jurisdiction over any criminal activities committed by its servicemen.2 Given that Pemberton committed the murder following the annual joint U.S.-Philippine military exercises, politicians and activists across the Philippines called for the immediate termination of both the VFA and the recently signed Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA).3 Negotiated a mere six months before Laude’s murder, the EDCA granted the United States permission to access Philippine military installations and boost its troop presence, which many activists viewed as a reversal of the 1991 Senate decision that permanently closed the U.S. bases in the country. Because it was approved without consent of the Philippine Senate, the EDCA was challenged on grounds of unconstitutionality; however, the Philippine Supreme Court upheld the agreement, stating that the EDCA was merely an extension of the already Senate-approved VFA.4 According to Judy Taguiwalo, Director of the University of the Philippines Center for Women’s Studies, the death of Jennifer Laude was a “hate crime on the basis of gender identity, a heinous case of gender-based violence, and an issue of national sovereignty.”5 Clearly not an isolated incident, for many leftists, the murder of Laude was indicative of the violence that women face as a result of imperialism and military occupation. Laude lay at the nexus of gendered and (neo)colonial subjugation: a victim as much of history as of masculinist projections of military power abroad, a figure as much of disgust to the cishetero-sensibilities of Pemberton as of abjection to the nation which she once called home. This thesis aims to fill the lacuna left by Robert Diaz in his article, “The Limits of Bakla and Gay,” seeking to “unpack the political nuances embedded in how Laude’s death has accrued meaning.”6 While no peer-edited journal article has yet been published situating Laude’s murder within its greater (neo)colonial context, numerous blogs, news articles, speeches, and statements 1. Meredith Talusan, “The Aftermath of a U.S. Marine’s Conviction in the Death of a Philippine Trans Woman,” BuzzFeed News, last modified January 3, 2016, https://www.buzzfeed.com/meredithtalusan/the-aftermath- of-jennifer-laude-and-joseph-scott-pemberton?utm_term=.sgp5dPKaj#.bryeD1vXP. 2. Evalyn G. Ursua, “VFA and the Issue of Custody,” ABS-CBN News, last modified October 23, 2014, http://news.abs-cbn.com/blogs/opinions/10/22/14/vfa-and-issue-custody. 3. Allan Macatuno, “Laude Kin Joins Call to End Military Exercises with U.S.,” Philippine Daily Inquirer, last modified October 12, 2016, http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/824235/laude-kin-join-calls-to-end-military-exercises- with-u-s. 4. Ina Reformina, “SC Rules EDCA Is Constitutional,” ABS-CBN News, last modified January 12, 2016, http://news.abs-cbn.com/nation/01/12/16/sc-rules-edca-is-constitutional. 5. Judy M. Taguiwalo, “Justice for Jennifer Laude is Justice for Filipino Women is Justice for the Nation,” Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Leadership, and Development, last modified October 21, 2014, http://apwld.org/ justice-for-jennifer-laude-is-justice-for-filipino-women-is-justice-for-the-nation/.