Claire De Leon
2024 Asia Foundation Development Fellow
Claire De Leon is a proud queer woman and a lawyer working on gender equality and human rights. She has been active in LGBTQI rights advocacy in the Philippines for over ten years and has been working in the broader human rights field for the past six. Claire balances her roles as a lawyer at the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines and as the president of Babaylanes, a Philippine‐based LGBTQI organization. She is the first woman and youngest ever to hold this position. She also previously worked as a lawyer for the Human Rights Victims Claims Board, as executive director of Babaylanes, and as Secretary‐General and spokesperson of Lagablab LGBT Network. Claire holds a bachelor’s degree in Psychology, cum laude, and Juris Doctor degree from the University of the Philippines. She recently obtained her master’s in Law and Gender, with merit, at SOAS University of London.