Queer Data

Hello everyone. To start, I wanted to apologize for no newsletter last week. Sadly, work became insanely busy. During the months of July and August, I plan on publishing every other week.

This week, a book review I had written some time ago was finally published in the Journal of Social Equity in Public Administration, an open-access journal. The book, Queer Data, by Kevin Guyan is an interesting look at how data can be used by nonprofits. I think this was an excellent book, not just for academics but for nonprofit professionals as well. It provides a lot of important guidance on what data to collect, why this data should be collected, and how to use this data in a way that supports LGBTQIA+ communities. Just like any other data, it is important to nonprofits to understand the ways to ask questions about sexual orientation and gender identity and expression. A few thoughts, both from this book and from my experience:

1. Why do we need to collect data on sexual orientation and gender identity and expression? Do you know if members of the LGBTQIA+ community are using your services? Are they experiencing the services the same way as your heterosexual/cisgendered clients? It can be hard to know how these experiences can be different for the queer communities and what the queer communities need unless you specifically ask. Furthermore, it is hard to even know if you are supporting the LGBTQIA+ community unless you ask about sexual orientation and gender identity and expression (gender as beyond a male/female dichotomy).

2. Where should you ask about sexual orientation and gender identity and expression? Where ever you ask about other data (caveats do apply, see below).

3. How do you keep this data safe? While data about race or ethnicity is common to collect, in this political environment, you need to be careful with sexual orientation and gender identity and expression data which is collected. Depending on the country you are in, collecting this data may lead to people being arrested. Laws are changing constantly (for example, the country of Georgia may be enacting anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation) so international organizations need to be cognizant of this if they institutionalize a certain type of data collection. Furthermore, as states start to prosecute transgender people and identities, especially children, organizations may want to be careful of what they ask because governments may try to subpoena that data and use it to harm transgender children or your organization. Which leads us into our next question…

4. How safe is your political environment? It is important to be aware of the political environment because politicians may try to use this data to harm LGBTQIA+ individuals, especially transgender children. We are already seeing governments subpoena this data from hospitals and even some clinics outside of their states. If the data can be used to harm your clients, do not collect it.

5. What can you do with this information? Collecting data does nothing if it just sits there. As a consultant, I have spent a lot of time helping organizations use data that they have already collected and turn it into information for funding as well as assessment of programming. Some ways I have used this demographic information includes:

   1. Grants and funding: This data shows the reach of your organization and provides information for those who are funding you. Furthermore, it can be used to justify more funding for specialized programming and/or grants aimed at LGBTQIA+ populations.

   2. Organizational Assessment: Are you reaching the LGBTQIA+ community. By collecting this data, you can start to better understand which communities are coming to your organization and which are not. Furthermore, by understanding who is coming to your organization, you can better create programming to fit that communities needs. If certain communities are not coming to your organization, you can start to ask why not?

   3. Advocating for LGBTQIA+ equity: How can this data be used to fight for LGBTQIA+ rights and safety of the queer community? Work with your local LGBTQIA+ organizations to explore what information would be useful for them. Furthermore, they can help you construct questions as they will understand the local terminology around queer identity.

6. What to ask? There are many variations on this question, but here are a few options:

   

   Of course, the above is not the end-all be-all, but it does provide some guidance. I tend to ask about both gender identity and expression as well as transgender/cisgender/nonbinary identity to help create the most opportunities for people to provide identification which they connect with. It is important to know what the local community language is and use that as part of the questions.

This week, I wanted to provide an overview on the importance of asking about sexual orientation and gender identity and expression within your organization, along with other types of demographic data. While it might not be appropriate for everyone, demographic data about the LGBTQIA+ community can help your organization better understand the local community and how your organization can better support queer people.