ASEAN SOGIE Caucus
Inclusive and diverse ASEAN
ASEAN SOGIE Caucus
Inclusive and diverse ASEAN
Inclusive and diverse ASEAN
Inclusive and diverse ASEAN
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
Since the World Health Organization (WHO) declared a pandemic in 11 March 2020, governments in the ASEAN region have struggled with COVID-19, undertaken many measures and prohibitions. Except for local ad-hoc government initiatives, there has been no state-led COVID-19 response inclusive of SOGIESC. The lack of information about coordinated action indicates a lack of regional cohesion to address the pandemic. Unfortunately, such actions have also resulted in restrictions to freedoms of movement or travel, public assembly, and even expression. This study was conducted to identify the needs and challenges faced by local LGBTIQ+ organizations.
ASEAN SOGIE Caucus (ASC) formulated this study as a result of its two Rapid Needs Assessments (RNAs), which was done from April to December 2020 and led ASC to update its strategies and advocate for LGBTIQ+ inclusion in ASEAN’s COVID-19 response. As a result, ASC also launched its Rainbow Reach Out (RRO) program, in collaboration with 10 LGBTIQ+ organizations in the region, to provide emergency response to LGBTIQ+ communities affected by the crisis.
You may access the fact sheet here.
ASEAN SOGIE Caucus today releases its most recent publication, “Fact Sheet: Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression, and Sex Characteristics (SOGIESC) and the UN Human Rights Mechanisms in Southeast Asia (2017-2020)”. It provides updated information on engagements by LGBTIQ activists to raise issues related to SOGIESC within UN human rights mechanisms, and offers analysis on trends, themes, and gaps in how LGBTIQ people’s human rights issues have so far been tackled within these mechanisms.
To: Leaders of the Member States of the Association of the Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)
Your Excellencies,
In alignment with the upcoming Special ASEAN Summit on Myanmar on 24 April 2021, we, the undersigned 827 individuals, 402 civil society organisations in Myanmar and 444 in other Southeast Asian nations and globally, call on the ASEAN, its leaders and Member States to come up with an effective and sustainable strategy jointly with the United Nations Security Council, the United Nations Human Rights Council, the International Criminal Court (ICC), and other international community actors in addressing the illegitimate and brutal coup and atrocity crimes committed by the military junta in Myanmar.
Two months into 2021, LGBTIQ persons from Southeast Asia have already faced multiple forms of discrimination in the hands of their governments. Malaysia’s Deputy Minister in the Religious Affairs Department made a statement that the punishment for LGBTIQ people under the current law is ‘too light’ and went so far to suggest heavier sentences be applied to the offenses. Democracy is being trampled in Myanmar and LGBTIQ people are among those who march down the street to protest against the backdrop of COVID-19 pandemic. Harmless protest over alleged transphobia outside the Singapore Ministry of Education headquarter was met with an arrest over public assembly without permit.
As civil society organizations from the ASEAN region, we write to you urging you to use your unique position to influence the situation in Myanmar by taking immediate measures to ensure that the military respects people’s right to peaceful protests and to freedom of expression, that democracy is upheld, and the will of the people respected.
Following the Myanmar military’s illegal seizure of power on 1 February, Commander-in-Chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing assumed all legislative, executive, and judicial powers under the newly-established State Administrative Council.
In the early part of November 2020, the Philippines, already battered by the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, was hit by a series of powerful typhoons. First was the super typhoon Rolly (internationally known as Goni) whose sustained winds of around 220km per hour left devastations in Eastern provinces. Second was the super typhoon Ulysses (Vamco), the strongest that hit the country so far, causing massive rains that left several towns and cities flooded.
An ASEAN People Forum 2020 Side Event
People power uprising and non-violent forces taking the streets to demand for substantive democracy are taking place in Indonesia and Thailand. Thai people are fed up with the rule of the military and the monarchy in co-opting democracy while Indonesians are angry at their legislative and executive power that give favor to the rich in order to enrich and strengthen the oligarch. People are taking to the streets to demand justice and substantive democracy while Thai and Indonesia governments use police and military force to silent them. Police brutality appears in each protest. These movement are being led by the marginalized groups in militaristic, monarchy and oligarchy system that co-opt democracy like progressive Youth groups, LGBTIQ persons, women, and labor groups.
February 13, 2021 to March 13, 2021
The Southeast Asia Queer Cultural Festival (SEAQCF) is a virtual platform that celebrates LGBTIQ inclusion in Southeast Asia. Advocates, artists and cultural workers are invited to share materials that educate the public on this issue and build stronger bonds of regional community.
We seek to cultivate the collective memory of Southeast Asian LGBTIQ persons. This term refers to the cultural narratives of the community, centred around a shared identity and its relationship to both an imagined common past and a vision of a common future. It is not a static record of history, but an evolving consciousness, constantly morphing as it is performed, narrated and interpreted in contemporary situations.
Inclusive and diverse ASEAN
Legally Registered in the Philippines as Southeast Asia Sexual Orientation,
Gender Identity and Expression Caucus (ASC), Inc. The organization is in
Special Consultative Status with the UN ECOSOC since 2021.
Quezon City, Philippines
Email: communications@aseansogiecaucus.org
ASEAN SOGIE Caucus © 2025
