This originally ran as a feature in Analyst Institute’s weekly Analyst Group (AG) Digest. To get access to resources from the Analyst Institute, sign up for the AG here.

At Equality Federation, we work with many politically and civically engaged LGBTQ folks, and we often hear that they don’t feel welcome in other (even progressive) political spaces. What’s more, a 2019 report from Williams Institute found that 21% of LGBTQ people are not registered to vote, compared to 17% of the general population.

We are working hard to change that, and we think that non-LGBTQ-specific research projects and campaigns can help, too. You can make a difference by changing the way you collect and analyze data in your research and use voter file data in your campaigns.

We have worked on hundreds of issue campaigns—legislative, electoral, and legal—with LGBTQ state advocacy groups and their partners since 1997. Most recently, we worked in Massachusetts on the winning 2018 trans-rights ballot initiative. And during this year’s legislative session we are helping our members fight 226 anti-LGBTQ bills, including dozens that target trans youth.

Although we have amassed a lot of issue-specific research and knowledge that we’d be happy to share with you, in this digest we want to help you make your campaigns and research projects more queer-friendly, regardless of the topic at hand.

Recommendations: Collecting data for research projects

Because the U.S. Census and the American Community Survey do not yet collect data on LGBTQ populations (and will still not in 2020, unfortunately) there is no standardized way to ask questions about sexual orientation and gender identity. Here are a few things to consider to help you do your best as you begin to collect this data for research projects.

• If you are collecting data about other demographics, such as age, gender, race, etc., include questions about sexual orientation and gender identity.
• Use two separate questions to ask about sexual orientation and gender identity because they are not the same thing. For formal surveys, we like the guide our partners at the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) use to help corporations collect workforce data.
• When working with youth and young adult populations refer to the Consortium of Higher Education LGBT Resource Professionals guide for collecting this data with college students, which includes an open box for respondents to put their sexual orientation and gender identity in their own words. (We love an open box! But it will take time on the backend to clean and code the data.)

Recommendations: Campaigns and field tactics

In general, there are many resources on how to make spaces more welcoming for LGBTQ people; just google it! But we are here to talk about data. And sadly, campaign data drawn from the voter file can often cause friction with LGBTQ people, especially around names listed in the voter file.

Unfortunately, restrictive state laws make updating official identity documents (and therefore voter registration) inaccessible to impossible. Even in cases in which a person has officially changed their name, voter file updates can lag or create duplicates, and many campaigns do not have a process in place to correct this in their internal campaign data. This leads campaigns to deadname (use the person’s previous name) in texts, phone calls, and emails.

• Since most campaigns use voter file data to personalize messages, it is important to train your staff, volunteers, and vendors on how to deal with complaints. For example, create a script in Hustle and a form that allows people to update their info with the campaign. You can also use the “Salutation” field in a voter’s profile on VAN to update their name. There are also self-reported demographics fields available for sexual orientation and gender identity. If you regularly collect other demographic data in VAN, include those fields as well!
• Work with one of our member groups as you build your local campaigns, just as you might consult with the local Planned Parenthood, immigration group, or other progressive issue organization. Visit our website to locate our local member, or get in touch with our Director of Advocacy and Civic Engagement, David Topping at david@equalityfederation.org. Our members have access to our LGBTQ support model in VAN, a tool you might find helpful and that they can share with various coalitions and campaigns they are a part of.

We know that although more LGBTQ people should be voting, those that do tend to turn out for progressive candidates and issues at higher rates than the general public. These are just a few suggestions for how to make your data and your campaigns more queer-friendly. We’d love to hear other examples that you have used and we are open to brainstorming solutions to issues you run into in your ongoing work.