What is the Gender + Sexuality Data Lab?

It will come as no surprise to anyone here when I say we are living through a time of extreme interest in the datafication of identity characteristics and the classifications that determine who counts.

Where companies, institutions and government departments are more eager than ever to categorise, measure and manage who we are and what we do.

But now – more clearly than ever before – we are seeing the dangers that accompany being brought into data systems when these same systems inflict data violence on the most minoritised within our society.

Welcome – I am delighted to be here today to launch the Gender + Sexuality Data Lab.

My name is Kevin Guyan, I’m a Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of Edinburgh and author of the books Queer Data and the soon-to-published Rainbow Trap, which both explore the use (and misuse) of gender, sex and sexuality data.

Today marks the start of something bigger.

The Lab aims to become a north star for researchers, practitioners, activists and artists engaged in critical work on collecting, analysing and using gender, sex and sexuality data.

It hopes to become a beacon for people who feel outside the data systems that shape our everyday lives – and want to take action to change them.

Everyday classification machines – whether it’s diversity monitoring forms in the workplace, numerical targets used to distribute arts funding, the boxes that feature on healthcare records – have all become key battlegrounds for LGBTQ equalities.

With Trump’s return to the White House we are living through a dark, dystopian campaign to erase the representation – both past and present – of trans, queer and other minoritised communities.

But we don’t need to look across the Atlantic for examples of how data about gender and sexuality has become a weapon in a culture war – it’s been happening on this campus, in Scotland and across the UK for many years. For example:

• Legal challenges led by anti-trans campaign groups to change how sex data is captured in the census.
• The targeting of DEI programmes such as Stonewall’s Diversity Champions and Athena SWAN because they promote approaches to data that are inclusive of trans people.
• The production of top-down guidance on collecting sex and gender data by the Scottish Government – and an ongoing review by Police Scotland – which always create more questions than answers.
• And a soon-to-be-announced ruling by the Supreme Court on the meaning of ‘sex’ in government legislation, a decision which might have serious trickle-down effects on how sex is conceptualised in law and data.

Against this backdrop, it goes without saying, the Lab is explicitly political.

It has to be.

There is no choice in a society that too often seems indifferent to the erasure of trans and non-binary lives from the data systems that distribute life opportunities.

So rather than trying to force people into boxes not of their choosing, the Lab embraces people’s lives as messy, complex and – in some situations – uncountable.

And that these features are not problems to fix – with more advanced methodologies or the undertaking of even more community consultation – but features to embrace and to build from.

Fundamentally, we reject the notion that ‘more data’ equals progress and instead advocate for interventions that develop knowledge and tools to dismantle harmful data practices that limit everyone’s ability to thrive and flourish.

Before passing the floor to Sharon Cowan to open our panel discussion, I want to spotlight a couple of ongoing Data Lab projects.

Firstly, a new research collaboration between the University of Edinburgh and Cornell University that involves a first-of-its-kind mapping exercise of the use (and misuse) of sexual orientation and gender identity data in the UK and US between 2020 and 2025. When we applied for this funding – back in autumn 2024 – little did we know that our project would need to do a lot more than map what exists but also account for absences, where data about LGBTQ lives has been erased and deleted.

Secondly, working with the AI Ethics & Society Group and Pride in STEM we are organising a Queer Data Showcase in Edinburgh this June. Hosted by the fabulous Mystika Glamoor, the event will present a curated showcase of people doing fantastic work on the theme of ‘Queer Data’. The call for presenters is live and closes this Monday – the application form is super short and I encourage anyone with work to share to get involved.

I wish to extend thanks to SJ Bennett, Kirstie Ken English and Reema Vadoliya – my fantastic huddle of collaborators and conspirators, who have helped the Lab find its feet in the first year. Also thanks to Robert Stewart and Nicky Greenwood for their amazing work building the Lab’s look and its online presence, and to the University of Edinburgh Business School for championing this initiative.

I want to finish by saying: although the Lab explicitly names two umbrella identity categories – gender and sexuality – attention does not stop there.

It cannot stop there.

To do so would miss almost everything. We cannot talk about gender and sexuality data without also exploring intersections of race, social class, age, disability and – of course – sex.

As we hope to show with today’s panel, the Lab brings together ideas and practice – experiences and expertise – engaging voices from across academia, industry and beyond.

Importantly – it is not a talking shop for academics. Core to the mission of the Gender + Sexuality Data Lab is shining a spotlight on the people behind the numbers – the many hands involved in doing data work, as well as the many people erased or sidelined by current data practices.

In her book On Being Included, the feminist scholar and writer Sara Ahmed writes:

And calls on us to:

As a critical collective of people engaged in gender and sexuality data work, I want the Lab to try and answer Ahmed’s call.

The Lab is small and we will grow, slowly.

My ask is that you soak up energy and ideas from the room today, learn and share with others, then go out and spread the word.