Walterina Markova

Walter Dempster, Jr. (May 20, 1924 – June 24, 2005), better known by his alias Walterina Markova, was a Filipino gay man who was forced as a "comfort gay" (sex slave) for Imperial Japanese Army soldiers during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines in World War II.[1]

Walter Dempster, Jr.
BornMay 20, 1924
DiedJune 24, 2005(2005-06-24) (aged 81)
Other namesWalterina Markova

Biography

After Markova left home, he joined a group of six cross-dressing performers. It was as part of this group that he was arrested by Japanese soldiers, and taken to a camp which is now the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex. For several years he and his companions, and other "comfort gays", were put to forced labor and abused sexually by Japanese soldiers, as the "comfort women" were abused.[2]

His story was made into a movie called Markova: Comfort Gay in 2000, directed by Gil Portes. It was included in the 2002 Seattle Lesbian and Gay Film Festival and the San Francisco International Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.[3]

Historical Marker, Plaza Lawton, Liwasang Bonifacio, Manila

Personal

He spent the last years of his life at the Home for the Golden Gays in Pasay. He died at the age of 81 when he was accidentally hit by a racing cyclist.

He was quoted as saying: "As humans, we won’t live long. Revealing my own story is my way of inspiring other gays who continue to be oppressed today. By my act, I may have probably given freedom to many other gay people."

gollark: For example:- the average person probably does *some* sort of illegal/shameful/bad/whatever stuff, and if some organization has information on that it can use it against people it wants to discredit (basically, information leads to power, so information asymmetry leads to power asymmetry). This can happen if you decide to be an activist or something much later, even- having lots of data on you means you can be manipulated more easily (see, partly, targeted advertising, except that actually seems to mostly be poorly targeted)- having a government be more effective at detecting minor crimes (which reduced privacy could allow for) might *not* actually be a good thing, as some crimes (drug use, I guess?) are kind of stupid and at least somewhat tolerable because they *can't* be entirely enforced practically
gollark: No, it probably isn't your fault, it must have been dropped from my brain stack while I was writing the rest.
gollark: ... I forgot one of them, hold on while I try and reremember it.
gollark: That's probably one of them. I'm writing.
gollark: > If you oppose compromises to privacy on the grounds that you could do something that is misidentified as a crime, being more transparent does helpI mean, sure. But I worry about lacking privacy for reasons other than "maybe the government will use partial data or something and accidentally think I'm doing crimes".

See also

References
  1. AUBREY SC MAKILAN (2004). "Walterina Markova: The 'Comfort Gay'". bulatlat.com. Retrieved 3 August 2012.
  2. Ronald D. Klein (13 August 2006). "Markova: Wartime Comfort Gay in the Philippines". Intersections: Gender, History and Culture in the Asian Context. Retrieved 3 August 2012.
  3. "MARKOVA: COMFORT GAY". October 19, 2002. Retrieved 3 August 2012.
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