In Thailand, AJWS focuses on strengthening social movements to expand the human rights and visibility of LGBTQI+ people and sex workers. While Thailand is known internationally as a gay-friendly vacation spot, many Thai LGBTQI+ people do not experience respect or safety. They often experience discrimination in schools and workplaces; and many trans and gender nonbinary folks are coerced into military service required of Thai men. AJWS partners are working to shift this severe social stigma while advocating for laws that recognize trans people and expand the rights of same-sex couples and sex workers.
From the dense forests of the North to the coastal South, AJWS also supports rural and Indigenous communities of farmers and fisherfolk whose lives and livelihoods have been upended by government-sanctioned mega-development projects and the climate crisis. AJWS grantees support movements of rural communities and ethnic minorities that defend their land and water and push climate justice into the national spotlight.
