Mobilizing for a Research Revolution to Ensure Lgbtiq Inclusion in Asia (MFARR-Asia): A Meta-Synthesis of Scoping Reviews

Background and Purpose: A landmark World Bank-United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report identifies the lack of full and equal participation of LGBTIQ people in social, economic, and political life as harming not only LGBTIQ people, but overall global development, and the vital need for research and data documenting the status of LGBTIQ inclusion. Asia, home to the majority of the world’s population and an engine of global economic development, lags in human rights protections for LGBTIQ populations. However, recent policy and legal advances suggest opportunities for accelerating progress: Taiwan legally recognized same-sex marriage in 2019, the first Asian country to do so; India passed national legislation protecting the rights of transgender people (2019); and Hong Kong and Thailand have taken steps toward legal recognition of the rights of same-sex couples (2023). To support research and progress on LGBTIQ inclusion in Asia, we explored peer-reviewed and grey literature to identify the breadth of the literature, map and summarize the available evidence, and identify knowledge gaps and key challenges for LGBTIQ inclusion and human rights in five jurisdictions.

Methods: In partnership with teams in Bangladesh, Hong Kong, India, Taiwan, and Thailand, we used the Joanna Briggs Institute methodology to conduct 5 rigorous scoping reviews, with results reported according to PRISMA-ScR guidelines. Similar search terms were employed to enable comparability, with adaptations to reflect LGBTIQ self-identifications in each setting (e.g., hijras in India; sao prathet song in Thailand). Searches were conducted across 16 bibliographic databases (both disciplinary and LGBTIQ-specific) and grey literature, with inclusion/exclusion assessed by two independent reviewers based on a priori criteria. Results were reviewed using frequencies and thematic analysis, and categorized in accordance with the UNDP LGBTQI+ Inclusion Index into 5 domains: education, economic well-being, health, personal security/violence, and political/civic participation.

Results: From 8,083 unduplicated sources across 5 reviews, abstracts were scoped to 2,105 full-texts, with 639 full-text sources included in the overall review. Across jurisdictions, gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men, and transgender women were the focal populations, with health the predominant research domain. Key findings include the absence of generalized anti-discrimination legislation for LGBTIQ people and lack of recourse for transgender individuals to change their legal gender; pervasive anti-LGBTIQ stigma and bullying in the educational system; discrimination and marginalization in employment; disproportionate prevalence of sexual violence and reluctance to report to police; and disparities in health and mental health. Extensive findings emerged about isolation and exclusion in families, and same-sex marriage and adoption, supporting our addition of a sixth, family, domain.

Conclusions and Implications: Future research and programmatic initiatives on LGBTIQ inclusion in Asia should aim to address: 1) understudied populations—cisgender lesbian and bisexual women, transmasculine persons, intersex individuals; 2) underrepresented topics, including constraints on LGBTIQ political advocacy; 3) strategic policy initiatives to support anti-discrimination laws and legal recognition of same-sex marriage and families; and, 4) advocate national collection of disaggregated data on LGBTIQ persons in order to assess indicators of inclusion, and progress in advancing human rights for LGBTIQ people in Asia.