Mental Health Stressors for LGBTIQ Advocates Working on GBV in Asia

Outright International completed a three-month assessment of mental health stressors for LGBTIQ activists working on gender-based violence in Asia. The assessment was undertaken in collaboration with members of the Asia LGBTIQ Network on SOGIE & GBV, which is a feminist, intersectional, LGBTI inclusive regional platform of expertise and advocacy on gender-based violence. The Network was established by Outright in 2020.

Twenty-seven LGBTIQ advocates in India, Indonesia, Nepal, Philippines, Singapore, and Sri Lanka were interviewed for the study from November 2021 to February 2022. Findings show social, legal, and cultural factors contributing to mental health stressors for LGBTIQ activists before and during the COVID pandemic, impacts of the stressors on individual activists and implications for activism, and challenges for LGBTIQ activists to access mental wellbeing resources for themselves and their organizations. Activists’ self-care practices in the context of their lived realities are also included in the study. In May 2022, Outright convened a three-day online wellness and mental wellbeing workshop for members of the Asia LGBTIQ Network on SOGIE & GBV. Read the findings paper on mental health stressors for LGBTIQ activists in Asia, here.