New Books in LGBTQ+ Studies · New Books Network

Kevin Guyan, "Rainbow Trap: Queer Lives, Classifications and the Dangers of Inclusion" (Bloomsbury, 2025)

·53 min·5 clips

Kevin Guyan reveals how inclusion can trap LGBTQ+ people in systems that demand they conform to narrow categories.

Dr. Kevin Guyan discusses his book "Rainbow Trap" with host Dr. Miranda Melcher on New Books in LGBTQ+ Studies. Guyan is a researcher at the University of Edinburgh who directs its Gender and Sexuality Data Lab. His book critiques how inclusion into systems that historically excluded LGBTQ+ people often comes with hidden conditions. The book analyzes six UK sectors: hate crime reporting, dating apps, film/TV, immigration, health/fitness, and business. Guyan examines Scotland's hate crime legislation and the deliberations over which LGBTQ+ identities parliamentarians deemed comprehensible for protection. He explores how dating apps like Tinder and Bumble added numerous gender and sexuality options post-2016, a move he frames as a "taxonomical renaissance." In immigration, Guyan notes that asylum decisions can hinge on a caseworker's assessment of whether a claimant fits expected LGBTQ+ classifications. The film/TV chapter reveals that while gay men may be overrepresented in some roles, other identities within the LGBTQ+ umbrella remain underrepresented. Guyan critiques the UK film industry's Diversity Standards, a public funding scheme that uses quotas which can pressure workers to be "out." A key insight is the concept of "box breakers"—people whose identities don't fit the categorical criteria of inclusive systems, potentially leaving them doubly excluded. Guyan argues that simply adding more identity categories, as seen on dating apps or monitoring forms, can be an individualistic veneer that fails to change underlying power structures. He finds surprising parallels between the logics of safety in hate crime law and border control, despite their different domains. The conversation is analytical and educational, grounded in Guyan's research and personal experiences as a gay man in the UK. Listeners interested in critical data studies, the sociology of classification, or UK LGBTQ+ policy will find this episode compelling. Those seeking a celebratory narrative of LGBTQ+ progress or a deep dive into a single case study might find its broad, critical sweep less engaging.

As heard by us

A careful critique of inclusion that asks what more categories actually change.

Kevin Guyan's discussion on Rainbow Trap treats queer inclusion as a question of who gets counted, how they are counted, and what that counting is for.

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Why you'd press play

When more options for gender, sexuality, and desire still do not change the system, listen closely.

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