Becoming an LGBTQ+ storyteller: Collecting and using data on gender, sex, and sexual orientation

Abstract

LGBTQ+ stories and histories have long been silenced as part of deliberate work by those in power to erase our identities and experiences. As evaluators, we contribute to the process of either silencing or uplifting LGBTQ+ stories. This aspect of our work begs a number of vital questions that each of us must reckon with when we approach an evaluation: What data are necessary to allow us to tell a story? What story will we tell with the data we have collected? And, most importantly, who does the telling of certain stories benefit, who might it harm, and what is our responsibility as evaluators to protect peoples’ stories? Proceeding from these questions, this chapter has three distinct parts. In Part One, we establish a common language. By integrating perspectives from the social sciences and LGBTQ+ community scholarship, we provide an overview of the complex and contextually specific nature of sex, sexual orientation, and gender, and discuss the implications of these complexities on how we approach collecting LGBTQ+ data. In Part Two, we consider the power of the stories we tell to impact the lives of LGBTQ+ people, and the frameworks, theories, and ethical imperatives which may help us to contribute to a narrative of LGBTQ+ liberation through our work. Finally, in Part Three, we offer an example tool for readers to use as they consider how they would approach this work in their own practices.

Tracing the relationship(s) of CRE and LGBTQ+ Evaluation

“…As the table illustrates, LGBTQ+E is characterized by culturally responsive, equitable, and transformative evaluation principles and practices (Felt, Perez‐Bill, Glenn, & Phillips, 2022; Phillips, Felt, Perez‐Bill, Ruprecht, Glenn, Lindeman, & Miller, 2022, Phillips, Felt, Perez‐Bill, Ruprecht, & Glenn, 2022). CRE's roots are seen in attention to LGBTQ+ culture and subcultures—including emphasizing situated epistemologies and reflexive, contextualized approaches (Felt, Perez‐Bill, Ruprecht, Petillo, et al., 2022), the cultural context of LGBTQ+ experience, the norms of gender, sex, and sexuality that shape LGBTQ+ life, and the sociopolitical inherency of LGBTQ+E practice. The table illuminates our shared philosophies of situated knowledge, inclusive practice, social critique, and social justice.…”

Editorial: Anti-transgender prejudice: causes, consequences, and interventions

“…Recognizing both the urgency of the problems facing trans people and the need for scholars to mobilize the tools of research to address those problems, some within transgender studies have called for a reorientation of the field toward an “applied transgender studies” (Johnson et al, 2021 ; Billard et al, 2022 ; Felt et al, 2022 ; Hoffmann, 2022 ; Johnson, 2022 ). As Felt et al ( 2022 ) summarize this emergent approach, applied transgender studies “merges critical traditions of trans studies with technical and methodological contributions from the social sciences to facilitate work which can improve the material conditions of transgender life” (p. 44).…”

“…Recognizing both the urgency of the problems facing trans people and the need for scholars to mobilize the tools of research to address those problems, some within transgender studies have called for a reorientation of the field toward an “applied transgender studies” (Johnson et al, 2021 ; Billard et al, 2022 ; Felt et al, 2022 ; Hoffmann, 2022 ; Johnson, 2022 ). As Felt et al ( 2022 ) summarize this emergent approach, applied transgender studies “merges critical traditions of trans studies with technical and methodological contributions from the social sciences to facilitate work which can improve the material conditions of transgender life” (p. 44). The Center for Applied Transgender Studies in Chicago and its flagship journal, the Bulletin of Applied Transgender Studies , currently serve as venues for advancing this applied vision, but the present Research Topic answers Billard et al ( 2022 ) call for scholars of transgender topics more broadly to join in these efforts.…”

“…Recognizing both the urgency of the problems facing trans people and the need for scholars to mobilize the tools of research to address those problems, some within transgender studies have called for a reorientation of the field toward an "applied transgender studies" (Johnson et al, 2021;Billard et al, 2022;Felt et al, 2022;Hoffmann, 2022;Johnson, 2022). As Felt et al (2022) summarize this emergent approach, applied transgender studies "merges critical traditions of trans studies with technical and methodological contributions from the social sciences to facilitate work which can improve the material conditions of transgender life" (p. 44). While the scholarly literature on prejudice against transgender people is robust (e.g., Cornelius-White, 2016, 2017;Kanamori et al, , 2023Billard, 2018;Ozamiz-Etxebarria et al, 2020), and some has focused on identifying solutions (Gorrotxategi et al, 2020;Smith Nelson and Cornelius-White, 2022), much has not.…”