Böcker av Kevin (University of Edinburgh Guyan

Data has never mattered more. Our lives are increasingly shaped by it and how it is defined, collected and used. But who counts in the collection, analysis and application of data?This important book is the first to look at queer data - defined as data relating to gender, sex, sexual orientation and trans identity/history. The author shows us how current data practices reflect an incomplete account of LGBTQ lives and helps us understand how data biases are used to delegitimise the everyday experiences of queer people.Guyan demonstrates why it is important to understand, collect and analyse queer data, the benefits and challenges involved in doing so, and how we might better use queer data in our work. Arming us with the tools for action, this book shows how greater knowledge about queer identities is instrumental in informing decisions about resource allocation, changes to legislation, access to services, representation and visibility.

Rainbow Trap is the first book to foreground the importance of systems - and their associated documents, policies and administrative practices - as a key battleground for LGBTQ equalities in the UK. Looking across digital and non-digital systems, Guyan investigates five industries - the police, borders, film and television, tech and global brands - and expose a hidden rule book that constructs, categorises and commodifies LGBTQ identities. While many organisations, businesses and workplaces talk a lot about diversity and inclusion, the internal workings of most systems remain unchanged. Efforts to 'fix' broken systems tend to follow a narrow set of options: elevate queer individuals to senior roles, add more 'diverse' people into organisations, acknowledge historical injustices, gather better evidence and address biases. But these solutions aren't working. Whether it is queer families fighting for each parent to be named on their child's birth certificate, lesbian couples offered an inferior selection of mortgage rates, bisexual asylum seekers asked to provide 'proof' of their sexuality, or gay actors forced to out themselves to meet diversity quotas, LGBTQ people encounter systems that are designed around a default person who is cisgender and straight. Everyone loses when systems repeatedly fail to reflect the world around us and make bad decisions based on biased assumptions. How we choose to engage with these systems - or if we choose to engage - is fundamental to everyone's future.