Wikimedia LGBT+/Activities
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This page outlines the current and proposed activities of Wikimedia LGBT+.
Projects
Collaborations
LGBT projects that can be done with user groups, thematic organizations, movement partners, or LGBT organizations.
Wikimedia LGBT encourages collaboration among various LGBT-related efforts in all Wikimedia projects. Established projects are listed on each wiki.
Outreach
"It Gets Better"
During Wikimania 2013 it was proposed that Wikimedia LGBT+ produce a series of "It Gets Better" submissions by Wikipedians and Wikimedians in multiple languages.
LGBT events
LGBT outreach activities that can be done at outside LGBT events.
LGBT organizations
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:
- Presentations of Wikipedia and statistics of how people use Wikipedia explained in such a way that targets LGBT organizations
- 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
- A maintained and curated collection of scholarly literature describing the nature, scope, and quality of Wikipedia content of interest to LGBT groups
- 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
- A community networking space
- A historical repository for collecting case studies about community experiences in developing LGBT content on Wikipedia
Wiki Loves Pride
"Wiki Loves Pride" is a global campaign to expand and improve LGBT related content across several Wikimedia projects. The activities of Wiki Loves Pride are focused on June and October. Thousands of LGBT cultural events and celebrations are held around the world during the month of June. October is observed in several nations as LGBT History Month (others observe it in February - which may be added in future years) and is also when "coming out" is celebrated.
Wikimedia
LGBT outreach activities that can be done at or for Wikimania and other Wikimedia events.
Proposed activities
Wikimedia LGBT content
Wikimedia LGBT seeks to promote and coordinate development of LGBT content across all relevant Wikimedia projects. See also: Wikipedia:Wiki Loves Pride/Tasks.
LGBT culture
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 story 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
This organization will promote participation in and advocate for Wikipedia:WikiProject LGBT studies and equivalent projects in all languages and projects.
Research relations
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
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
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
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 space
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
Wikimedia LGBT+ participates in policymaking related to harassment on Wikimedia projects with the goal of making all Wikimedia projects a safe space 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
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 space.
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
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
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
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.
Timeline
[not up to date]
- 2011: as part of Wikipedia Loves Libraries, Wikimedians worked with the Tom of Finland Foundation Library in Los Angeles on the "Queering Wikipedia Editathon". See ToFF website, American Libraries Magazine article.
- April 6, 2012: an outreach project was created following a conversation amongst the founding leaders (Bluerasberry, Fæ, Tom Morris, Varnent) on IRC; the IRC channel #wikimedia-lgbtconnect was launched the same day.
- June 23, 2012: an LGBT mailing list was requested.
- July 1, 2012: the LGBT
lists.wikimedia.org mailing list was created. - July 11, 2012: the first meeting was held at Wikimania 2012.
- August 2012: change from outreach project to "thematic organization"; adopting initial logo.
- August 2013 (Wikimania 2013): proposal of user group status; change of logo.
- November 9–10, 2013: LGBT representation at the Wikimedia Diversity Conference in Berlin.
Reports
The annual reports required by the Wikimedia Foundation Affiliations Committee are here:
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