This research seeks to illuminate the often-overlooked role of young LGBTQI+ activists in social movement organising across the Global South and East. Despite extensive literature on LGBTQI+ movements in these regions, the specific experiences and contributions of youth remain largely unexamined due to intersecting systems of oppression, including ageism, homophobia, transphobia, patriarchy, racism, and classism. These overlapping barriers not only marginalise young people within their communities but also render their activism invisible to funders and mainstream movements. Consequently, young activists in the Global South and East face chronic underfunding and systemic exclusion, even as they confront intensified repression from authoritarian and neo-colonial regimes.

Yet, within these margins, young LGBTQI+ activists are cultivating vibrant and transformative movements that challenge structural violence and reimagine collective liberation. The findings of this qualitative study—based on anonymised interviews with 40 young activists—reveal a generation that is both surviving and leading. These organisers are building mutual aid networks, running emergency shelters, defending land and community resources, and expanding political consciousness in contexts where state and institutional abandonment prevail. They operate across schools, faith spaces, and community centres, forging transnational solidarities that transcend identity boundaries and conventional advocacy models. Far from passive victims of exclusion, young LGBTQI+ activists are shaping new paradigms of leadership and justice—daring to imagine and construct more inclusive, equitable worlds for all.