This paper examines lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI) networks across the Arab Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Specifically, it examines the creation of and role regional networks and meetings play in LGBTQI organizing with a focus on the diffusion of ideas and strategies within and across the region. Despite a growing number of LGBTQI organizations and groups, there are only a limited number of studies on LGBTQI activism in the MENA (Whitaker 2006; Nagle and Fakhoury 2018). Much of this literature focuses on the influence of international LGBTQI advocacy organizations with Massad (2002, 2007, 2009) arguing that these organizations are a form of cultural imperialism. Critics argue that Massad assumes that Western actors shape and control the debate on homosexuality and ignores or denies MENA-activists’ agency (Fortier 2015; Ritchie 2010; Makarem 2009; Drucker 2008). Overlooked in this debate and in the literature on LGBTQI activism in the MENA are the growing number of interactions between LGBTQI organizations across the MENA, the creation and role these regional networks play and their significance for the diffusion of ideas and strategies within the region. This paper puts activists’ agency at the centre of analysis and, by examining regional LGBTQI networks and meetings, examines how activists shape and control the debate on homosexuality and the struggle for political and social change. Why and how are these networks created? How are ideas and strategies shaped and diffused across the region? What is the significance of these networks and meetings for LGBTQI activism? The paper makes two arguments. First, it highlights the affective role that regional networks and meetings play in combating alienation. Regional networks play an important role in teaching gender and sexuality, in empowering individuals and helping to transform them into activists, and in movement-building by bridging isolated efforts into one cause. Second, it argues that activists examine priorities and discuss how to adapt strategies to local conditions at regional meetings. Activists reject, adapt and adopt both Western strategies and those of MENA activists from other countries to suit the specificities of their individual countries. The paper is based on extensive fieldwork conducted in 2017-2019. It includes data gathered from over 100 interviews with activists from Lebanon, Tunisia, Jordan, Palestine, Iraq, Egypt, Sudan, Algeria and Morocco. The paper’s findings have significance for the literatures on diffusion, the NGO-ization of social movements, queer families and the literature on MENA LGBTQI activism.