Dating Profiles are Like Gay Bars: Peer Review, Ethics and LGBTQ Big Data

September 13, 2017

(Posted 9/13; updated 9/14. My original critique is here; and my resource of relevant blogs, media reports, and Kosinski statements is here). “Under ethical review,” announced The Outline, of the Wang and Kosinski pre-print paper that controversially claimed to use face-recognition technology to detect intrinsic differences between homosexual and heterosexual faces. The statement came from … More Dating Profiles are Like Gay Bars: Peer Review, Ethics and LGBTQ Big Data

Tracking Wang and Kosinski’s AI Gayface Controversy

September 12, 2017

(Posted Sept. 13, updated Sept 16). This post tracked early responses to to Wang and Kosinski’s preprint paper that claimed their deep neural network’s ability to identify gay faces was evidence of the prenatal hormone theory of homosexuality, and exposed heretofore unknown threats to LGBTQ people in authoritarian regimes. My Sept. 9 blog post critiquing … More Tracking Wang and Kosinski’s AI Gayface Controversy

Artificial Intelligence Discovers Gayface. Sigh.

September 9, 2017

AI Can’t Tell if You’re Gay… But it Can Tell if You’re a Walking Stereotype. [First published September 9th. This post has been updated with subsequent information, denoted by square brackets, cited on this resource of responses to the story by tweeters, bloggers, media, and Kosinski himself. My reflection on peer review, ethics, and LGBTQ … More Artificial Intelligence Discovers Gayface. Sigh.

Guest post: Stop Blaming Millennials For Killing gay Bars

August 28, 2017

Guest post by Tory Sparks Stop Blaming Millennials for Killing Gay Bars: Generational Absolutism in the Gay Community I was born in 1994. If you’d like to stop reading now because of that, there’s nothing I can do about that except to ask you to consider: why do you want to stop reading? If you’re … More Guest post: Stop Blaming Millennials For Killing gay Bars

Road Notes 6: Our Arkansas in Three Gay Bars, by Tory and Greggor

July 11, 2017

Northwest Arkansas contains all the contrasts and contradictions of other small city gay bars, isolated from gay neighborhoods but close to American landmarks. Fort Smith and Fayetteville are one hour apart, but their two gay clubs are entwined by more than their relative proximity in northwest Arkansas, home of Walmart’s international headquarters and the tiny, … More Road Notes 6: Our Arkansas in Three Gay Bars, by Tory and Greggor

Back home, for now

July 11, 2017

  A short tally of what we accomplished so far this summer on the Who Needs Gay Bars Summer Tour: 5500 miles driven 53 gay bars visited, including: 31 formal interviews with bar owners or managers, 21 of whom ran outpost bars more than an hour from the next gay bar 17 ethnographic visits without … More Back home, for now

Guest Post: Surpassing Tex-pectations by Tory Sparks

July 3, 2017

In my imagination, Texas has always been 100% Republican, 100% Christian, 100% cowboy. When I decided to come to Texas on this trip, I told myself: I can handle anything, as long as it’s for research. When I’m a researcher, I am detached—I’m not really there, I am an observer, and everything is interesting because … More Guest Post: Surpassing Tex-pectations by Tory Sparks