Counting queers on campus: Collecting data on queerly identifying students

Demographic data on students are now routinely collected in universities. However, these data do not include information on sexual orientation and gender identity. In Australia there has been public resistance to tracking the enrollment and retention of gay, lesbian, and transgender people in tertiary education. This article interrogates this absence and refusal. We suggest that not counting queerly identifying university students is an undesirable effect of "power knowledge" as well as a discriminatory practice unjustifiably supported by an assemblage of ideas, activities, systems, discourses, and affectivities. We make a case for collecting such data and argue that doing so is an equity innovation that aligns with diversity work and enhances social justice outcomes in higher education.