Producing Populations: The Theoretical Potential of Queer Demography

• In Event: 50867 - Liberating, decolonizing, and queering science, knowledge, and technology

Abstract

General population surveys in the United States increasingly include questions about gender identity and sexual orientation, making LGBTQ Americans statistically visible to researchers for the first time. Many queer and transgender activists have applauded this step, arguing that quantitative research about gender and sexuality is necessary to document gendered and sexualized inequality and make collective demands for change. Others have responded more skeptically, claiming that gender and sexuality data will be used to surveil the most vulnerable queer and trans people. This paper examines the political and scientific implications of this debate. I begin with a discussion of the ways states and systems of inequality produce populations. I then examine four theoretical debates in the study of queer and trans populations to demonstrate how queer demography builds on the tradition of critical demography. I then briefly review the empirical contributions of queer demography to four traditional topics in population science: population size and cohort effects; migration and geography; fertility, marriage, and families; and health, aging, and mortality. I conclude by highlighting the theoretical potential of queer demography and the most promising areas for future empirical work.

Author

• Aven Peters, Northwestern University