The Southeast Asia Queer Arts and Justice Summit (SEAQAJS) convened from 26 to 28 February at B Hotel in Quezon City. Organized by the ASEAN SOGIE Caucus (ASC), the summit brought together more than 70 LGBTIQ+ activists, artists, cultural workers and organizers from across Southeast Asia. A companion event, the Southeast Asia Queer Arts Space, was held at Sikat, an events venue along Tomas Morato Avenue.

The summit aimed to create a space for dialogue, learning, and collaboration on the role of culture and the arts in strengthening advocacy movements and shaping public narratives.

“Art has long been a site of resistance, care and survival for queer communities in Southeast Asia,” said Ryan Silverio, executive director of ASEAN SOGIE Caucus. “Through SEAQAJS, we are advancing ‘artivism’ as a strategic force — one that can engage ASEAN-level processes, strengthen movements, and connect human rights advocacy to lived realities, climate justice, and collective care.”

ASC has been active in recognizing the power of the arts in shaping public narratives, challenging oppression, and amplifying marginalized voices in recent years with the staging of the Southeast Asia Queer Cultural Festival. With the summit, this recognition translated into active engagement, integrating the arts into advocacy.

The three-day summit featured focused dialogues, workshops, participatory sessions, and peer-learning exchanges. Among the key themes discussed were queer futures and public narratives in Southeast Asia, creative economies and fair work, climate justice and indigenous knowledge, healing and transitional justice, safety and care under repression, censorship and representation, and community storytelling as a driver of narrative change. Central to these discussions was intersectionality, used both as an analytical lens and an advocacy approach linking queer struggles to broader regional issues such as environmental degradation, care work, and economic precarity.

Alongside the summit, the SEA Queer Arts Space served as a dedicated venue for queer artistic expression from across the region, featuring a visual art exhibition and a curated program of film screenings.

The film lineup included Qeluar by Justice Khor; The Colors We Hide by SafeSpace Battambang; The Visible by Atikah Zainidi; Budjang by Rhadem Musawah; Fragment 147 by Sari Katharyn; Golden Voice by Mars Verrone; This Is What I Want to Sea! by KikiHQ and the Southeast Asian Ballroom Community; From Pain to Power by Matcha Phorn-In and the Sangsan Anakot Yawachon Foundation; Pearl Boy by Oat Montien; Light of Hope(less) by Wilie Xaiwouth; I Enjoy Being a Girl by Hoo Fan Chon; and Read-Only Memory by David R. Corpuz, Kristine Camille Sulit and Patricia Salic. The program closed with Heels to Heal by Justice Khor.

Silverio emphasized that art humanizes the statistical data that often drives policy advocacy — and that policy, in turn, must reflect the lived realities that art captures and expresses.

“Artists’ and activists’ engagement creates frictions that spark passion, disturb the status quo, expose power, and break hierarchies,” he added.