Episode 23. Queer Data, by Kevin Guyan (book overview)

So when Kevin Guyen is talking about queer data, he's talking about two main things.

First of all, the inclusion of LGBTQ plus identities within data and research.

But he's also talking about how we can queer methods, processes, So let's jump into the book and see what information he can provide for us as we consider conducting qualitative research with LGBTQ plus populations.

So in the intro called Introduction Data and Difference, he introduces us to his two different trajectories of what he means by queer data.

And so, first of all, he says queer data is more than the study of individuals that sit outside of the category of heterosexual or cisgender.

It is equally a brash, confrontational and in-your-face challenge to conventional understandings of how data and identity intersect.

Is this data going to be used to improve the lives of LGBTQ plus people? So he's stating that not only do you collect data, but what is the point of the collection of this data? What is it going to do in the material world? On page two, he's also pointing out that collecting data and revealing LGBTQ plus identities is not always a positive.

And of course there's power in being hidden, in being uncounted.

So this book was published in 2022.

And so this is right after the UK does their first census that includes the LGBTQ identity marker.

And so globally, LGBTQ is not included in most countries' censuses, and so this data and information is really unknown and often is collected by LGBTQ-oriented organizations and nonprofits globally.

With the census including these categories then, this group of people will become visible, so that can provide some positive outcomes, such as knowing the number of the population, the diversity of the population, but it can also cause negative outcomes as well.

It can flatten the diversity of experiences into small categories and it will always under count the number of people as well.

And so that might do a disservice to the community because the government will count fewer people than the reality and therefore allocate fewer fundings to that particular community.

And so he's also stating in this introduction that of course this is a critical book.

He's also positioning the book Queer Data within the frameworks of feminist post-colonial and critical race scholarship and applying that to the LGBTQ plus intersecting identities.

So he points out historically that this category has not been counted in a large scale way, such as the census, and that when it was counted, it was in a very dehumanizing and stigmatizing manner.

And so for the UK current efforts to count this population, they are trying to gather this data because the 2010 Equality Act requires the gathering of such information for public institutions.

And so he's saying that if this data is going to be collected, that it should be done by and for the LGBTQ community and that they should have control over how the data is collected and how the data is used.