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Amid growing recognition of LGBTIQ+ rights globally, the Asia-Pacific region continues to lag in protections for sexual and gender minorities. Yet, the United Nations Development Program and World Bank have identified huge gaps in data on the status of LGBTIQ+ people globally. Notable progress is evidenced in the legalization of same-sex marriage in Taiwan (2019) and Thailand (2025), but at least 17 Asian jurisdictions still have laws that partially or fully criminalize consensual same-sex sexual activities and many restrict gender identity and expression. We conducted a Delphi study to identify priorities for advancing LGBTIQ+ inclusion and human rights in the Asia-Pacific.
Methods
We used a community-based participatory research (CBPR)-inspired Delphi method, a consensus-building technique widely used in policy research, by including both academic and community experts, and quantitative evidence along with lived experience. Between May and July 2025, we recruited academic/research and community/practitioner stakeholders with expertise in LGBTIQ+ inclusion and human rights in Asia via email using purposive and snowball sampling. A multi-platform (for tablet, laptop or PC) online survey was developed to identify priorities and rank potential indicators of LGBTIQ+ inclusion, based on an augmented UNDP-World Bank Inclusion Index. Participants were asked to rank order 10 to 15 LGBTIQ+ inclusion indicators in each of six domains: Economic Well-being, Education, Family, Health, Personal Security and Violence, and Political and Civic Participation. Weighted rank-sum scores were calculated to determine relative priorities of indicators within each domain. Participants were also invited to comment on/explain their selections in open-ended text boxes, reviewed using thematic analysis.
Results
Of 148 invitees, 66 (45%) completed the survey. Participants resided in Southeast Asia (32%), East Asia (30%), South Asia (12%), North America (20%), Europe (4%), and Oceania (2%). Participants identified as cisgender men (n=39; 59%), cisgender women (n=20; 30%), and transgender and gender diverse people (n=7; 11%); 64% were academic and 36% community experts. The weighted rank-sum score (WRS) ranges for each domain are as follows: Economic Well-being (21–151), Education (2–126), Family (50–232), Health (4–148), Personal Security & Violence (8–155), and Political & Civic Participation (27–167). Across all domains, the top indicators related to advancements in public policies to enhance the inclusion of LGBTIQ+ people in society. For example, the top-ranked indicator in Economic Well-being was “implementation of employment non-discrimination law; in Family, “legal recognition of same-sex marriage”; in Personal Security and Violence, “presence of hate crime legislation/incitement to violence”; and in Political and Civic Participation, “decriminalization of same-sex conduct.”
Conclusions and Implications
Our CBPR-inspired Delphi consensus revealed priorities for LGBTIQ+ inclusion indicators that reflect structural- and policy-level challenges in each domain, and support for our newly added family domain of inclusion. Given the heterogeneous legal and sociocultural landscape of the Asia-Pacific region, these priority indicators serve as a guide for advancing LGBTIQ+ inclusion and human rights by identifying quantifiable metrics across multiple domains of public life, in concert with in-depth qualitative data.