The Importance of Language in Trans Issues and the Murder of Jennifer Laude
by Sofia Da Silva
In discussions focused on trans issues, a key indicator of one’s respect individual trans people as well as for the trans movement as a whole is language. In the Jennifer Laude case, Pemberton, the alleged murderer of Jennifer Laude, confesses to his friend, Jaim Rose, that he has killed a “he-she,” completely stripping Jennifer of her identity and humanity. This language not only gives more suspicion to believe that Pemberton murdered Jennifer, but also as to why.
Jennifer did not align with what Pemberton’s idea of what a woman is, and he murdered her because of this. To him, a woman is installed with certain traits and features that Jennifer clearly lacked, and he viewed hiding this from him an act of treachery. However, Jennifer was under no obligation to share information about her genitalia with him, and Pemberton felt entitled to this body that he had no authority over. Jennifer’s murder was clearly an act of transphobia, and the language of Pemberton’s informal confession highlights that. Not only does he not respect her identity as a woman, but dismisses her as an object. Pemberton was so panicked by her physical form, and what the implications were for him, that he killed her. Despite Jennifer identifying as a women, Pemberton viewed her as something in between a man and a woman, specifically a “he-she,” and to him this conflicted with his own identity as a presumably straight male. Jennifer’s status as a sex worker may also exacerbate this. To him she, as a trans sex worker, was subhuman. Since he had physically paid her for her body, he decided that it was his to control in every way, taking away all of her agency over the situation. He believed that because of the transaction that had taken place, he could do as he pleased with Jennifer, including murder her.
It is clear that in using such a slur, Pemberton had no strong feelings of remorse when he killed Jennifer. When he uses the phrase “he-she” to describe her, it is apparent that he views her “deception” as justification for taking her life. Even the article he places before it assists in her dehumanization. “…a he-she” implies that she is a random subhuman figure with no concrete worth. To him, her gender display gives him the right to disrespect her even after violating her in a most gruesome manner.
What Pemberton’s use of “he-she” implies is his general abhorrence for the way in which Jennifer presented herself. Instead of simply expressing that this was not what he wanted, he tried to force her gender expression to be not what she herself wanted as well, so much so that he killed her in her refusal to be anything other than what his narrow gender confines constricted him to. There is much power in his one sentence confession, and his transphobic language truly expresses his own views.
