Wikimedia LGBT

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Wikimedia LGBT

 A project to support the LGBT community
 by developing the community of LGBT Wikimedians
 and LGBT content within Wikimedia projects
Shortcut:
WM:LGBT
Key resources
Wikimedia LGBT

Wikimedia LGBT
Basic Information
Activities
Resources
Communications
Other links

Wikimedia LGBT is a proposal to form a thematic organization first announced at Wikimania in 2012. The organization would promote the development of content on Wikimedia projects which is of interest to LGBT communities.

Contents

Overview [edit]

Wikimedia LGBT seeks to support LGBT communities and allies by promoting the development of content of interest to those groups. See the following projects (relisted here from the navigational box to the right) for more details on specific organizational activities. Anyone can join!

Mission [edit]

  1. Encourage LGBT cultural organizations to use Wikimedia projects and to adopt the values of free culture and open access.
  2. Promote Wikimedia projects as a tool for strengthening LGBT communities
  3. Create and expand content of interest to LGBT communities on Wikimedia projects and to increase the overall quality of such content in all languages.

Goals [edit]

  1. Improve the editing experience for all contributors by ensuring that LGBT related harassment is dealt with by simple policies in a prompt manner regardless of sexuality.
  2. Ensure that non-discrimination policies related to gender and sexuality are effective across all Wikimedia projects, and participate in discussions of discrimination of all types.
  3. Provide support networks for the LGBT community and allies, including welcoming IRC and OTRS support.
  4. Provide a sympathetic appeal mechanism when dispute resolution has failed and a contributor would prefer a self identified LGBT mediator or arbitrator to handle their case.
  5. Create a safer environment for LGBT readers of Wikimedia projects, with a special interest in improving the experiences of LGBT youth on Wikimedia projects.
  6. Build greater community among LGBT Wikimedians.
  7. Coordinate cross-wiki efforts among WikiProjects engaged in specific LGBT content development.

Strategy [edit]

Wikimedia LGBT will fulfill its mission in the following ways:

  1. Provide training to organizations and individuals so that they can contribute content to Wikimedia projects
  2. Create, collect, process, and present the sorts of metrics which describe usage statistics and quality of content of LGBT interest on Wikimedia projects

While Wikimedia LGBT members will always be welcome to contribute content of LGBT interest themselves, the scope of the work which the project seeks to complete can only be engaged if many LGBT outreach programs all contribute their expertise to developing the content in their fields. The general practice ought to be that any educator of LGBT populations anywhere who is performing outreach in any field ought to share their information on Wikipedia if any of their target demographic uses the Internet as a source of information. When such an educator recognizes this, then that person ought to be able to contact Wikimedia LGBT and get appropriate training to enable them to share their information on Wikimedia platforms.

Communications [edit]

Wikimedia LGBT utilizes these methods for communications:

Wikimedia LGBT content [edit]

Wikimedia LGBT seeks to promote and coordinate development of LGBT content across all relevant Wikimedia projects.

LGBT culture [edit]

LGBT groups worldwide are making decisions about how to engage their local communities with online cultural resources. Every city which has an LGBT organization has a stories about local LGBT activism including people assessing the legal rights of people to assemble, the history of community organization, and how the advent of globalization with the international LGBT community is changing the lives of everyone. Some major news items about which reliable sources often publish are legal cases relating to LGBT issues, the hosting of any LGBT pride events, and the founding of any LGBT organizations.

Wikimedia LGBT seeks to support regional LGBT organizations as they make decisions about how to document the published reliable sources reporting their community’s history by informing them of their options to use Wikimedia projects as a repository of their history to share amongst themselves and to show to the world through the Internet.

WikiProject LGBT studies [edit]

This organization will promote participation in and advocate for Wikipedia:WikiProject LGBT studies and equivalent projects in all languages and projects.

LGBT organization outreach [edit]

Any LGBT organization which serves clients who get information from the Internet has a stake in the quality of information on Wikipedia and related Wikimedia projects. For many demographics and for many topics, Wikipedia is the most consulted source of LGBT information.

LGBT organizations who want to participate in Wikipedia projects to do education outreach need specialized targeting. Among their needs are the following:

  1. Presentations of Wikipedia and statistics of how people use Wikipedia explained in such a way that targets LGBT organizations
  2. Training materials for professionals which can introduce them to aspects of Wikipedia of most interest to them. In many cases, professional time is scarce and they appreciate first learning the most relevant information they would need to contribute within their field
  3. A maintained and curated collection of scholarly literature describing the nature, scope, and quality of Wikipedia content of interest to LGBT groups
  4. A point of contact for requesting conversations from members of the LGBT community in Wikipedia on how their organization can connect with the Wikipedia community and learn to contribute content
  5. A community networking space
  6. A historical repository for collecting case studies about community experiences in developing LGBT content on Wikipedia

Research relations [edit]

The organization remains a point of contact for researchers who want to study the LGBT information on Wikipedia. Many organizations need advice on how they can being doing surveys on the extent to which the public uses LGBT content on Wikipedia. This organization will work with the existing Research Committee to assist researchers in getting the data and community support they need to be able to manage their own Wikipedia research at their own institution.

Wikipedia Loves (LGBT) Libraries [edit]

Main article: outreach:Wikipedia Loves Libraries

Wikipedia Loves Libraries is the name of an outreach program which helps librarians and the Wikipedia community work together to serve the needs of communities who use library and Wikipedia resources. This organization participates in the Wikipedia Loves Libraries program by promoting events at LGBT, gender studies, and sexuality-oriented libraries.

Archive directory [edit]

Wikimedia LGBT hosts an international media directory of significant archives and media collections of LGBT materials by promoting the development of Wikipedia articles which describe those collections and directing persons who conduct gender and sexuality studies to these collections. Its members also informally describe these collections in the project space when the collections are not sufficiently documented by reliable sources, as frequently library and archive special collections are not.

  • New York Public Library
    • holds and has cataloged the archives of Gay Men’s Health Crisis and ACT-UP, which probably constitute the earliest community organization records on the response to the advent of HIV

Media requests [edit]

If any volunteer would like to make a request to any LGBT organization that they apply a Wikimedia compatible license to the media for which they hold copyright, then Wikimedia LGBT will review that request and may endorse it with community backing when the intent is to share that content on Wikimedia Commons or Wikisource.

Organizations are much more likely to respond favorably to requests for media donations from an established archiving entity which has a broad public need and established capability to properly host, manage, advertise, and redistribute that media content, and Wikimedia LGBT is in an excellent position to serve these functions. Anyone who has a proposal to make a media request may post their idea to the talk page.

Making all Wikimedia projects a safe place [edit]

LGBT populations face discrimination as a minority group and are sometimes the target of harassment only because of their membership in the LGBT community. This can happen anywhere, including on Wikimedia projects.

Harassment policy [edit]

Wikimedia LGBT participates in policymaking related to harassment on Wikimedia projects with the goal of making all Wikimedia projects a safe place where anyone can participate in the development of educational materials. Besides ending harassment related to LGBT status, this organization also seeks to end discrimination on the basis of gender, religious, ethic, cultural, and other characteristics. Wikimedia projects should be fun, safe, and accessible to everyone!

Victim support [edit]

It is simply impossible to police anonymous web forums and prevent all rude comments, and it is also not the place of any group to provide counseling on Wikipedia. But Wikimedia LGBT can confidentially collect and record any complaints anyone has about harassment or discrimination of any kind. Although this organization usually cannot directly act upon such complaints, at the discretion of organization members and with respect for the wishes and rights of the people who issue complaints it can use such complaints as a basis for doing research on potential problems on Wikimedia projects and for thinking about making Wikimedia projects a safe place.

The kind of support which this organization can give is a venue to make sure that people who complain about discrimination find a place to share their concern among people who understand the nature of discrimination and want Wikimedia projects to be safe.

Online education for LGBT health issues [edit]

Some health and safety issues disproportionately affect LGBT populations, notably HIV infection and AIDS. This project supports the use of Wikipedia as a tool for disseminating general health information to LGBT populations and advocates that public health organizations develop Wikipedia articles which relate to any part of their mission to education LGBT populations.

Fundamental sex education [edit]

Wikimedia LGBT recognizes that international recognition of LGBT issues begins when all people have access to fundamental information about human sexuality and gender in their own language. Of special concern are articles relating to sexual health, including pregnancy, birth control, contraception, and family planning. Communities without any opportunity to discuss heterosexuality are not likely to be friendly to discuss minority sexuality. Communities which can frankly discuss girls' health and basic sexuality are communities which have the potential to receive LGBT education. Promoting basic sex education also has the advantage of advancing women's rights, which is another factor which correlates with the advancement of LGBT rights in many places.

HIV education [edit]

HIV/AIDS is a disease which disproportionately affects the LGBT community. There are many factors which increase the incidence of HIV infection in a population, and one of them is lack of access to educational resources about how people can protect themselves from contracting HIV.

Wikimedia LGBT seeks to develop articles related to HIV in all languages. Part of the strategy for doing this is working with the Translation Task Force of WikiProject Medicine, which already has social infrastructure for improving health-related articles in English then translating those articles into other languages. HIV/AIDS is a disease associated with many health conditions, and all related health conditions are within the scope of Wikimedia LGBT.

Something which Wikimedia LGBT can do which is unique is coordinating partnership with HIV organizations in various countries and working in various languages to facilitate the translation and localization of this content, especially as it applies to local LGBT culture. Many countries already have dedicated government support for providing HIV prevention resources to LGBT populations, and these organizations need Wikimedia LGBT to help them engage Wikimedia projects to supply them with online educational resources.

Specific outcomes [edit]

  • Increased participation and visibility by LGBT communities at Wikimania 2012 - building towards even greater engagement at future Wikimanias
  • Increased (open) participation by members of the LGBT communities on all Wikimedia projects
  • Coordination of LGBT WikiProjects
  • Guidelines on Outreach for recommending and improving policies across Wikimedia projects.
    • Chapter and WMF safe space policies to cover all events specifically ensuring any complaints of apparent LGBT related harassment are dealt with effectively and promptly.
    • Guidance for new LGBT editors (and those that edit LGBT topics) on how to stay safe and how to find help when things go wrong.
    • Simple guide to responding to LGBT related harassment or threats on all Wikimedia projects and IRC.
  • Access to LGBT specific help on-wiki, IRC and email (for example, access to LGBT identified OTRS volunteers via lgbt at wikimedia.org and gay at wikimedia.org).
  • Independent and expert assessment of the Wikimedia projects and the Wikimedia Foundation's effectiveness at handling homophobic harassment cases.
  • Commissioned surveys and statistical reporting on LGBT participation and perception of editing experience in order to support planned improvements.
  • Model for future minority population based thematic organizations
    • Ideally going into Wikimania 2013 with at least four such projects - LGBT among them

Activities [edit]

LGBT Outreach Project logo
Wikimedia LGBT logo

Community building [edit]

Interwiki collaboration [edit]

Safe space development [edit]

Wikimedia LGBT coordination [edit]

Meetings [edit]

Held on the second Wednesday of the month at 22:00 GMT on IRC #wikimedia-lgbt. The next meeting is 12 December 2012; use this time converter Agendas will be linked from this section in advance.

Resources [edit]

History [edit]

Previous LGBT outreach [edit]

Current outreach project [edit]

  • Created on April 6th, 2012 following a conversation amongst founding project leaders on IRC
  • Launched #wikimedia-lgbt on IRC on same day
  • Requested lgbt@lists.wikimedia.org on June 23, 2012
  • Creation of LGBT at lists.wikimedia.org mailing list on July 1, 2012
  • First meeting at Wikimania 2012 held on July 11, 2012
  • Change from Outreach Project to "thematic organization" in August 2012

Name [edit]

We will be initially incorporating as Wikimedia LGBT if we get authority to use Wikimedia LGBT from the WMF. This organization currently is not registered in any way.

Scope and territorial overlap with national chapters [edit]

  • The territory of activity is everywhere in the world where there are people interested in achieving our mission.
  • Initially the organization will be placed in the USA but people from around the world can join.

Related projects [edit]

  • LGBT Outreach Project, a precursor project to the forming of an organization
  • Queer Wikimedians, an accounting of who might be interested in doing something to promote LGBT interests on Wikimedia projects

Participants [edit]

Proposed initial board [edit]

The term "board" is being used loosely to describe the group generally responsible for coordinating this project's activities.

Supporters / interested participants [edit]

Not necessarily able to or interested in leadership activities - but supports the project's efforts.
  • If I can do something concrete whether in Belgium, whether on the French Wikipedia, whether on Wikimedia Commons, I will be happy to participate actively. Meanwhile, I already support the effort. --Dereckson (talk) 23:26, 11 June 2012 (UTC)
  • Shujenchang (talk) 21:44, 24 July 2012 (UTC)
  • Offering my support. --Another Believer (talk) 15:24, 10 August 2012 (UTC)
  • Offering my support as well. I found out about this initiative by sheer chance, more outreach is needed! Raystorm (talk) 18:25, 12 September 2012 (UTC)
  • DerFussi - I attended the GLBT workshop at Wikimania and the Meeting at "Number Nine". Nice project. I will try to help (depends on my time). There are some intersections with the Wikivoyage project as well.
  • I support the mission and goals of the project and am willing to devote considerable effort to helping it succeed. Rivertorch (talk) 05:36, 29 December 2012 (UTC)
  • I'll help. Asaf Bartov talk 20:35, 18 March 2013 (UTC)
  • Seems like a cool project. Ping me if it ever gets off the ground. I'd be especially interested in looking into the degree to which the various editing communities tolerate homophobia (and biphobia and transphobia), in contrast to racism, sexism, anti-semitism, and the like. — PinkAmpers&(Je vous invite à me parler) 17:58, 17 May 2013 (UTC)
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