Degrees of acceptance in gender identities: Variations within the ASEAN community

In 2008, 67 states supported the United Nations Declaration on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity. Interestingly, only four Asian countries signed the declaration, and three countries opposed the declaration by co-sponsoring an opposition statement. Despite the universality of human rights, the promotion of gender and sexual rights, and the principle that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights, there are still varied responses towards the said declaration, most notably with the rights and recognition of individuals within the Lesbians, Gays, Bisexuals, Transgender, Queers, Intersex, and Asexual or LGBTQIA+ communities, and with Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Equality, and Sexual Characteristics or SOGIESC rights. In this paper, the researcher examines the variation of responses towards LGBTQIA+ community with regards to social movements and SOGIE rights in Southeast Asia, particularly within the Philippines and Thailand. Using the norm life cycle theory, the study discusses how the variations of acceptance and attitudes towards LGBTQIA+s in terms of the aspects mentioned - have emerged, cascaded, and internalized in the Philippines and Thailand. The objective is to determine the stage in which the countries fall under the norm life cycle with regards to the LGBTQIA+ social movements and SOGIESC rights development. This study matters because ASEAN seeks to be a socially inclusive and people-centered regional organization by 2025 and that gender and sexual rights form part of the human rights