Rainbow Trap – Belfast Launch at Ulster University.
Join writer and researcher Kevin Guyan to explore ideas from his new book Rainbow Trap: Queer Lives, Categories and the Dangers of Inclusion.
Rainbow Trap reveals how the fight for LGBTQ equalities is shaped – and constrained – by the classifications we encounter every day.
The book examines queer encounters with six different systems – stretching from hate crime reporting to dating apps – and highlights how the promise of inclusion requires LGBTQ people to locate themselves in an ever-growing list of classifications, categories and labels.
This requirement to be classified catches LGBTQ communities in a rainbow trap. Because when we look beyond the welcoming veneer of inclusive interventions, we uncover sorting processes that determine what LGBTQ lives are valued and what queer futures are possible.
Hosted at Ulster University Belfast Campus (BC-Building, Lecture Theatre 3).
- Chaired by Dr Gail Neill (Ulster University)
- Q&A session with the author
- Refreshments provided
- Book available to purchase at event from Paperxclips.
Supported by Ulster University Doctoral College
Author Bio:
Dr Kevin Guyan is a writer and researcher whose work explores the intersection of data and identity. He is the author of Rainbow Trap: Queer Lives, Classifications and the Dangers of Inclusion (Bloomsbury Academic, 2025) and Queer Data: Using Gender, Sex and Sexuality Data for Action (Bloomsbury Academic, 2022). Kevin is a Chancellor’s Fellow at the University of Edinburgh and Director of the Gender + Sexuality Data Lab.
