User:Your Friendly Neighborhood Sociologist

About Me

About Me Hello Wikipedia! I'm TheTranarchist. As you may have guessed from the portmanteau, I'm a trans woman and an anarchist. I believe all people should be free from hierarchical control and we should care for each other, rather than have our economy and society run on exploitation and oppression. I wear these on my sleeve since all writing is political and what we accept as common knowledge is political. That is to say, before accusing me of being political, ask what politics led to the status quo. A little more about me, I work as a software developer, I'm a student pursuing degrees in Computer Science and Sociology, and my academic research tends to involve combinations of technology and sociology/healthcare/history in addition to extensive archival research. I knew I was trans from a young age but was forced to stay in the closet and was only able to transition at 16. I've always loved Wikipedia, as a resource, concept, and joint venture to collaborate to help educate all and provide a free compendium of global knowledge. Since I was a little kid I've loved jumping around WP links and gorging myself on knowledge about history, math, science, engineering, politics, and anything I could find. Teachers and professors always told me not to use it, but consistently it was a wonderful starting point for research into most fields. Now, I strive to help grow the pool of knowledge with all of you. What sparked me finally joining Wikipedia was realizing the current state of articles surrounding transgender topics. Specifically, seeing that the Conversion therapy article made no references to transgender people, despite it having been defined for years to include us. Knowing firsthand how often trans kids or parents of trans kids come looking for information on Wikipedia, it's vital the information we provide is accurate. Trans children are not a modern invention and deserve care and support, and part of that is knowing their history. Trans kids should be able to know they exist and have existed. About their histories and their elders' organized struggle for a better world. And the history and present of the organized hate campaigns operating against us. This applies generally, while my focus is on trans topics (having had to self-educate to justify my existence and wanting to help ease the burden of those who come after me), I want to help bring to light other neglected history as well. I believe the truth when simply presented will speak for itself: that greed and power corrupt and lead to terrible things, that cooperation and kindness are human and essential to our survival, and that all should be free. As such, I'm proud to collaborate and work with you all! A Note to Transphobes I've written articles on quite a few organizations and people who attack trans people, so I want to add a personal touch. Trans people and children exist. By any means necessary, we will fight those who work to harm us by attacking our rights and bodily autonomy. On Wikipedia, I feel no shame combatting your propaganda and exposing you, your claims are nonsense and disproven anyways, and luckily investigative journalism isn't completely dead so reliable sources tend to do the heavy lifting in showing how awful you are. Please enjoy knowing that trans people will continue to live and be born as long as humanity exists, and you'll be remembered as the hateful figures you are.

Userboxes

Userboxes This user believes in equality for all This user is an Anarchist. This user supports anti-fascism. ¡NO PASARÁN!Wikipedia shall be the tomb of fascism. This user is a trans woman. This User is Queer/Lesbian and considers gay to be a compliment. This user is of Central Asian and Western European descent. This user is a 1st generation American. This user is a software engineer. This user thinks GNU, copyleft, and free software are great ways of promoting a gift economy. This user has been awarded 3 barnstars. This user has written or expanded 1 article featured in the Did You Know section on the Main Page. This user has created 14 articles on Wikipedia. 1,400+This user has made 1,400+ edits to Wikipedia. This user is a WikiDragon. ...one of the last of a dying breed... This user resists the POV pushing of lunatic charlatans. This editor has verifiably angered 4 public figures/organizations, unverifiably more. This user has been active on Wikipedia for 2 years, 4 months and 22 days.

Quotes to Edit By

Quotes to Edit By "If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor." - Desmond Tutu "Washing one's hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless means to side with the powerful, not to be neutral." - Paolo Freire "Sin, young man, is when you treat people like things" and "a lie can run round the world before the truth has got its boots on." "Sometimes it's better to light a flamethrower than curse the darkness."- Terry Pratchett "Black and Third World people are expected to educate white people as to our humanity. Women are expected to educate men. Lesbians and gay men are expected to educate the heterosexual world. The oppressors maintain their position and evade their responsibility for their own actions. There is a constant drain of energy which might be better used in redefining ourselves and devising realistic scenarios for altering the present and constructing the future." - Audre Lorde "If a white man wants to lynch me, that's his problem. If he's got the power to lynch me, that's my problem. Racism is not a question of attitude; it's a question of power. Racism gets its power from capitalism. Thus, if you're anti-racist, whether you know it or not, you must be anti-capitalist. The power for racism, the power for sexism, comes from capitalism, not an attitude." - Kwame Ture I hate the indifferent. I believe that living means taking sides. Those who really live cannot help being a citizen and a partisan. Indifference and apathy are parasitism, perversion, not life. That is why I hate the indifferent. The indifference is the deadweight of history. The indifference operates with great power on history. The indifference operates passively, but it operates. It is fate, that which cannot be counted on. It twists programs and ruins the best-conceived plans. It is the raw material that ruins intelligence. That what happens, the evil that weighs upon all, happens because the human mass abdicates to their will; allows laws to be promulgated that only the revolt could nullify, and leaves men that only a mutiny will be able to overthrow to achieve the power. The mass ignores because it is careless and then it seems like it is the product of fate that runs over everything and everyone: the one who consents as well as the one who dissents; the one who knew as well as the one who didn’t know; the active as well as the indifferent. Some whimper piously, others curse obscenely, but nobody, or very few ask themselves: If I had tried to impose my will, would this have happened? I also hate the indifferent because of that: because their whimpering of eternally innocent ones annoys me. I make each one liable: how they have tackled with the task that life has given and gives them every day, what have they done, and especially, what they have not done. And I feel I have the right to be inexorable and not squander my compassion, of not sharing my tears with them. I am a partisan, I am alive, I feel the pulse of the activity of the future city that those on my side are building is alive in their conscience. And in it, the social chain does not rest on a few; nothing of what happens in it is a matter of luck, nor the product of fate, but the intelligent work of the citizens. Nobody in it is looking from the window of the sacrifice and the drain of a few. Alive, I am a partisan. That is why I hate the ones that don’t take sides, I hate the indifferent. - Antonio Gramsci

Articles Worked On/Created
Articles Worked On/Created Articles created are marked with † This section will not appear on mobile unless using desktop mode

To-Do List

To-Do List There's a lot of overlap here but here are various To Do items vaguely organized with starting sources. Please feel free to get to these before I do! Trans history People Delisa Newton needs expansion [1] Sir Lady Java could do with more expansion [2] Murray Hall (politician) needs expansion. Jenny Savalette de Lange needs to be translated from the french version [3] Bunny Eisenhower a founder of the Queens Liberation Front. [4] * Additionally she was married to Enid Dame which isn't mentioned on her page, which generally needs expansion in it's own right. Jim McHarris / James McHarris Black trans man born 1924 [5] Organizations The Transsexual Action Organization [6]. Most sources are already on Angela Lynn Douglas. El Colectivo de Travestis y Transexuales (CTT) created 1979 and disappeared soon after [7], and El Colectivo de Transexuales de Catalonia created 1992 [8]. If in doubt, many famous transgender people and groups not on Wikipedia are mentioned on A Gender Variance Who's Who, which serves as a excellent jumping point for research. History of conversion therapy Individuals George Rekers needs expansion, mainly his experiments with Ole Ivar Lovaas. For a start his experiments with "gender-variant children" should be described as conversion therapy in the section. See Lovaas's page for some more info Ole Ivar Lovaas should contain more about criticism of ABA (which while isn't necessarily a trans topic is still a traumatizing medical attempts at "correcting" deviant behavior like conversion therapy) Kenneth Zucker mentions of him being called out as a conversion therapist should be in the lead Groups NARTH, the OG conversion therapy pushing org in the US. Needs mention of trans conversion therapy and general expansion Exodus International, should have more mentions of them platforming "ex-trans"/"detrans" people. [9] WPATH currently has barely anything on the history of the organization and doesn't explicitly mention that it had conversion therapists on the board and has been mired in various controversies for years (both for being transphobic and too trans supportive funny enough) Center For Bioethics and Culture Network (In Progress, not enough sources for an article currently) primarily anti-surrogacy group that also lobbies against trans people. Our Duty advocates conversion therapy and forced detransition Moms for Liberty add more reference to anti-LGBT activism American College of Pediatricians needs an overhaul Family Education Trust (In Progress) is an organization known for opposing LGBT rights in the UK Partners for Ethical Care (In Progress, not enough sources for an article currently) is an anti-trans organization General Conversion Therapy requires a more in depth overhaul, since trans people are still largely ignored in the article. Detransition should honestly look more like Ex-gay movement, we shouldn't be shying away from ideological detransition any more than the political motives and conversion therapy of the ex-gay movement. Similarly, Ex-gay movement should include more references to how they started focusing more on trans people (and always included us anyways) Trans healthcare/science Transgender youth needs more info on the various attacks on the rights of trans youth in the US. So does Transgender rights in the United States and LGBT rights in the United States Gender dysphoria, particularly symptoms, is a very outside-in perspective. Decrease importance of gender norms as a superficial indicator and reference more internal experiences. Also remove the subtle blanchardism. Maybe actually mention closeting, which is kinda important... Tenant Unions Tenant unions don't get enough coverage or credit, spread some agitprop and let people know about them. Crown Heights Tenant Union (In Progress) See Abolition Notes for a list of tenant unions in the U.S.

Barnstars and Misc.

Barnstars and Misc. To be frank, I spend a lot of my time on Wikipedia writing about groups that insult and call for violence against people like me, and I read a lot of depressing news to do so. I don't edit for thanks, but they do go a long way and are greatly appreciated. On 3 April 2022, Did you know was updated with a fact from the article Boots theory, which you recently created, substantially expanded, or brought to good article status. The fact was ... that according to the "boots" theory, poverty is more expensive than being rich? The nomination discussion and review may be seen at Template:Did you know nominations/Boots theory. You are welcome to check how many pageviews the nominated article or articles got while on the front page (here's how, Boots theory), and if they received a combined total of at least 416.7 views per hour (i.e., 5,000 views in 12 hours or 10,000 in 24), the hook may be added to the statistics page. Finally, if you know of an interesting fact from another recently created article, then please feel free to suggest it on the Did you know talk page. The Original Barnstar Thanks for your work expanding articles on trans topics, e.g. this and this. Hope you didn't mind my minor alterations to the former edit Endwise (talk) 10:31, 22 April 2022 (UTC) The Socratic Barnstar I don't think we've every interacted directly, but we've had some briefly overlapping edits on some pages related to trans topics and I've come to associate your username with responsible editing and some of the most level-headed discussion from anybody in the Wikipedia:GENSEX area. That ANI discussion is a bit of a farce and I think you handled it just about as well as possible - Don't let them get you down! ThadeusOfNazereth(he/him)Talk to Me! 05:55, 19 February 2023 (UTC) The LGBT Barnstar For your excellent working maintaining and improving the standards of a variety of LGBTQIA+ Topics. Awarded by Cdjp1 (talk) 27 February 2023

My GENSEX Hiatus

After a grueling month-long ordeal at ANI started by a blocked sockpuppet that grew longer than the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, I was banned from WP:GENSEX (anything even tangentially LGBT related) for a minimum of 6 months. A brave soul asked for a close review, but that doesn't seem like it's gaining traction. I feel the ban was disproportionate, as all issues raised were specifically about anti-trans WP:BLPs/WP:ORGs, with nothing but support for my GENSEX editing outside the intersection (and even a lot within the intersection). About half called for a full GENSEX ban, half spoke against it, and many in the middle or on either side supported targeted BLP/ORG restrictions. C'est la vie I suppose. Until then, I'm out of GENSEX and proving myself in other areas of the encylopedia. If you see this and have respect for the work I did, please give the articles I wrote a follow. Clean them up, copy-edit them, update them with new information, protect them from vandalism, keep out WP:WHITEWASHing, WP:POVPUSHING and WP:FRINGE nonsense, and generally take care of them as you see fit in my stead. I have never wanted anything less than for them to be collaboratively created and fully encyclopedic. Somehow, despite the hell it normally is for anyone to edit in the GENSEX area, let alone as a trans woman in a world where the current political climate around trans people is getting steadily more genocidal (a term I don't use lightly), I'll miss editing there. See you again someday. TheTranarchist ⚧ Ⓐ (talk) 20:02, 5 March 2023 (UTC)TheTranarchist I was blocked from GENSEX March 3, 2023 (2023-03-03). I can appeal the GENSEX ban (Sep 3, 2023) has started. (refresh)

Honorable Mentions

Honorable Mentions Here, I keep substantial mentions of me off-wiki. This includes both positive coverage (which I hadn't seen coming) and people complaining their articles are so honest it makes them look bad. Stella O'Malley & Genspect Stella O'Malley complained about the Genspect article, stating: Wikipedia can be gamed and trans activists use Wikipedia as a way to attack Genspect and myself. We are not given the opportunity to argue the points as the moderators always side with trans activists, no matter how many quality references they are supplied with. Consequently, articles by gender extremists such as Lee Leveille, are favoured over the more conventional Sunday Times. - Telling the Truth in a Time of Deceit (Part 1): Stella O’Malley’s Statement on Conversion Therapy - Genspect Honestly, leave it up to Genspect to 1) not actually state any issues with the article or factually incorrect statements, just vaguely complain about it 2) refer to their own website and Quillette as quality references... 3) just be wrong about the contents of the page - Leveille wasn't actually cited 4) consider an article full of reliable sources noting easily verifiable things they've done, and the fact their positions are medically WP:FRINGE, as an "attack" (reality hurts) 5) give all the credit to a mythical cabal of trans activists and not myself, who wrote both Genspect and the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine, credit where it's due y'know? TheTranarchist ⚧ Ⓐ (talk) 06:29, 11 October 2022 (UTC)TheTranarchist Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull So KJK, complained about me and her article here, stating The defamatory page about me on @Wikipedia @JWalesF has been semi-protected and cannot be edited. All edits in the history have been undone. The sad little incels are ensuring the lies remain. Then she tweeted HINT : the wikipedia entry is made by a rather boastful trancel who enjoys lying about people online. Neither she nor any of the vandals who tried to edit the page after her tweet (a wave resulting in the page being protected) ever actually gave any examples of lies. This probably explains why she felt forced to resort to ad-hominems of some 19-year-old girl she's never met (which are even funnier when you consider I'm poly and just how far off the mark "incel" was). I guess in terms of Wikipedia, KJK lost to the truth and reliable sources. TheTranarchist ⚧ Ⓐ (talk) 21:49, 20 January 2023 (UTC)TheTranarchist The Atlantic on Gloria Hemingway I would have missed this but saw a mention on Talk:LGBT and Wikipedia - apparently, I made the Atlantic! Did not see that one coming. To be fair, given their general coverage of trans topics, I expected them to be a lot more critical if they were ever going to write about me... Regardless, the article goes over how the article on Gloria Hemingway was updated to use her chosen name instead of her deadname and states: The desire to fix something wrong—in this case, articles that have not kept up with the times—is meant to play out on an article’s “Talk page,” a companion page dedicated to discussing edits. Take the debate over Gregory versus Gloria. Last February, Hemingway’s Talk page fielded a proposal on what name to use. There was a week of debate, long discussions in which a dozen or so editors grappled with how Hemingway would have wanted to be perceived. The main advocate for moving the page from Gregory to Gloria was an editor named TheTranarchist, and the main opponent was an editor named StAnselm, a self-described Calvinist who has created more than 50 articles about biblical characters and scenes. Yet the discussion on the Talk page was about facts and Wikipedia policies and guidance, not politics. “It didn’t seem culture warrior–ish,” Reagle said. The discussion ended with a hung jury: seven editors for Gloria, seven for Gregory. An experienced editor, Sceptre, stepped in and ordered the article to be renamed. The decision was appealed, and an administrator concluded that Sceptre had made a tough call that was ultimately reasonable. On the biggest social-media sites, such a decision might have descended into endless mudslinging. Instead, everyone has respected the outcome and moved on. The article hasn’t been touched in five months. Overall it seemed a balanced article, but two quick notes are worth mentioning. First, it has actually been vandalized since then a few times, but was swiftly reverted. Second, both the decision to close and a defense of the close in the appeal noted that one editor rudely opposed the move by accusing me of being a single purpose account here to right great wrongs using original research without acknowledging the policies in question... Wish they'd reached out for comment though, y'know? The Culture Wars Look Different on Wikipedia (available with 12ft.io ;) ) TheTranarchist ⚧ Ⓐ (talk)TheTranarchist Gays Against Groomers Gays Against Groomers, whose acronym matches what most people do when they think of them, made a whole thread about how mad they are at Wikipedia: Recently, there have been multiple hit-pieces about our organization that are full of lies. This information has now been used to create a Wikipedia page about our organization, which is quite literally entirely false, and we would like to clear some things up. Among other things, they object to: being accurately labeled as far-right and anti-LGBTQ, which they call "woke homophobia" describing a meeting where they called parents and school officials "pedophiles" and "not really gay" while making a 10-year-old kid cry as "harassment" not calling the far-right group Moms for Liberty "non-partisan" pointing out some of their members, associated with Guardians of Divinity, harassed Erik Bottcher. noting that critics have pointed out their support of stochastic terrorism It goes without saying, everything is reliably sourced and verifiable. Nobody's ever accused them of being original (I mean, they basically just copied Libs of TikTok), so I wonder how long it will take them to say the article was written by a "groomer" or other such nonsense. TheTranarchist ⚧ Ⓐ (talk) 23:49, 11 February 2023 (UTC)TheTranarchist

Useful Tools and Tips

Useful Tools and Tips Useful Tools Wikipedia ProveIt: This tool makes citations easy and I can't imagine editing without it. It even automates most of it with only the URL. WP:RSP: Allows you to check if a source is considered reliable or not. The source may be listed on the page or you may have to search the archives for past discussions. Bypassing Paywalls Sci-hub: Great tool for accessing scientific articles, sadly Wikipedia won't let me link to it directly Library Genesis: Great tool for accessing books, also can't link directly https://12ft.io, https://archive.is, and https://archive.org allow you to access paywalled magazines and newspapers most of the time Tips OPSEC Some good guides are available here, here, and here. Some quick notes for Wikipedia: Create an account. Don't go revealing your IP address for no reason, that's a quick way to get doxxed. No personally identifiable information. If you are even somewhat public about your life online, do not mention anything available in other places on Wikipedia. Don't list where you work, your name, anything that can be used to narrow you down or look you up. For the love of god don't use a username you have ever used or will use anywhere else. Gauge Your Threat Level. There is a big difference between local fascists and state actors. If you have an account, your IP is only hidden to most. Some administrators can check them, though it will be logged. For an example of what this might mean, see here. Assume that nearly every state actor has a similar program, so a good rule of thumb is to be careful of whether you would face state repression for publicly reporting the same things off Wikipedia. Choosing an article topic Difficult at the best of times, and up to you. I find my time on Wikipedia is best suited to 1) documenting anti-trans groups and activists and 2) documenting trans rights groups and activists. Generally, Wikipedia can be a wonderful tool for shedding light on both those who fight to make the world better and those who fight to make it worse. We need to know about both. This is not contrary to WP:RIGHTGREATWRONGS, as both tend to be covered in reliable sources. Writing an article 1) Create a local text file to hold all your info (I personally love emacs org-mode for this). Create a sources section and an article section. 2) Use google news to find exact matches of the name or organization (for example, searching "Genspect", with quotes, shows you all exact matches) 2.1) Set an upper and lower bound on article publish dates. Search for results before a date, and push back the date until no articles appear 2.2) Traverse the search by year (ex, results published between 1/1/2010 - 1/1/2011). For each reliable source, copy the source URL and relevant snippets from the article to your local file. I find making a subsection for each year helps organize the document. 3) Check google scholar, there are normally less sources, so you may not need to iterate over custom date ranges. Similarly add URLs and snippets to your article 4) With all your sources now collected, review them. Tag them to make it easier to write the document (ex: for an anti-trans organization, tags such as conversion-therapy, legislation, etc make it easier to write the document) 5) Write the article at the bottom of the file. Go through your sources, marking them as done when you've included the relevant information into the article. For now, simply use URLs as references. 6) Draft in Wikipedia. Here, you make sure all your formatting and grammar is in order, and you convert the URLs to the proper Wikipedia reference format (see ProveIt). This also allows you to see how the article will look when published. 7) Publish. Congratulations, you have now written a Wikipedia article! Of note, steps 1-5 don't always result in a Wikipedia article. If an organization or person does not meet WP:NOTABILITY, you may have to wait to publish until more sources cover them. However, having a local draft and list of sources make it easier to publish the article when the requirements are met.

Contact Me
Contact Me If you're looking to thank me, looking to tip me off to a good article subject, just want to send some hatemail (which I will probably list as an Honorable Mention), or are press seeking comment: My dedicated wikipedia email is here My talk page is here My mastodon is here

Please note, I neglected to check if my online moniker was unique before choosing it, so the only other place I use it is the Mastodon account I created after joining Wikipedia: kolektiva.social/@TheTranarchist. I.e, any similarity to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.