Markova: Comfort Gay 2000

Walterina Markova Eric Quizon is a devout Catholic and elderly drag queen living at the Home for the Golden Gays, where she trains Japan-bound entertainers for a living. After watching a report by Loren Legarda on comfort women during World War II, Markova suffers an emotional breakdown and nightmares about her wartime experience. After praying in church, Markova resolves to tell her story and persuades the home’s founder, Councilor Justo Justo, to arrange for an interview with Loren. The journalist, who initially assumes she would be interviewing another comfort woman, is shocked when Markova reveals herself to be the “comfort gay” she is looking for, but agrees nevertheless to hear out her story, which she records on tape.

Born Walter Dempster Jr., Markova discovers her sexual identity as a teenager in the 1930s. While she is accepted by her mother and sisters and tolerated by her father, her homophobic elder brother Bobby frequently beats her up and arranges for one of his male friends to rape her. Bobby later dies from an alcohol-induced ulcer, to Markova’s relief.

During the Japanese occupation, Markova and her friends Carmen, Melvin Lee, Sophie, Andoy Ranay, Anita, Ricci Chan and Minerva, R. S. Francisco work as cross-dressing dancers at a nightclub and catch the attention of Japanese officers who mistake them for women. The officers take their group to the Manila Hotel for a tryst, but upon finding that they are biologically male, they are arrested and sent to a barracks, where they are repeatedly raped by Japanese soldiers, earning them the moniker “comfort gays,” until they escape during an Allied bombing raid. The experience leaves a deep scar on Markova, which leads her to avoid mentioning the incident for years until she decides to let herself be interviewed by Loren. Sophie embarks on a killing spree of Japanese soldiers in revenge for her rape, which ends with her being captured and dying under torture in Fort Santiago. The group disperses during the Battle of Manila, and Minerva is never heard from again.

After the war, Markova reunites with Anita and resumes working as a dancer. While cavorting with an American sailor, Markova comes across a psychologically-scarred Carmen and helps her re-embrace her sexual identity. Markova eventually stops cross-dressing and works as a makeup artist for actors. In her elderly years, Markova attends to a dying Anita, who reveals that she had caught AIDS. Frightened, Markova undergoes a blood test and is relieved after she tests negative. She also visits Carmen, who is dying from a heart ailment, and brings her favorite food. Markova later grieves at failing to find their graves on a visit to the cemetery.

In the present day, Markova ends her testimony, but Loren expresses doubts over her story as part of her journalistic training. Offended, Markova takes Loren’s tape recording of the interview and offers it back once she believes her story, prompting Loren to storm off. Alone in her room, Markova laments at having her story disbelieved despite all her struggles in her lifetime, before cross-dressing again for a dance with her younger selves while reminiscing her glory days.