Wikimedia LGBT+/2020 Movement Strategy Priorities
This page presents Wikimedia LGBT+'s 2020 Movement Strategy Priorities. The context is that as part of Strategy/Wikimedia movement/2018-20, the Wikimedia Foundation requested that affiliate organizations discuss and name priorities by selecting from the list of initiatives. Wikimedia LGBT+ organized this list at its October 2020 meeting.
About[edit]
Wikimedia LGBT+ is a global and diverse volunteer community organization with no central management. For years it has hosted regular meetings online. Anyone can attend these, and anyone who does not attend can also communicate their wishes and requests in other communications channels.
The Wikimedia Foundation request for these initiatives came quickly, and their instructions were to casually state priorities based on whatever conversations are already ongoing in the community. In the October 2020 Wikimedia LGBT+ meeting seven people met to discuss priorities. User:RachelWex drafted out the consensus from that meeting. As is typical in wiki, the organization then published this text and made it available for anyone to edit or discuss.
This text will go back to the first global strategic meeting which the Wikimedia Foundation is organizing. Following the participation of our members in that meeting we might meet again and update this page for a second meeting and if needed, follow-up meetings.
The outcome that Wikimedia LGBT+ would like as a result of naming these priorities is Wikimedia Foundation resource investment in challenges which the LGBT+ community faces, but which are very difficult for volunteers to manage without global institutional support.
Priority 1: Recommendation 3: Provide for Safety and Inclusion[edit]
Priority: LGBT+ Safety and Inclusion across Wikimedia projects
- Why We Want It
Wikimedia LGBT+ membership is among the most targeted and at risk groups for harm in Wikimedia spaces. Moreover, the LGBT+ community is as diverse as the global population. While this maximal community diversity has its benefits, it also means that the safety problems which members report to us are also maximally diverse. The safety solutions which this community requires can only come from LGBT+ engagement in addressing the challenge of safety.
Wikimedia LGBT+ membership is most at risk for harm in Wikimedia spaces across the Movement. We are a multinational, multicultural, intersectional group who also encompass Black, Indigenous, and other people of color; non-Christian individuals; disabled individuals, and individuals whose Wikipedia work may put them at odds with local or national LGBT-phobic laws or sentiments.
- What we want to do
Lead in the development of training materials or other educational opportunities to make online Wikimedia spaces more inclusive, tolerant, and accepting of LGBT+ people seeking to contribute to Wikimedia projects. We also want to advocate for more Wikimedia Foundation legal representation and coordination with human rights organizations to protect LGBTQ+ Wikimedians.
- The Movement Strategy Priorities this aligns with
- 16 Code of Conduct
- 17 Private incident reporting
- 18 Baseline of community responsibilities
- 19 Develop a safety assessment and execution plan - technical, human, and legal support processes
- 20 Advocacy - local capacity development
- 21 Built-in platform mechanisms for safety
Priority 2: Recommendation 8: Identify Topics for Impact[edit]
Priority: Disseminate knowledge across Wikimedia projects and languages
- Why we want it
LGBT+ content is still non-existent, underrepresented, inaccurate, or is considered objectionable in many language Wikipedias. As terminology evolves and the number of notable LGBTQ+ people, events, legislation, etc increases, Wikimedia LGBT+ needs to ensure that the main topic areas are kept authoritative and in good standing in all language Wikipedias.
What we want to do: We want resources to have a person assigned and paid to coordinate these efforts. We believe this role will require engaging with multiple communities and helping us to track what content should be identified and disseminated.
- The Movement Strategy Priorities this aligns with
- 36 Identify the impact of Wikimedia projects & content
- Eliminate Misinformation
- Identifying impactful topics
- 37 List of high-impact topics
- Bridging content gaps
- 38 Content initiatives in underrepresented communities
Priority 3: Recommendation 6: Invest in Skills and Leadership Development[edit]
Priority: Build our User Group Management and Leadership Capacity
- Why we want it
Wikimedia LGBT+ is a global thematic user group with growing international membership. While all of us are engaged in a wide variety of individual LGBT+ Wikimedia activities and initiatives, our global thematic user group needs community and topic specific leadership training to engage and include our broader existing and incoming membership and to ensure consistent funding for large global projects. We want to develop internal capacity for management and leadership development to help empower our members who want to help further our goals, while currently lacking capacity for knowing how to contribute.
- What we want to do
Develop Wikimedia LGBT+ infrastructure, membership, and leadership to become more sustainable and inclusive of our global community.
- The Movement Strategy Priorities this aligns with
- 31 Global approach for local skill development - gathering data, matching peers, mentorship, recognition
- 32 Leadership development plan
- 33 Skill development infrastructure