Empowering the LGBTQIA+ Community in Mindanao

With our dedicated and hardworking team of advocates and activist in the Philippines.

We are a dedicated non-profit organization committed to providing assistance and promoting human rights for the LGBTQIA+ community in the Philippines through various programs and initiatives.

Only when we stand together can we make a genuine difference.

Community Advocates

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The Roots of our Shared Journey

This is Not Just Our Story—It’s Yours Too

In 2015, a small circle of transgender women in Zamboanga City — founded Mujer Organization , with nothing but big dreams and a desire to survive in a world that made being transgender an invitation to harm. Back then, our battle cry was simple but vital: visibility, healthcare, and tolerance. Our members has participated in beauty pageants not for the crown, but to be seen and share our advocacies. We have walked on the streets not for spectacle, but to raise awareness on HIV and AIDS.

But as our numbers grew, so did our purpose.

In 2017, we painted the city in color and courage — co-organizing Zamboanga’s first Pride March. Under the banner of the “Pink Parade,” LGBTQIA+ voices merged with the fight against breast cancer — a historic fusion of struggles often ignored.

By 2019, Mujer took the bold step of officially registering as incorporation with the Philippine SEC & Bureau of Internal Revenue, transforming our little dreams into a fully recognized human rights-based LGBTQIA+ organisation (CBO) — having our founding members as the board of directors, we finally morphed into Mujer LGBT+ Organization Incorporated.

Then came 2020 — the year that tested humanity. Mujer LGBT+ produced "Budjang," a groundbreaking documentary about a transgender woman navigating life as a government worker in a conservative Muslim village in Zamboanga City. The film has traveled far, opening hearts in classrooms, festivals, and institutions in the Philippines and abroad.

That same year, we achieved what once felt impossible: Zamboanga City's first Anti-Discrimination Ordinance, with strong protections for LGBTQIA+ lives — while also receiving the APCOM COVID-19 Hero Award for our pandemic relief/humanitarian work that year.

But Mujer didn’t stop there. They knew the fight wasn't only about just gender — it was about justice, dignity, and intersectionality.

By 2023, Mujer LGBT+ had led Mindanao’s largest Human Rights Caravan, amplifying voices across regions and anchoring Gender and Development initiatives nationwide. They are no longer marching only for pride, but for policy — lobbying for the SOGIE Equality Bill in Congress, and pushing for anti-discrimination laws across Mindanao.

What began as a safe space for trans women has become a movement for all — fierce, intersectional, and unstoppable.

This is Mujer. Born in struggle. Grown in purpose. Moving with love.

2015

2025

Our Collective Accomplishments

Because Equality becomes powerful when it is shared. When we speak together, and when we rise together.

JUSTICE with PRIDE: LGBTQIA+ Legal Guidebook

The first legal guidebook designed to provide assistance and resources for LGBTQIA+ Organizations and activist in the Philippines.

First Comprehensive Anti-Discrimination Ordinance in Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao

In a significant stride towards ensuring equal rights and protection for the LGBTQIA+ community, the Municipal Council of Panglima Sugala has passed a comprehensive anti-discrimination ordinance no. 001

Human Rights Catalyst Award

The Philippine Constitutional Body, the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines has awarded Mujer-LGBT Organization the 2024 Human Rights Catalyst Award for our human rights efforts in the entire Mindanao.