"I want my story to be heard..." : examining the production of digital stories by queer youth in East and South-East Asia

In August 2013 a call to action was broadcast online calling on “Independent Filmmakers” across East and South-East Asia to share the stories of “young people who are comfortable and happy with who they are regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity”. Organised and funded by a regional-based community development organisation, the call-to-action sought to fund “stories told by the [young] people themselves” about diverse sexuality and gender identity, which could be shared across video-sharing platforms, such as YouTube. By November 2013, seven filmmakers were successful and were awarded US$2000 to produce their films. This chapter examines how the filmmakers and storytellers told and constructed these stories. Regionally across Asia, queer/LGBTIQ+ young people continue to face ongoing experiences of stigma and marginalisation. Discrimination remains embedded in legislation (Carroll & Mendos, 2017), evident, for instance, in Singapore, Bhutan, Brunei, Malaysia, India and Aceh in Indonesia. In addition, in some countries, such as Indonesia (see Ridwan & Wu, 2018, for more), there is also evidence of increasing intolerance towards LGBT people. Such forms of exclusion can work to prevent access to local supportive resources, decrease the health and well-being of those who experience this marginality, as well as contribute to forms of economic exclusion (see, e.g., Badgett, Park, & Flores, 2018; Dyson et al., 2003; Manalastas, 2013; Manalastas et al., 2017; Thoreson, 2011).