The Southeast Asia Queer Artivist Manifesto is a collective declaration of existence, dignity, and creative power. Emerging from our artivism initiatives, research, and the Southeast Asia Queer Arts and Justice Summit, it affirms that queer people have always been part of Southeast Asia’s cultural fabric, shaping stories, communities, movements, and futures across generations.

The Manifesto names the realities that queer artists and cultural workers continue to face, including criminalization, censorship, violence, shrinking civic space, economic exclusion, unsafe work, loss of creative spaces, and policy silence. It calls on ASEAN and its member states to protect the right of queer people to exist and create, end censorship of queer expression, create sustainable pathways for queer creatives, embed SOGIESC inclusion in regional frameworks, and invest in education and cultural literacy.

With deep gratitude, we thank everyone who signed, supported, and contributed through the surveys, interviews, and conversations that helped shape this Manifesto. Your trust, testimonies, and solidarity made this collective call possible. We invite everyone to download the PDF, read the Manifesto, and stand with queer artists, cultural workers, and artivists across Southeast Asia.

Please download to read the Southeast Asia Queer Artivist Manifesto and to see the signatories.

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Signatories

Global and Regional Organizations

Name of Organization

ASEAN SOGIE Caucus

Asia Democracy Network

Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA)

CIVICUS

Equal Asia Foundation

GiveOut

ILGA Asia

Milk Tea Alliance

Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network (SAFEnet)

Milk Tea Alliance

Youth Voices Count, Inc.

National, Local, and Grassroots Organizations

BRUNEI

Minority Agenda

CAMBODIA

SAFESPACEBTB

INDONESIA

Arus Pelangi

HopeHelps Network

KWRSS

Layung Kristi

Mad Women Collective Indonesia

Name Withheld Upon Request

Queerlangga

Rainbow Panda

Support Group and Resource Center on Sexuality Studies (SGRC Indonesia)

WCC Yogyakarta

YAPPIKA-ActionAid

LAOS

APLSY

ARiSE Laos

MALAYSIA

JEJAKA

Justice for Sisters

Kemban Kolektif

KL Queer Space

Legal Dignity

Life Under Umbrella

Name Withheld Upon Request

Name Withheld Upon Request

Queers of Burma Alternative

SINGAPORE

Name Withheld Upon Request

THAILAND

Non-Binary Thailand

Sangsan Anakot Yawachon Foundation

Solidarity Collective TH

THE PHILIPPINES

Bisdak Pride

Candon Youth For Empowerment Movement Inc.

DAKILA

Intersex Philippines

Ladlad LGBTIQ+

LIMAY RAINBOW COUNCIL

The LoveLife Project

PUP KASARIANLAN

Rainbow Rights

Sige! Netzwerk für philippinische Kunstschaffenden

Society of Transwomen of the Philippines (STRAP)

The LoveLife Project

Women’s Legal and Human Rights Bureau

YLRP - Young Leaders of Rizal Province

TIMOR-LESTE

KORIS Koletivu

VIETNAM

Vietnam Rise

PAKISTAN

Trans Men Insaaf Network Pakistan

TAIWAN

New Bloom

Individual Signatories