Taking a brief wiki-break due to a new job (yeah!) - sorry for the inconvenience this may cause.
This is my talk page. I reserve the right to remove posts for inflammatory language, vandalism, unprovoked attacks and mortally-wounding stupidity. Although I'm not inclined to do so. I'm up for constructive criticism, genuine discussion of articles beyond their talk pages, and requests for help or explanation. I'm not up for pyrrhic partisan coup-counting (also known as "I gotcha last!"), angry pointless rants (although pleasant and amusing ones are not necessarily discouraged), and bitterness. Crankiness, ok - we all get cranky. But frankly, bitterness just ruins my day, so I try to avoid it when ever possible.
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While it's not saying the same thing that I'm saying, note the acknowledgement of a diversity of points of view about rights that is expressed in footnote 2 of Human Rights and Reproductive Choice by Freedman and Isaacs: "The philosophical basis for this right remains a matter of some disagreement. For some, reproductive rights are "natural rights", an inalienable part of each individual's essential humanity. For others, reproductive rights are socially determined needs derived from the unequal gender relations that prevail in most societies (see Petchesky, 1990)." —Preceding unsigned comment added by Coppertwig (talk • contribs) 01:14, 1 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Hi Phyesalis, thank you for keeping in touch with me. Honestly, there are moments when I would rather talk to a wall, but you and MastCell seem very eager to compromise, preserve neutrality, and resolve dispute. By the way, I noticed that the sentence I did not want to see deleted is actually very redundant as the sentence, almost verbatim, is mentioned in the section "post-abortion syndrome." Do all negative symptoms fall under the umbrella term "post-abortion syndrome?" My understanding was different from this. миражinred (speak, my child...) 00:44, 7 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
LOL! Thank you for such lovely praise, and you're more than welcome. I understand the desire to talk with walls, often I feel like banging my head against one. I can only speak for myself, but I try to keep it civil so that other productive editors (like you) don't get so fed up with contentious articles that they give up. As for your observation - you are correct, not all manifestations of negative responses constitute PAS - this goes back to the distinction User:Equazcion and I hashed out - the difference between weather and climate - a few days' of rainfall do not constitute a rainy climate just as a few days worth of negative emotional responses do not constitute depression or PAS. As for the redundancy, I'll go over the article again. --Phyesalis (talk) 01:37, 7 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Interesting choice of analogy. By the way, it looks like IronAngelAlice found a study at Washington State University which says that abortion does not elevate the risk of suicide. To make it even better, it also seems quite recent since it says that the study was from 1987–2001. I think it's worth a look and should be added into the article. Well, keep up the good work, Phyesalis! миражinred (speak, my child...) 03:48, 7 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Consider this a gift from the hottest Korean in the world. (Yes, that's me) Although many users have been left frustrated at the stalemate abortion and mental health, you continue to keep your cool and strive to resolve disputes by collaborating with other editors. Keep up the good fight. миражinred (speak, my child...) 18:36, 9 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
LOL you must treasure them everyday. I happen to know this Asian kung-fu master who will be reading your mind 24/7 with his mad ninja skills. Be careful, he was known for his mastery since the Ming Dynasty. You may think that all of this is irrelevant since I am a Korean. However, all Asians are interconnected with an super-ancient web of filial piety. миражinred (speak, my child...) 19:28, 9 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I was having a really bad day but now you've made me laugh (out loud no less) twice. Saranghae! (Yes, I just looked up what it meant.) I promise to be dutiful in treasuring my gift. ;) In return, I offer you the Korea Filial Piety Song. --Phyesalis (talk) 23:49, 9 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
very important update: The ancient Kung-fu master summoned me to his opium den in Ming Dynasty to inform me that you did indeed appreciate my gift. However, I must warn you that the star was not crafted with ancient Chinese secrets. He was glad that you appreciated my gift since he would have had to call forth his ancestors from millions of centuries ago to curse you.
As for the eloquent song of filial piety, I was deeply moved as it praised my Asian roots that have been laced with super secrets that will entice all the men in the world. I wonder if the men at Newgrounds understood the lyrics which must sound foreign to their ears. By becoming the hottest Korean in the world, all of them would flock to me to decode the complex meaning of the song. миражinred (speak, my child...) 00:56, 10 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I am still thinking of making the task force, but the question is where should I put it? Should it be part of the Gender Studies WikiProject or Should it be part of the Feminism Portal? I want to know your opinion on the matter. Thanks! --Grrrlriot (talk) 03:53, 12 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks for the nice compliment and thanks for adding the "talkback" feature to my talk page. It seems pretty interesting and lets me know that you have contacted me. As for being industrious on wikipedia, that's me, and I'm the same way at my job. As for the feminism task force, I think its a good idea, despite the negatives that Cailil was pointing out. I appreciate his advice and his support. Lquilter seems to think that it is a good idea as well. I think I will be BOLD and make the task force within the next 24 hours. This will be the first task force I've ever made, so I will be quite new to making it. I'm not new to task forces, I'm a member of the Anarchism task force. (Keep an eye out on your talk page because I will let you know when I make it.) --Grrrlriot (talk) 05:10, 12 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Yeah, I know I can remove it, but I think I'll keep it there. hehe As for having the task force on the portal, Where should it be on the portal? I know where to put it if I make it a part of the Gender Studies WikiProject. Also, I'm not good at making userboxes or templates for wikipedia, at all. I will need some for the task force. Do you know of someone (or perhaps yourself?) that can design some templates and userboxes and how can I have every user to be automatically added to the Category:Wikipedians interested in feminism category once they sign up on the task force? I went ahead and edited your userpage and added the category to your page, so I hope you don't mind The category didn't exist, but one user was interested in it, however, I finally made the category myself. --Grrrlriot (talk) 16:36, 12 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
(undent) I'm no good with graphics. I'd suggest asking User:Allstarecho, though. He seems pretty handy with them. He's part of the LGBT project but I'd bet he'd help if you can make him laugh. And no, I don't mind that you added me. Thanks. Also I added a red link to the task force page (currently uncreated) over at Portal:Feminism and Portal:Gender studies, so all you have to do is click it and start editing. Does that work for you? Feel free to tweak the link/name/whatever as needed. --Phyesalis (talk) 19:55, 12 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I'm no good at graphics either. Once people decide to join the task force, maybe one of them will happen to be good at templates and userboxes. I'm going to start creating the task force right now. --Grrrlriot (talk) 20:45, 12 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
A. I couldn't agree more that we need some concrete suggestions to improve the neutrality of the Feminist Theology article. Someone mentioned including opposing points of view, but I'm not familiar with them.
B. I'm totally with you regarding the title of the article; I think it should be "Feminist Theology" for several reasons. Right now I'm trying to research feminists with a religious perspective, and theologians with a feminist perspective in order to bolster my argument. If you know of either, please let me know! Once I have my ducks in a row, I'll make the change and cross my fingers. :-)
Thanks for your kind words and suggestions on my talk page.
Couple of questions: 1. How do I add myself to Wikipedians interested in Feminism? 2. Can you help me with finding some noteworthy Jewish Feminist Theologians? It occured to me that some people might associate "Theology" with "Christian Theology", and I want to be clear that many Feminist Theologians are: Muslim (as you pointed out--thank you!), Jewish, Pagan (lots of these!), as well as Atheist. I know of atheist theologians, but don't know of any feminist atheist theologians (atheist feminist theologians?).
I'm almost done with my supporting essay for changing the title of the article! At this point, I think all I need is a Jewish Feminist Theologian or two.
To add yourself to , Go to your user page and edit it. Scroll down past the save page section and click on {{[[Category:]]}} after the : symbol, type just like this: Wikipedians interested in feminism
OK. I've put up the beginning of an RfC on Strider12 (talk·contribs). Please go to Wikipedia:Requests for comment/Strider12 and take a look. If you're willing to certify that there is a dispute which you've tried but failed to help resolve, then please sign the section labeled "Users certifying the basis for this dispute". If it's not cosigned by 2 editors in the next 48 hours, it will be deleted. Your input is welcome. MastCellTalk23:24, 20 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Sorry, I just got back to Wikipedia after an extremely busy weekend. I see your point though, and you're right I probably should have found a better place to mention this (perhaps at the Village Pump, although I've only used that once). Simesa (talk) 11:53, 27 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Project member Moni3 has been working on the article for Barbara Gittings and noted that the Lambda Literary Foundation used the lead paragraph from Wikipedia, skillfully and lovingly written by Moni3, verbatim in the Lambda Literary Pioneers calendar. Moni3 contacted the Lambda Literary Foundation to let them know, and to ask if we could get a little write-up in the next Lambda Book Report. There is a preliminary text you can find here. Feel free to add to it. It should be no longer than 1,000 words, and it needs to be submitted by March 15.
Place yourself in a user category so you can collaborate with other LGBT/Allied Wikipedians!
Mostly for allies of LGBT people; To place yourself in Category:Wikipedians interested in LGBT issues, just add [[Category:Wikipedians interested in LGBT issues|?]] to your userpage and change the question mark to your username OR add this userbox by placing {{User:UBX/LGBTinterest}} on your userpage.
Mostly for people who identify as either Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgender; To place yourself in Category:LGBT Wikipedians, just add [[Category:LGBT Wikipedians|?]] to your userpage and change the question mark to your username OR add a userbox found at User:Xaosflux/UBX/Sexuality#Sexual orientation.
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I've created this article per your request at the Award Center. I'm not an expert on such topics so I would never have been able to expand it past a start class, but I'd certainly say it's not a stub by any means.--Michael WhiteT·C05:03, 5 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I see you are currently on wiki-break, but if you still have interest in this portal, I've made some improvements/additions to the skeleton (I haven't added any content, though). Let me know what you think. Carom (talk) 02:41, 9 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I would like your input on removing the Disputed banner. Congrats on the new job, in keeping with your much deserved wiki-break, I will delay resubmitting it to GA review until mid-April. - RoyBoy80000:47, 20 March 2008 (UTC)[reply]
I said I wasn't in a hurry, but I won't wait forever. Sorry, but if I don't hear from you soon, I'll start editing the articles you asked me not to edit. Regards, ☺Coppertwig (talk) 23:00, 14 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Hi. Regarding Moyers' rather transparent liberal biases, do you not find it odd that a man who rants like a lunatic against people like Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly similtaneously cozies up to the likes of Al Franken (left-winger), Keith Olbermann (left-winger) and Bill Maher (left-winger), happily appearing on their shows despite the fact that they're as biased, partisan and sensationalistic as Limbaugh and O'Reilly? You really don't believe that he is a "fair and balanced" journalist, do you? Jeremiah Wright uses his pulpit to promote such lies and opinions as FDR's knowledge of the impending Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor before the fact, that blacks were injected with syphilis by doctors (it's well known they already had syphilis), that comparing black brains to white brains is like comparing apples to rocks, and that white scientists working for the U.S. government created AIDS as a means to exterminate the black race. What did Moyers say about this? He lied through his teeth and stated that the media misinterpreted his views, defending Wright in a way he never in a million years would have done for a right-wing lunatic preacher. Also, any church/state issues he may have had with a Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson go right out the window when it's left-wing causes being promoted.
I long ago stated that I accept that Moyers is not a sensationalist; what he is unquestionably is a left-wing journalist. His claims that The NY Times, The LA Times, Harvard, The Boston Globe, MSNBC, Hollywood, et al. are only left-wing in the minds of the Republican Media Machine only further showcases his immense bias. Does any honest person really believe there is no left-wing media bias in the U.S., that only pro-Republican, pro-Conservative media forces promote such a view? What about the Harvard University study-- by a liberal university and including many liberal Democrats-- that showed the overal liberal bias of much of the mainstream U.S. media? Are left-wing Democrats also a part of this Republican Media Machine he, Al Franken, Eric Alterman, Robert Greenwald and David Brock so often speak of?
That so much of the criticism of Moyers' was removed from his page-- despite the fact that is was authenticated and despite the fact that O'Reilly has a Criticisms page longer than his regular Wikipedia page-- suggests to me that Moyers has a fanbase at Wikipedia that don't want him to be treated the same way O'Reilly or Limbaugh are treated.
Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh are partisan yahoos but Bill Maher, Al Franken and Keith Olbermann are not? Who is Moyers trying to fool here?
The man who claims to oppose sensationalistic and biased media praises Michael Moore in a speech on media reform, alongside other left-wingers like Phil Donahue, Jesse Jackson, Jane Fonda and Helen Thomas. He pushes "progressive" politics and media yet claims to be a "journalist." Info regarding his bias has been gutted from his Wikipedia page yet his liberal bias is one of the defining characteristics of his life's work.
Hello, members and friends of WP:LGBT! I'm not one to be writing newsletters, but I miss our cruise director, Miss Julie, and our project is drifting along with a few leaking plugs in the bottom of the boat. Hey, it happens. Every group we join goes through changes. If Wikipedia weren't so interesting it wouldn't also be so frustrating sometimes. And vice versa. More than one Wikiproject has tumbleweeds blowing through it, but this is one that can't afford to let that happen. Even if you pop in to the talk page of the project, you can let us know you're still around.
It wouldn't be a proper gay community without a li'l bit o' drama! That's right. If we aren't arguing about something, then we should be asking if we're still queer. Maybe that's for the best, since we know we're still kicking. Our most recent topic is how far the role of our project should go in dipping our toes into HIV/AIDS articles. The main AIDS article was delisted as a Featured Article last month, sadly. (Sending a swift kick to WP:Medicine.) A spirited discussion is available for your entertainment on the WP:LGBT talk page about just how much of HIV and AIDS should we take on. As ever, we'll take your opinions under advisement. We're going to have to, because it doesn't seem to have been settled.
We have a pretty cool sidebar that identifies core LGBT articles. Its symbol is the iconic gay pride flag, much like other Wikiprojects have iconic symbols denoting the topic is a core subject in a series of articles. However, a question recently arose asking if the symbol itself is not neutral. Should a pride flag show up at the top of the article on Conversion therapy? How else would anyone know the article is about queer issues? Is there another symbol that is as widely recognized and that includes all our many splintered facets? At what point do we stop asking ourselves all these questions and just go have a mint julep on the verandah and stop caring?
For the love of all that is holy, no Kool Aid jokes. However, an editor involved in pioneering San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk's article has included a section about the late supervisor's support of Jim Jones and the People's Temple. While it may be accurate, there is a Request for Comment regarding how much emphasis the section places on Milk's support in light of his overall political influence on the city, and indeed the rest of the United States. Milk's article is a sad one in more ways than one. It lacks the detail and heart that honors its subject. Anyone want to do a barter with me? I'll bring Harvey Milk to featured status (give me a month or two so I can read stuff), if you do something of equal value to WP:LGBT?? Make me an offer...
The established branch of study known as Queer studies was brought up as an category for deletion because an editor was offended by the use of "queer" in the title. It was overwhelmingly rejected mostly by the usernames I see here on our Wikiproject page. (A clue that I know you are out there, hiding...biding your time...) So, I wish I could congratulate you, but now I'm all confused by my sympathy for the editor who was offended. So, if you're reading this, Moni has a short memory and can't remember your username. Don't be put off by our demonstrative pushiness. Join us. We can always use involved editors.
What can you do to help the project out? Be a wiki-fairy, on many levels. There are all kinds of articles that need help. Why, just this morning I removed those ugly wikify and cleanup tags from four articles at random. If you can put [[ ]] around stuff, you can clean up articles. There's a list of articles that need attention at the top of the WP:LGBT talk page. Or you can start with the Lambda Literary Awards, where the goddess of my altar received a pioneering award, and was "reduced to rubble" by Katherine V. Forrest's wonderful speech. The 20th ceremony of the Lambda Literary Awards, which celebrates LGBT literature, took place in West Hollywood on May 29th [1]. The page needs to be updated with the new winners, to be found on the official website [2].
Why on earth would someone want to delete material about homosexuality? 'Tis truly a mystery. But these embattled articles have some random evil gnomes removing information that places these folks under our queer umbrella. Help us keep an eye out for the deletions. Take a peek at the articles, familiarize yourselves with the info, and be handy with the undo function in the article history. If tempers flare, take it to the Hall monitors and let them sort it out. Best solution is to make sure your sources are immaculate.
This is what I get for opening my big fat mouth and suggesting the newsletter should be revived. Here I am writing it. So, to pat self on back (*cough*) Mulholland Dr. became a featured article in May. This is A Good Thing since it is my personal declaration that there is no such thing as lesbian porn. I don't care what Benjiboi says about the video collection at goodvibes. Instead, we have hot women who connect on a deep, personal, soul-touching level, so this film should qualify as some of the skankiest porn available for lesbians. Plus, it's completely confusing and surreal! D'you think Laura Harring would care that the article is featured? I don't think so either... (Call me, Laura!)
Once I saw a harrowing episode of Animal Planet's Animal Cops where this guy had, like, 250 cats in his house and it freaked me right out. I'm drawing a parallel between 250 cats and, well...three, really, templates in articles involving LGBT issues. Can we stick to one, maybe? In the aforementioned Harvey Milk's article there's a core LGBT template, a link to the LGBT portal, and a sidebar for LGBT rights. Jiminy! You'd think we weren't the folk to set industrial grey carpeting and track lighting in vogue. An LGBT footer was designed to link to articles of interest that aren't the aforementioned core articles. What do you think, can we have either an LGBT template for core articles, a footer for LGBT articles that are high profile but not core, or an LGBT rights template? As ever, anything's up for discussion on the WP:LGBT talk page.
It's June, Pride month. Wear sunscreen, stay hydrated, get a designated driver, then go half-dressed in the streets find a girlfriend or boyfriend, or some homo who's standing there looking lonely and kiss 'em up real good. Remember, it all started 39 years ago when a bunch of drag queens just got fed the f*ck up by the cops raiding the bar and dragging them all out to the pokey again. Rock on, queens! Enjoy your celebrations. My town's is in October, and 200 people attend. I miss Denver.
It looks like we've picked up a lot of talent lately. We have no doubt you'll be making your indelible mark on LGBT knowledge as we know it, here at Wikipedia.
In the immortal words of Miss Julie, "May all your Wiki days be bright, and may your Love Boat never turn into a Poseidon."
We miss you, Miss Julie, as well as all the others who have graced our project and are on wiki-breaks or just got fed up with all the nuttiness and went to live their lives. Get your stupid houses built and hurry up and come back. --Moni3 (talk) 16:52, 9 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]
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Hello Phyesalis! :) I'm sure you remember me from a couple of months ago. I haven't been editing or on Wikipedia much, but lately, I've came back to Wikipedia. Have you seen the changes to your Gender studies Portal? It looks really good. I am also reviving Portal:Feminism and the Portal:Feminism_Task_Force, thought I'd let you know. I've been working on both pages, so check them out. --Grrrlriot (talk) 20:41, 5 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]
An unfortunate effect of a group less active than in the past is that our articles lose integrity. This one is at Good Article Review for that reason. The talk page is quite active as a result. You have the opportunity to help. This is the corest of our core articles, and it needs some attention because it gets a lot of controversial input from many sides. If you can spare any time to edit the article, please do what you can.
Soon after we were informed that Homosexuality is being scrutinized, we heard the same for one of our few Featured Articles. As a participant of the Featured Article process, I think this is actually a good thing. The standards for Featured Articles are getting higher with time. But as a member of this project, that means that a few of ours may be de-listed unless someone can swoop in and save them. This one has to do with the designation of homosexuality as a crime in Germany. Most of this article's sources are in German. If anyone has any particular skill in this area, please lend a hand!
I know you folks think I have much experience in a gay bathhouse, and I hate to disappoint you, but I actually do not. I seem like the sort of person who likes to stroll about in a towel. Shocking, no? It appears that Ashleyvh is single-handedly addressing all the problems with this article at its GA Review. While that's pretty impressive, it's also no doubt exhausting. Can anyone help out there?
In what I hope will counter the jolt of re-evaluating three Good or Featured Articles, José Sarria and Janet Jackson as gay icon passed as Good Articles, and Black Cat Bar (famous San Francisco oft-raided gay bar) is nominated, all by Otto4711. Rock on, man. You're a machine. Good luck with your nominations. What is it about women that make them gay icons? And are there lesbian icons that aren't lesbians? How about bisexual icons? Am I the only lesbian who reacts with soul-trembling fear at the sight of Angelina Jolie?
New WP:LGBT studies member Pinkkeith has done this cool thing. If you click on that link, you'll see all the articles, categories, templates, and miscellany up for deletion. They're usually there because they're not considered to be not notable. That can be a relative concept, and sometimes it has to be argued that topics pertaining to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender issues are notable.
It seems a recurring issue which articles to tag, and what to say about a topic that's tagged. Certainly, because an article falls under our scope doesn't necessarily make the person gay. Florida Governor Charlie Crist has been rumored to be gay in some newspaper accounts. Although we all know Fred Phelps is supergay, he won't admit it so instead he does the absolutely awfulest anti-gay things on the planet to deflect suspicion. NAMBLA, the red headed stepchild of the LGBT world, is tagged with an explanation we have yet to decide if we'll keep.
In the lurking I do around and about on Wiki, I've long been astounded at the forbearance Benjiboi has for the utterly insane. Perhaps not so much, since the message on Benji's talk page notes frequent absences due to homophobia and transphobia. But it takes some kind of ... something that I don't have to face the constant anti-gay POV Benji does.
Benjiboi is a a bit of a WikiFaerie, a WikiGnome and also a member of the Article Rescue Squadron in addition to being a LGBT project member. A few of Benjiboi's favorite links for making the wikiverse more fab are:
Becksguy didn’t start actively editing until May 2007. His most frequent tasks on Wiki include reverting vandalism to LGBT articles and creating new project-related articles. He comes from New York state, and to prove not all of us are teenagers (ha! I am so totally 15!) he's in his 60s and retired.
Becksguy considers his biggest triumph on Wikipedia so far was a DYK in December 2007 for the first-ever newspaper report on what became AIDS, in the New York Native. He's also helped save several project-related articles from deletion. His lowest moment here was getting involved in the discussion on a particular terrorism related article, thinking he could help calm the roiled waters on an extremely contentious subject with multiple edit wars and passionate editors.
Here at WP:LGBT, he creates and improves articles that present notable LGBT related subjects in a fair and balanced way, and tries to include more of the significant alternative sexuality related subjects without being an activist, and works to better source project-related articles.
On Wikipedia as a whole, he says, "I think we need to learn better what processes work for a massive collaborative project. Some of what worked well for a more informal small project doesn’t scale up well. Process is not as important when the participants know each other. We need to get more of the current members to be more active. If more members were energized, the project would be able to accomplish more. We should be, in effect, the smaller and included Wikipedia for LGBT related subjects. Overall, I wish we could focus more on content creation and improvement, and less on vandal fighting."
"A Supreme Court decision in 1958 reversed a 1956 ruling by a federal district court that U.S. postal authorities were correct in prohibiting the mailing of the Mattachine Society's ONE magazine. The lower court had ruled that ONE was not protected by the First Amendment because the magazine's contents 'may be vulgar, offensive, and indecent even though not regarded as such by a particular group ... because their own social or moral standards are far below those of the general community ... Social standards are fixed by and for the great majority and not by and for a hardened or weakened minority.'" - Michael Bronski in Pulp Friction, 2003
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Wake up WP:LGBT! It's time to kick in gear and get some things done!
Project News
Wake up!
I say this to myself as much as I say it to all of us. I work a lot by myself or with individual editors who spend time at Featured Article Candidates. It seems on November 5 a fog was lifted off my brain that helped me realize that we have massive potential in this project to get things done. Take this allegory, for instance: On Wednesday, Nov. 5, 1980, my 10th-grade American history teacher started class by unfurling The New York Times. She pointed to its triple banner headline: “Reagan Easily Beats Carter; Republicans Gain in Congress; D’Amato and Dodd are Victors.” “Save this paper,” she told us. “This is the start of a whole new era.”Judith Warner from The New York Times
It definitely seems a start to a whole new era now. If planets align correctly to remind us that whatever advances we may have made in electing what appears to be an extraordinary president in the US, the moons that revolve around those planets also serve to illustrate it's not that simple. Florida, Arizona, and California all appear to have banned same sex marriage. As someone who was married in California and lives in Florida, this is particularly poignant. We seem to be at the juncture of two converging paths. If we maximize our efforts and take the right ones, we might just be able to affect some change for ourselves.
Though what we do is an interesting hobby for some, we have the power to make a difference. California's ballot initiative to ban gay marriage was a fierce fight. It's being challenged right now, but just look at how Wikipedia played a role in that: in October 2008, 360,238 people read its article. On November 5, an astounding 467,000 people read it. I commend the editors who work on that article—both those who support and oppose it. A look at the talk page shows a concerted effort to keep it civil and accurate.
What can we do?
How do you fight ignorance? With information. That's what Wikipedia is for. This project is overwhelming with 8,576 articles in its scope. We can continue to work piecemeal as we have in the past, or we can focus on goals. These are examples of areas we can concentrate on.
Current political events
LGBT Media and Literature
LGBT History
Sex and sexuality
Articles about political issues in the US and around the world that have been especially relevant within the past 5 years
Depictions of LGBT people and issues on television, film, newspapers, magazines
Topics about gay rights activism and the opposition to it
There are more than 8,000 articles to work on. Can we build a list of priorities? Can we build enough enthusiasm to work on these? What if we had editors who oversaw progress in these areas and reported to the talk page or in the newsletter? Surely someone here wants to report on the progress of sex articles.
Tony Perkins (irony) from the conservative Family Research Councilwas heartened by the recent passages of gay marriage bans. The Republican Party is without direction. What's going to take the place of a moderate voice will not be pleasant to our ears. Watching and improving articles of subjects that have opposed gay rights in the past will be of vital importance very soon, I predict.
But WP:LGBT is not a very active project
All we can do is start somewhere. The first step is answering this newsletter on the project talk page. Join in the discussion.
More things we can do
Give out more barnstars, and let each other know that what they're doing is valued.
Create a guide to stave off burnout, because editors in this project get burned out faster than others. There are many hills to climb.
Bring back the monthly collaboration project.
Participate in LGBT Peer reviews.
Get familiar with the characteristics of Good Articles and get our top priority articles to WP:GA.
Use the Newsletter, Moni3! You can suggest what to send out in the newsletter, too!
Offer research materials, copy editing, ideas, and support to your fellow editors.
Keep the project talk page informed of problems and discussions we should know about.
Proposal: Put Importance Levels on articles
If this was decided long before I was a member, maybe it's time to revisit it. Other WikiProjects, such as WP:Novels determine that some subjects have an importance category: Top, High, Mid, Low, or None (undetermined). If we decide that our most core articles, it might help to organize which articles to address first. Top importance, for example, would be Gay, Homosexual, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Sappho, Oscar Wilde, Stonewall riots, for example. High importance would be Homosexuality and psychology, Harvey Milk, Mattachine Society, Harry Hay, or Daughters of Bilitis, and so on. This can be a matter of discussion, or perhaps we could have someone in charge of determining these levels for all the articles we have tagged.
These are the editors I've seen working (and I know I'm forgetting a few). There's more of you out there I haven't seen. Some of you are new. We need all of you. Please help.
Miami, January 18, 1977 after the gay rights ordinance was passed: While Bryant and the others were creating the beginnings of the repeal effort, (gay activists) Basker, Campbell, Kunst, and the other (gay rights) ordinance supporters congratulated themselves on their success and then quickly disbanded... There was no organized recognition or celebration of the victory. As one activist remembered, "We just went home." They had little idea of the battle that was before them. - Fred Fejes in Gay Rights and Moral Panic, 2008
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Have you seen the Jesus myth hypothesis article lately? I think we are finally making some progress and I remember your input on the talk page. It would be good to see some old hands return now that the article seems to actually be going somewhere.--BruceGrubb (talk) 08:26, 20 December 2008 (UTC)[reply]
How do you change the world? You can start by writing an incredible article for the world's encyclopedia. Moni3 kicks it old school again with Stonewall riots - a series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations against a police raid that took place in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969 at the Stonewall Inn. [...] [T]hey have become the defining event that marked the start of the gay rights movement in the United States and around the world. It's a featured article hitting the mainpage this Sunday to mark the 40th anniversary of the events. So first off, wow! Clever and cool. Moni3 has been recently named hottest delegate to Obama's bookclub but that may not be official yet. (Shhh!)
Otto4711 mentioned that gee we really should swamp the DYK section with LGBT-related articles for use on the 28th as well. We have eight or so in the holding area and if you push yourself to get an article together you might be able to get in on the fun. Do this now!
The official rules for DYKs can be found here. Once you have expanded an article 5-fold or created an article with at least 1,500 characters of prose, place your DYK thread here. Use this handy tool to count your 1,500 characters. As a suggestion, when you add your potential hook, include the character count and a link to the source(s) that confirm the hook. These will be confirmed anyway but may help.
The layout for the individual quotes is here (just copy/paste into one of the red links on Portal:Transgender/Random quote). Then this counter has to be upped to match the new # of total quotes (not counting quote zero).
Obama proclamation
On June 1, President Barack Obama declared June 2009 Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month, citing the riots as a reason to "commit to achieving equal justice under law for LGBT Americans". Excerpts at the bottom.
F*ck me I'm famous
I was interviewed by Wikipedia Signpost, the weekly in-house newsletter, for the WikiProject report. The Signpost has nearly 1,000 Wikipedian subscribers and arguably many of those folks actually read it. It came about rather quickly and my worst fears - that it was an elaborate hoax by a troll - were apparently unfounded. I hope y'all feel I did fine by the project, I did my best to avoid the phrase "man-humping, cock-sucking, doggy-style loving queer" but otherwise did ok.
Free image appeal
A friendly reminder to consider taking photos while you're out and about at various Dyke marches and Pride parades. Consider donating them to the world at Wikicommons. I'm sooo totally over having to deal with lovely images being deleted and argued about. If they are just free they are then also freely usable worldwide. And no, they don't need photos of your cha-cha or hoo-hoo-dilly.
Sonny and Cher's daughter was a famous lesbian and now he's a famous transman, possibly the most famous in the world. This also serves as a friendly reminder that we recently updated Wikipedia:WikiProject LGBT studies/Guidelines - it's not perfect but should help inform on those gnip-gnop battles that do seem to drag on, and not in the good way.
As part of the redecorating at our talkpage, the article alerts and keyword search alerts are handily located at the top of the page. Always fascinating to see what's up. All help appreciated on those.
Glambert
Adam Lambert is soooo gay - surprised? Neither is anyone else. Nuff said. David Ogden Stiers was outed but apparently he wasn't terribly in either.
The LGBT studies project does have its own free Internet Relay Chat channel, #wikipedia-en-lgbtconnect, for coordination, collaboration and socializing. This channel is hosted on Freenode and can be accessed in one of two ways: If you already have an IRC client, click the link to the left. If you do not have an IRC client, you'll need to get one installed on your computer first. Once you've done this, then click on the link to the left.
For more general information on IRC and a listing of other useful Wikipedia-related channels, see Wikipedia:IRC channels.
The project had at one point another channel at #LGBTprojectconnect but as the original people associated with the setting up and administration of that channel have seemed to have disappeared, this new channel has been set up. Plus the new channel is inline with required naming conventions for Wikipedia related IRC channels. So, feel free to use this channel. Such a channel gives opportunity to discuss the latest happening on articles, the LGBT project itself, latest happening in your life with "wiki-friends" here, etc.. You can say things on there you normally wouldn't here on Wikipedia (keeping it civil of course) like talk about the latest hot guy/girl or tell a joke.. you get the point. Anyway, see you there - eventually!
LGBT to-do list (held over from last edition)
Give out more barnstars, and let each other know that what they're doing is valued.
Create a guide to stave off burnout, because editors in this project get burned out faster than others. There are many hills to climb.
Bring back the monthly collaboration project.
Participate in LGBT Peer reviews.
Get familiar with the characteristics of Good Articles and get our top priority articles to WP:GA.
Use the Newsletter, Moni3! You can suggest what to send out in the newsletter, too!
Offer research materials, copy editing, ideas, and support to your fellow editors.
Keep the project talk page informed of problems and discussions we should know about.
“
There are many well-respected LGBT leaders in all professional fields, including the arts and business communities. [I]n both the White House and the Federal agencies -- openly LGBT employees are doing their jobs with distinction and professionalism. [...] LGBT youth should feel safe to learn without the fear of harassment, and LGBT families and seniors should be allowed to live their lives with dignity and respect. At the international level, I have joined efforts at the United Nations to decriminalize homosexuality around the world. Here at home, I continue to support measures to bring the full spectrum of equal rights to LGBT Americans. These measures include enhancing hate crimes laws, supporting civil unions and Federal rights for LGBT couples, outlawing discrimination in the workplace, ensuring adoption rights, and ending the existing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy in a way that strengthens our Armed Forces and our national security. [...] As long as the promise of equality for all remains unfulfilled, all Americans are affected. If we can work together to advance the principles upon which our Nation was founded, every American will benefit. During LGBT Pride Month, I call upon the LGBT community, the Congress, and the American people to work together to promote equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity. [...] I call upon the people of the United States to turn back discrimination and prejudice everywhere it exists. - Barack Obama, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month, 2009, The White House (June 1, 2009).
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Hello, Feminism Task Force Member! Please accept this invitation to join a discussion on creating a full-fledged WikiProject Feminism. If you support this idea, please register your support here. All feedback is appreciated! Thanks!
Hi Phyesalis! I know it's been quite sometime since you've edited. I do hope you'll see this cup of tea! I just wanted you to know that your contributions are valuable to making Wikipedia what it is, and I do hope you'll participate with a new edit or article. Thank you for your contributions - past and future! SarahStierch (talk) 01:14, 21 August 2011 (UTC)[reply]
What?Wiki Loves Pride, a campaign to document and photograph LGBT culture and history, including pride events
When?June 2015
How can you help?
1.) Create or improve LGBT-related articles and showcase the results of your work here
2.) Upload photographs or other media related to LGBT culture and history, including pride events, and add images to relevant Wikipedia articles; feel free to create a subpage with a gallery of your images (see examples from last year)
Or, view or update the current list of Tasks. This campaign is supported by the Wikimedia LGBT+ User Group, an officially recognized affiliate of the Wikimedia Foundation. Visit the group's page at Meta-Wiki for more information, or follow Wikimedia LGBT+ on Facebook. Remember, Wiki Loves Pride is about creating and improving LGBT-related content at Wikimedia projects, and content should have a neutral point of view. One does not need to identify as LGBT or any other gender or sexual minority to participate. This campaign is about adding accurate, reliable information to Wikipedia, plain and simple, and all are welcome!
As a participant of WikiProject LGBT studies, you are invited to participate in the third annual Wiki Loves Pride campaign, which runs through the month of June. The purpose of the campaign is to create and improve content related to LGBT culture and history. How can you help?
Create or improve LGBT-related Wikipedia pages and showcase the results of your work here
Document local LGBT culture and history by taking pictures at pride events and uploading your images to Wikimedia Commons
Looking for topics? The Tasks page, which you are welcome to update, offers some ideas and wanted articles.
This campaign is supported by the Wikimedia LGBT+ User Group, an officially recognized affiliate of the Wikimedia Foundation. The group's mission is to develop LGBT-related content across all Wikimedia projects, in all languages. Visit the affiliate's page at Meta-Wiki for more information, or follow Wikimedia LGBT+ on Facebook. Remember, Wiki Loves Pride is about creating and improving LGBT-related content at Wikimedia projects, and content should have a neutral point of view. One does not need to identify as LGBT or any other gender or sexual minority to participate. This campaign is about adding accurate, reliable information to Wikipedia, plain and simple, and all are welcome! If you have any questions, please leave a message on the campaign's talk page.
