MANILA, PHILIPPINES — Residents of Manila and top Marine officials have described themselves as both horrified and inspired by last week’s landmark murder of a straight Filipina prositute by a transgender U.S. Marine, sources confirmed today.

Cpl. Jenny Waller was arraigned yesterday in a Manila courtroom for murdering the female prostitute, who Waller allegedly assumed was male based on her female appearance and proximity to a Manila nightclub.

Waller, an 0351 Infantry Assault Marine assigned to the 4th Marine Regiment on Okinawa, was on a routine weekend mission to drink all the alcohol in Manila when the encounter occurred.

Asking the judge for permission to make a brief statement, Waller said: “Ten years ago I might have been killed just for being who I am, stabbed and left to bleed out in a men’s bathroom off the Interstate. But thanks to the Marines, the LGBTQ community can finally say #WeGotThis.”

Top Marines have admitted they were initially nervous about admitting openly-trans individuals into the service back in 2016, but said that trans Marines have proven to be just as suicidal alcoholic discipline cases as straight Marines.

“This was a milestone for the Marine Corps and the LGBTQ community,” the Corps said in a press release. “Today a trans individual stood up and said that no matter your race, color, or creed, you can all be arrested for chasing a hooker around some seedy motel and bludgeoning her to death with a chair leg.”

Capt. Megan Morales, a public affairs officer with the III Marine Expeditionary Force, has said the killing was a welcome departure after over 200 years of only straight Marines murdering transgender prostitutes.

“While the Marines are saddened at the tragic loss of this poor woman’s life, we are pleased to see another glass ceiling shattered in the same way Cpl. Waller allegedly shattered her sternum with a blunt object,” Morales told reporters.

“The media will look at this and just see the blood, broken furniture, and large amounts of semen, but we prefer to see hope.”