Founder Jay Lin said that Taiwan’s legalisation of same-sex marriage “allowed us to open that door a little bit wider when persuading sponsors, platforms or government to seeing [LGBT representation] as something that’s beneficial for them as well.”

“And it makes it easier for us to find production and distribution partners outside of Taiwan,” he told Variety.

GagaOOLala launches in countries where gay sex is illegal.

Gay sex remains illegal in a number of the countries that GagaOOLala serves, including Singapore and Brunei.

Some, such as Malaysia, go as far as to censor films that include LGBT+ content, with the Elton John biopic Rocketman a recent victim.

In a separate interview with The Japan Times, Lin explained that his aim is to showcase the depth and breadth of the LGBT+ experience.

“One of the main impetuses for me to create GagaOOLala is to dispel a lot of the myths and misconceptions that a lot of people might have about LGBT people,” he said.

“We’re not all living really tragic lives — we’re entrepreneurs, we’re fathers.”

LGBT+ streaming service ramps up queer Asian representation.

Already more than 280,000 people have subscribed to the service – mostly LGBT+ people, but also including a significant amount of straight women.

So far Lin and his team have not run into any regulatory hurdles, but are aware of the need to be discreet in countries where LGBT+ identities are still policed.

As a result, advertising is done through closed chat groups, social media and by LGBT+ influencers, rather than out in the open.

Originally GagaOOLala featured a library of mostly Western content, but it has steadily branched out into original Asian queer film with the help of its development arm, GOL Studios.

“As we have developed […] we have realised that actually a lot of Asians also want to see Asian faces, and watch Asian stories and watch films take place in places or cities that they’re familiar with,” Lin explained.

GagaOOLala brings more than 1,000 feature films, shorts, web series and documentaries to people across Asia, where censorship and traditional attitudes mean there has been little in the way of gay content in the mainstream media.

After launching in 2017 in Taiwan — a beacon for gay rights since becoming the first place in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage — it has expanded to 21 territories, including several that still criminalize homosexuality.

“One of the main impetuses for me to create GagaOOlala, (is) to kind of dispel a lot of the myths and misconceptions that a lot of people might have about LGBT people,” said Jay Lin, a prominent LGBT rights activist in Taiwan who founded the platform.

“We’re not all living really tragic lives — we’re entrepreneurs, we’re fathers,” the 46-year-old, who is raising twin boys with his partner in Taipei, said.

With about 280,000 members, made up mainly of gay people but also including a significant number of straight women, its success comes as some progress is made on LGBT rights in parts of the region.

As well as Taiwan’s move to legalize same-sex unions in May, India’s Supreme Court last year struck down a colonial-era ban on gay sex.

But the gay rights situation remains dire in other countries where the platform operates — making its presence in those markets all the more important, supporters say.

Gay sex is still banned in Singapore as it is in Malaysia, where in the past year women and men have been caned under Islamic laws for having same-sex relations.

The tiny, oil-rich sultanate of Brunei introduced death by stoning for gay sex as part of a harsh new Sharia penal code earlier this year — but later rolled it back following a storm of criticism.

Censorship also persists in some countries, with Malaysia’s film board this year cutting gay sex scenes from “Rocketman,” the movie-musical based on the life of British singer Elton John.

The platform — which is planning a global launch next year — has not run into any regulatory hurdles so far, according to Lin, but he acknowledged the need to tread carefully in more conservative places.

The service often relies on closed chat groups, social media and LGBT influencers for promotion instead of advertising openly.

Lin’s team started by building up GagaOOlala’s library with Western content, but has since branched out, making an effort to find content from across Asia.

Earlier this year GOL Studios, a sister platform, was launched to help LGBT filmmakers find talent and funding, as well as distribute and market their work.

The platform ramped up its production of original content this year, making its first Thai film, its first lesbian feature film in Japan and a Germany-Spain co-production.

“As we have developed … we have realized that actually a lot of Asians also want to see Asian faces, and watch Asian stories and watch films take place in places or cities that they’re familiar with,” said Lin.

For streamers focusing on niche areas like GagaOOLala, original shows are key to building their brands.

Lin said interest in the platform jumped after the recent release of the “Handsome Stewardess,” a series about a Taiwanese, tomboyish lesbian who takes a job as a flight attendant to pursue her new love interest to Singapore.

“The Teacher,” another original about a gay educator who is in love with an HIV-positive married man, also proved a hit, bagging best supporting actress at the Golden Horse awards, dubbed the Chinese-language “Oscars.”

GagaOOlala is not alone in relying on original content to draw in viewers and boost its profile.

Bryan Seah, head of original productions at Southeast Asia-focused streamer Hooq, said people felt “pride” at seeing local performers on screen.

Viewers were sending a message that “I want to see my favorite Indonesian actor, I want to see my favorite Filipino director, fronting something that has the scale and ambition to match the best Korean content,” he said.

In addition to his work starting GagaOOLala, Asia’s first LGBTQ film streaming platform, Jay Lin is co-founder of the Taiwan International Queer Film Festival. He has been promoting LGBTQ diversity on the big screen for years, and his work has won him numerous awards, as well as funding from Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture. A well-known gay figure in Taiwan, Jay Lin tells Newsweek, “The reason to start the Taiwan International Queer Film Festival and GagaOOLala is that I hope LGBTQ people can find stories and characters not available in traditional media platforms that can resonate with them.”

GagaOOLala was launched in 2016 and has over 150,000 registered users, including straight people. “Mostly they come to be entertained by good movies, TV series and documentaries they can’t see anywhere else,” Jay Lin says. “But many also watch to learn about the community, to learn that underneath the LGBTQ labels there is a group of people with diverse roles beyond their sexuality. They are someone’s son, partner or parent. Only when this idea is completely normalized, can we be seen as equal.”

Upon reviewing Jay Lin’s milestones over the past five years, it’s easy to see the parallels between his own career and the movement forward for LGBTQ rights in Taiwan.

In 2014, he founded the Taiwan International Queer Film Festival. The next year he co-founded the Asia Pacific Queer Film Festival Alliance, made up of over 30 film festivals in which members share resources to bring more awareness to queer films. In 2016, Jay Lin held the first ever Queermosa Awards, a gala celebrating Taiwan’s LGBTQ activists. By the end of 2016, he poured all his efforts into building an online ecosystem that included the news and lifestyle sites GagaTai and LalaTai, meant for gay men and lesbian women respectively, to share and promote LGBTQ events, news and stories.

And then there’s GagaOOLala, the epicenter of queer cinema in Asia.

In 2017, when Taiwan’s marriage equality movement came to a turning point, Jay Lin and his partners at the Marriage Equality Coalition Taiwan organized Light Up Taiwan, which allowed legislators in all districts to connect with citizens who supported same-sex marriage and education on gender equality.

The New York Times once wrote, “For Asia’s Gays, Taiwan Stands Out as Beacon.” And it might surprise you to know that Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore — where gay acts are still considered illegal — are among the 13 Asian countries where GagaOOLala is currently available and popular. “The existence of GagaOOLala is even more important in those forbidden countries,” Jay Lin says. “There’s only so much we can do. Until the decriminalization of homosexuality is carried out throughout Asia, we should take on the responsibility to show that being LGBTQ is not wrong in these countries.”

In 2018, GagaOOLala produced the first season of Queer Asia, a transnational docuseries that connects the LGBTQ communities and filmmakers of four nations to reflect on the difficulties queer people in Asia face today. Compared to other streaming platforms, GagaOOLala — dubbed the “Gay Netflix” — bears added social responsibility.

Discussing what’s next for GagaOOLala, in addition to expanding the platform to more countries, Jay says, “We kept considering how to import more foreign gay films for TIQFF in 2014; in 2016 GagaOOLala was born with the purpose of bringing LGBT stories to everywhere in Asia, even to some areas where homosexuality is still a crime. This year, we are announcing GOL Studios. It’s a film production platform to support queer films. You can upload your project and we will help you find the necessary shooting resources, funds and connect with the right people to make that project come true. We are taking the concept of community to the next level — you can be set wherever in the world and find the right team and resources in other countries to finally release your film for a global audience. GOL Studios plans on launching in March 2019.”

Clearly Jay Lin is taking the concept of “Globalization 4.0” and running with it, dedicated to giving a niche market the global scale it deserves and needs. And way beyond mere content creation, GagaOOLala and his upcoming GOL Studios could have real, lasting effects on LGBTQ rights throughout Asia.

We will continue to keep an eye on GagaOOLala founder Jay Lin, who’s definitely one to watch in 2019.