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9781350429680

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In a world that wants to see everything in black and white, once again, Guyan showcases its true complexity with masterful clarity. Rainbow Trap is one of those books that will stay with you and make you reconsider how (and why) we employ inclusivity today. * Dr Alfredo Carpineti, Chair of Pride in STEM * Rainbow Trap is a fascinating and thoughtful analysis of the ways that categorisations can sometimes result in unintended outcomes, and a must-read for queer scholars! * Paul Baker, Lancaster University, UK * Written with his characteristic thoroughness and thoughtfulness, Kevin Guyan's Rainbow Trap beautifully explores classification's role in shaping queer lives, and the possibilities and perils of treating it as a tool of liberation. At a time when questions about the politics and experience of queer lives are more urgent than ever, Guyan's work represents a vital contribution to both academic, and activist, conversations about how to pursue freedom. * Dr. Os Keyes, University of Massachusetts, USA * In this exciting new book, Guyan takes us through the possibilities and problems of classifying people, sexualities and genders. Exploring how labels that are counted both offer access to some equalities and also limit liberations, this book refuses the tedium of administrative process, showing their power and elasticity. Recommended for academics, activists, policy makers and those who make those policies a reality, this book is a must read for those interested in equalities, differences and the systems that both create, and refuse to see, us. * Kath Browne, University College Dublin, Ireland * An admirably clear, incisive articulation of something that's often impossible to articulate, or even grasp: the political and social work done by queer classification practices. It's a must-read for anyone working in queer sociology, homonationalism, or workplace diversity. * Kit Heyam, author of 'Before We Were Trans: A New History of Gender' * A fascinating tour of the limitations and material consequences that stem from ‘the rainbow trap’! Guyan exposes our reliance on classification systems that will never capture all of us. Each chapter carefully explores the stakes for ‘box breakers’ – those queer and trans folks who encounter great difficulty navigating our social systems and institutional structures because they do not fit. Attempts to reform in the service of inclusion merely produce new sets of challenges and exclusions. Instead, Guyan offers us five principles to keep in mind as we continue to design and navigate today’s classification architecture. * Rena Bivens, Carleton University, Canada * Kevin Guyan does it again! Rainbow Trap is an utterly fascinating, incredibly readable, journey through how equality initiatives aim to help LGBTQ+ people and the associated social science. Across the journey, he tackles some incredibly controversial topics with profound insight and nuance – everything from the relative over-representation and advantage some LGBTQ+ people have in some parts of our society, to trans inclusion in sport and the rise of global transphobia. * Peter Matthews, Professor in Social Policy and LGBTQ+ Studies, University of Stirling * Kevin Guyan’s Rainbow Trap is a bracing, lucid study that brings nuance where too often there is none. Through interviews, personal recollections and a trenchant analysis of classification systems, Guyan interrogates the efficacy of identification, and finds meaning in the gaps and interstices, pointing to queer futures located outside the box. * Jack Parlett, author of The Poetics of Cruising and Fire Island * Rainbow Trap is a must read for anyone interested in LGBTQIA+ liberation, as well as for people working in fields where demographic classifications are important. Guyan’s book powerfully demonstrates that when it comes to the LGBTQIA+ community, systems of classification and data collection obscure as much as they reveal, and across domains from addressing hate crime to finding a date, designing boxes to slot our diverse community into often causes real world harm. * Nancy Kelley, Executive Director DIVA * Engrossing, exposing and so very well reasoned. Guyan gives us a chilling insight into our broken systems and how queer people fall through the cracks – to our own peril. Guyan provokes us to consider how laws, admin and classification systems are not designed to recognise the diversity of queer life and ignites a vision for a queer future without such restrictive boxes. Rainbow Trap fundamentally shifts one’s view of classification systems and our place within them. If there is one book I would urge everyone to read – our corporate, EDI and cultural leaders most especially - it is Rainbow Trap. Tremendous, troubling, exposing and triumphant. * Harry Nicholas, author of ‘A Trans Man Walks Into a Gay Bar’ * Rainbow Trap is a call to rethink the way we view inclusion – at work, in dating apps or when drafting laws – and whether we are doing it at someone else’s expense, or even at our own. * Enrique Anarte, LGBTQ+ journalist and creator * In this accessible and engaging book, Kevin Guyan foregrounds the voices of queer people who can’t or won’t conform with State classification practices, systems and administrative tools. Problematising contemporary policy initiatives in which datafication and classification are assumed to be necessary precursers of ‘inclusion and access’, Guyan skilfully demonstrates the ways that even well-meaning policies and practices can harm those who do not conform to sex and gender binaries. * Kath Albury, Professor, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia * The 21st century has seen significant progress in the inclusion and representation of LGBTQ individuals in public domains, particularly in the Global North. Rainbow Trap takes a critical step back, offering a compelling queer critique of inclusion and diversity politics as well as the classification systems shaping queer lives. This passionate and courageous examination of contemporary queer politics is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding the complexities of queer classifications, categories, and labels. * Travis S.K. Kong, Author of Sexuality and the Rise of China: The Post-1990 Gay Generation in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Mainland China (2023) * Across six different socio-cultural categories Rainbow Trap undoes and remakes the future of LGBTQ inclusion. In these pages we are provided a searing critique of queer DEI initiatives that complicate how the administrative categorizations of the state and capitalism seek to stabilize, make knowable and to concretize queer lives. What emerges is that non-heterosexuality and the refusal of binary gender positions cannot be contained, managed and made certain by the administrative apparatus that requires those categories to always remain the same. Instead, inclusion actually demands an entirely new set of arrangements for how we conceive of human life when that life meets queer, or LGBTQ lives and living. The politics of inclusion in this powerful account is far more radical than simply joining and or making room for others in what already exist. * Rinaldo Walcott, Author of The Long Emancipation: Moving Toward Black Freedom (2021) *

Author Information

Kevin Guyan is a Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of Edinburgh, UK and Director of the Gender + Sexuality Data Lab. He is the author of Queer Data: Using Gender, Sex and Sexuality Data for Action (Bloomsbury Academic, 2022).

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