How should governments collect personal data? In this episode, we talk to Dr Kevin Guyan about the census, and the best ways of asking people to identify themselves. We discuss why surveys that you fill in by hand offer less restrictive options for self-identification than online forms, and how queer communities are not just identified but produced through the counting of a census. As Kevin reminds us, who does the counting affects who is counted. We also discuss why looking at histories of identifying as heterosexual and cisgender is also beneficial to queer communities.
This episode includes an ad for the What Next|TBD podcast.