As we commemorate the 2nd death anniversary of our sister, Jennifer Laude, we stress our assertion that our community deserves nothing but full justice.
Let us recall recall how Jennifer Laude’s murder showed the world how our community continues to suffer from being easy targets because of hate and prejudice, much more, how we get doubly victimized by those who have backward views against the LGBTQ community. It also proved that wherever there are US military forces; acts of military violence are or will be committed against the people.
The case closed by convicting Joseph Scott Pemberton guilty. Until now, however, Pemberton remains in a structure made especially for him inside a Philippine military camp. This treatment is a continuous affront to all of us as a sovereign nation, a continuing attack on our sovereignty and patrimony by the imperialist US.
We have seen many victims, like Jennifer, of violations committed by the military forces. We should not forget how Rosario Baluyot (a 12-year-old girl) suffered from the vibrator that was placed and left inside her vaginal canal for months that caused infection resulting to her death. Or how Daniel Smith raped a drunk “Nicole” in Subic while colleagues were cheering on. Or how US soldiers shot a young man and afterwards gave a racist alibi: they thought “he was a wild boar.” These cases are not isolated ones; the same happens in other parts of the world where the US military has bases or waging imperialist wars.
We should not forget as well that Syria has largely become heaps of rubble, 6.5 million Syrians are internally displaced and 4.8 million are refugees because the US used terrorist groups in its devious desire to remove a president who is not a US puppet. Or the almost one million Iraqis who died in war purportedly to find Iraq’s non-existent weapons of mass destruction. Let us not forget the 12-year-old school girl in Okinawa that two US marines and a US Navy seaman raped in 1995 and the hundreds more rape victims around bases in Korea, Okinawa and Japan.
As freedom-loving citizens of the world, we urge everyone to put an end to all these.
We from True Colors Coalition challenge our new Rodrigo Duterte administration to deliver full justice for our sister, Jennifer, to her family, to the whole LGBT community, and to the Filipino people. We challenge this government to have Pemberton jailed in the National Bilibid Prison like many other convicted criminals.
Let us also continue to call for justice for all the victims of US imperialist militarism and war. Let us all work to create a better world for future generations.
