#JusticeForCindyJones

A transgender woman, Cindy Jones, was found naked and lifeless with multiple stab wounds in a beauty salon in Guiguinto, Bulacan, adding to the continuing growing number of LGBTQIA lives lost to what may be considered as LGBTQIA-related hate crimes.

As narrated by a friend, Rhoxie Torres, to Outrage Magazine, Cindy had drinks with two men in her salon. One of the guys left, and Cindy had the door locked from outside, leaving herself and the other man inside. But just before midnight, neighbors already heard her screaming for help, when the victim supposedly said “Tulungan ninyo ako, ayoko pang mamatay!“. The neighbors called the barangay officials, who then called the police.

By the time law enforcers pried open the lock of the salon, Cindy was already dead.

The suspect – who was also trapped inside the salon – was eventually arrested.

Another friend, Queen Bembem Camua, stated via Facebook that the suspect has raised “trans panic” as his defense – i.e. that Cindy attempted to rape him, which led to the crime being committed.

As FYI: “Trans panic” was actually also used as a defense by American serviceman Joseph Scott Pemberton, who was found guilty for killing Jennifer Laude. This “defense” – already banned in various parts of the US, among others; and is rejected by the American Bar Association, also among others – is the “supposed temporary psychological state that a perpetrator goes into after realizing the victim’s transgender status; and this state induces the accused to turn violent.”

This is akin to gay or “homosexual panic defense”, wherein “the (real or deemed) sexual advances by a gay person is deemed so overwhelming and threatening that an assailant believes he/she has to do significant physical harm to, or even murder the victim in order to protect him/herself.”

In an earlier post from Naomi Fontanos of GANDA Filipinas, Inc., this is “actually victim-blaming. It places the blame on the victim for the violence they are subjected to. Those who use trans panic as a defense are saying their violence is justified and it is the fault of their victim for causing them to behave in a brutal way. I don’t think this is acceptable from a human rights point of view. Violence is violence and can never be justified.”

*This article was amended on August 6, 2021 (8.30AM) to add the narrative of Ms Rhoxie Torres, a friend of the victim.