Outrage Magazine publisher and editor in chief, Michael David dela Cruz Tan, MDC, was selected for the 2025 Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity (AFSEE) to join the International Inequalities Institute at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in the UK.
Twenty fellows were chosen from18 different countries for the 2025-2026 cohort; Tan is the only one from the Philippines. This year’s fellows also come from Indonesia, Brazil, Nepal, Kazakhstan, Chile, Germany, Lithuania, Malawi, Uganda, Georgia, Kenya, Malaysia, Argentina, Germany, Costa Rica, The Gambia, UK, Canada, Iran, US, and Pakistan.
“That the work that we do gets recognized is always a bonus,” said Tan, “though – as may have been stressed already – this is also a reminder that while we may be creating some noise, a lot of work still needs to be done. This is definitely true in the struggle for equal rights of LGBTQIA+ Filipinos, considering that over 20 years may have already passed since the first proposal for non-discrimination was tabled, but a national law that will protect the human rights of gender-diverse people is still far from getting passed.”
Tan, the founder of Bahaghari Center for SOGIE Research, Education and Advocacy, Inc. (Bahaghari Center), is a seasoned journalist who won the Catholic Mass Media Awards for best investigative journalism, and was awarded with “Art that Matters-Literature” by Amnesty International-Philippines, among others. He authored Being LGBT in Asia: Philippines Country Report that traced the history of the LGBTQIA+ movement in the Philippines, and provided a blueprint on where it is headed; as well as the only journalistic stylebook for those providing media coverage on LGBTQIA+ people and issues in the country. He is also the author of Red Lives, a collection of stories of people infected and affected by HIV in the Philippines.
Having been involved in the LGBTQIA+ and HIV advocacy since the 1990s, Tan admitted that “a lot changed since the 1990s, when I started working to challenge inequality in the Philippines.” And while “many of the changes are for the good, these changes took a long time to happen. But they happened because of perseverance. It is this, therefore, that needs to be emphasized: that we push for change particularly when conditions are hard because that’s when changes are needed most.”
As part of AFSEE, nine of the 20 fellows will undertake the MSc in Inequalities and Social Science at LSE during the 2025-26 academic year. The 11 non-residential fellows, meanwhile, will participate in the four fellowship modules during their active fellowship year. The interdisciplinary modules, led by AFSEE executive director Professor Armine Ishkanian and AFSEE academic lead Dr. George Kunnath, will include: academic lectures, roundtables with Senior AFSEE Fellows, engagement with researchers and practitioners, leadership training, community-building, and narrative and communications skills work.
This will also be the second year that AFSEE Non-Residential Fellows will be awarded a Postgraduate Certificate in Social and Economic Equity upon successful completion of the active fellowship year.
AFSEE was established in 2016 via a £64 million grant to LSE from the Atlantic Philanthropies.
