This is an archive of past discussions about User:Raystorm. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.
Lost in translation
Hi Raystorm. I've a problem for my poor English :(. I'm trying to explain that two phrases in American (word) aren't good because they are the meanings of North American, but no of norteamericano. Please, look at my editions and talk page. Thanks. Lin linao (talk) 00:22, 28 January 2008 (UTC)PS: A citation for the Spanish meaning can be found here.
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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Raystorm...I am currently in the process of writing a user box for all of the colleges that are part of Oxbridge. This template is meant to replace your current college template. Please take a look at the work in progress and comment on it. My main concerns are college abbreviations and color choice. I am using scarf colors for the colleges. Thank you. - LA @ 17:02, 9 March 2008 (UTC)
I guess my main questions are a) is it notable and b) is it Cogam or COGAM? Seems the former is "Yes" - and the latter? Thanks for all your help!!! -- SatyrTN (talk / contribs)22:13, 12 March 2008 (UTC)
Rollback
I have granted rollback rights to your account; the reason for this is that after a review of some of your contributions, I believe I can trust you to use rollback correctly by using it for its intended usage of reverting vandalism, and that you will not abuse it by reverting good-faith edits or to revert-war. For information on rollback, see Wikipedia:New admin school/Rollback and Wikipedia:Rollback feature. If you do not want rollback, just let me know, and I'll remove it. Good luck and thanks. Acalamari23:13, 18 March 2008 (UTC)
Thank you for your support in my RFA. The final vote count was (73/3/1), so I am now an administrator. Please let me know if at any stage you need help, or if you have comments on how I am doing as an admin. Have a nice day! :) AletaSing17:22, 22 March 2008 (UTC)
Hey there, darlin'! Long time no habla. I'm going through the list of clean-up at LGBT and I came across this article, made some changes and removed the tags, but there's a poem in Spanish that should be translated for en.wikipedia. Do you think you could take a look at it? I thought it was an interesting article. Never heard of it. --Moni3 (talk) 14:16, 9 June 2008 (UTC)
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.
WP:LGBT's Role in HIV / AIDS articles
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.
Is Pride POV?
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...
Queer Studies is offensive!
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 month's Wiki stars
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!)
Compulsive hoarding of templates
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)
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Sneaky, sneaky, sneaky. Sup, girl. Since the CRC crap in the .es I haven't been able to contact you or talk with you. Guess the retarded pressure everyone's placing is pushing you to the edge. No worries, I'm going to lurk more here. On IRC if you still want to. See ya around. --Mushii (talk) 23:39, 26 June 2008 (UTC)
Honest to be true, it was kinda annoying leaving you a message in between that via-dolosa styled talk page in .es, with mournings as if you were hit by a truck while trying to save a little white rabbit or something. YET! I think your choice was right and that your tactic was impeccable. Nothing else to add than I -effing- miss talking to you A LOT and that I hope you'll show your rear up in the LGBT channel (something we -must- pump up in the en version to gather *COUGH* fellow interested pals) more often now. I wanted to get your cell number yesterday to call you but Buce was in a "I don't know" mode and I was in a hurry so, yeah. If you want me to call you to have a small talk, mail me. You sure as hell know where to find me. Ttyl. --Mushii (talk) 13:12, 27 June 2008 (UTC) PS: I think I'm finally going to do my migration here, for the time being.
Yeah, but well, I guess I'm not really tolerant with this. If you want to laugh some, lookie what I found today (yeah, this is an old spanish blog of mine that I never used but, whatever). --Mushii (talk) 17:55, 27 June 2008 (UTC)
Thank you for your note of concern. While I would have reacted as Aleta did in her position, I am ashamed and embarrassed that so many know I am not made of granite, as I like to come across. I promise you I would never do anything which would make Isaac unhappy. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jeffpw (talk • contribs)
Checking in
Thank you so very much for your love and concern in this difficult period. You have made a profound difference in my life. I'm OK, and just called Aleta to give her a status update (I'll be doing this daily until she tires of my voice :-). you're a great friend, and I look forward to starting to collaborate on articles once again. love, Jeffpw (talk) 22:22, 3 July 2008 (UTC)
Wow. I love Graves' voice, it makes my hairs stand on end. It was beautiful, Jeff! :D No hippies, though? xD I was thinking, would it be possible to request something just like that, but of Spain? ^^ Hee hee Raystorm(¿Sí?)13:03, 4 July 2008 (UTC)
Can do, honeybunch, but you have to give me the song! The only Spanish songs I can sing are Somos Novos and Grande, Grande, Grande. Jeffpw (talk) 13:12, 4 July 2008 (UTC)
Arrrr, I don't know any good song that may rival with Sing, America. :( I can think of Barcelona by Mercury and Caballé, but... Oh well, how about Torero from Chayanne, to spice up the day? xD Raystorm(¿Sí?)13:16, 4 July 2008 (UTC)
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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Well, it rather surprised me how something that seemed to be on the road to resolution get sideswiped by a block that came out of nowhere, so I just had to raise my concerns about it. I'm an admin here, so I'm used to seeing a lot of irritated users (particularly new users) get calmer when treated with seriousness and respect, and resolving a conflict and moving on with a blank slate seemed like the best way to go in that scenario.
Thanks for taking a look at the situation. I do edit at es.wiki (or least, I used to when I had the time), so hopefully I'll see you around more often. Titoxd(?!? - cool stuff)06:07, 30 December 2008 (UTC)
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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Think you might be able to assist with sources per this discussion? Short version: I wrote Lesbian, but it's too focused on English sources. I should add some info from Spain and I'm working on some info about Germany. --Moni3 (talk) 18:31, 25 September 2009 (UTC)
Pau Gasol
Hi. First of all, the formulation "Spanish Catalan" (or "French Catalan" as the case may be) already appears in quite a number of Wikipedia articles:
In some cases the opening sentences of these articles have provoked a certain amount of bad-tempered discussion on talk pages, with Spanish nationalists wanting to remove the word "Catalan" and Catalan nationalists trying to pretend that Spain doesn't exist. "Spanish Catalan" appears to have gained some acceptance as a compromise solution, although that may not be relevant here.
In an ideal world I guess it would be enough to put Catalan (in the sense that no-one goes round reverting "Scottish" to "British" -- even though such reverts would be justifiable on the nationality/citizenship grounds put forward by those who insist that all Catalans are Spanish). Unfortunately, what happens then is that someone comes along and changes "Catalan" to "Spanish", which actually means that the article provides less information than it did before the change.
Other articles experiment with artificial formulations such as "Catalan-Spanish", "Spanish-Catalan", etc. This is misleading and could be seen as trying to imply the existence of some sort of dual nationality.
"Spanish Catalan", on the other hand, does no such thing. It is not equivalent, as you suggest, to "Italian Venetian" or "French Parisian". "Spanish Catalan" simply means a Catalan from Spain (as opposed to a Catalan from France, Andorra or Italy). You say that it is bad English. Would you say the same thing about "Swiss German"? (I'm not trying to imply a political or national equivalence here, merely a linguistic one.)
Finally, you ask for some examples of the use of the phrase "Spanish Catalan" in English. Here you are:
Gene frequency data (scroll down to see the distinction Yale researchers make between French Catalans and Spanish Catalans)
The above are real-world examples of the use of an expression that you believe to be a neologism. I hope this helps clear up any doubts. Thanks for your time. Rabascius (talk) 00:01, 31 October 2009 (UTC)
Pau Gasol again
Hello again! I am not aware of anything as reasonable as a community debate resulting in acceptance of "Spanish Catalan". It's more a case of people fighting their own POV corner and grudgingly accepting a compromise after being warned for edit warring. The following links to relevant talk page sections may give you an idea:
I think I have to concede that outside of Wikipedia I can't find any example of the use of "Spanish Catalan" to describe someone's nationality -- but then I don't agree that the use of the expression "Spanish Catalan" is necessarily a description of nationality in the sense that you mean. Let me explain: Pau Gasol is Spanish. This is a true statement (and in the infobox his nationality -- i.e. citizenship -- is given as Spanish. No problem there). Pau Gasol is Catalan. Another true statement. But "Catalan" is not circumscribed by "Spanish". Just as "Spanish" does not imply "Catalan", "Catalan" does not necessarily imply "Spanish" (see Pascal Comelade or Catalans Dragons). Hence the need to differentiate between French Catalans and Spanish Catalans. Saying that Pau Gasol is a Spanish Catalan basketball player means that he is a Catalan from Spanish Catalonia not French Catalonia. It is certainly not saying that he is not Spanish, or that he holds some sort of dual nationality.
Be that as it may, in view of my concession above (and despite my protestation that it's not about nationality), I expect you will be changing "Spanish Catalan" in the Pau Gasol article. To what, though? As I have said before, "Spanish" on its own is less informative, and less accurate, than "Catalan" on its own. But we both know that Spanish nationalism is not ready to let "Catalan basketball players" take their place alongside "Scottish painters" (see Jack Vettriano) and "Flemish composers" (see Wim Henderickx). Which brings us back to the reason why "Spanish Catalan" has crept into so many Wikipedia articles -- all of which you will presumably now be changing. Good luck with that :)
I would like to suggest an alternative solution for the Pau Gasol article:
1. Remove all reference to nationality from the first sentence. We already have the place of birth, and the nationality is given in the infobox, so there is no ambiguity. The first sentence would now read:
Pau Gasol i Sàez (pronounced IPA [ˈpaʊ̯ gəˈzɔɫ]) (born July 6, 1980 in Sant Boi de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain) is a 2.13 m (7 ft.) professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA).
2. Edit the second sentence ("...he spent his childhood growing up in Spain" is a kind of odd thing to say. Or don't most people spend their childhood growing up?).
3. Replace
In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Gasol and the second or maternal family name is Sàez.
with
In this Catalan name, the first or paternal surname is Gasol and the second or maternal family name is Sàez; both are generally joined by the conjunction "i".
My eyes have been on it too long and not enough views that have generated comments! lol. I have watched the page for a year looking to see if there were improvements, but none. So, this past summer I started editing the artical answering questions that I myself would have for the Spanish monarchy. There are other sections I wish to add (such as the Monarchy, media, and the people), but before I go further I wished to get comments on what is present.
Sure, I'll review it for you. I don't consider myself an expert on the subject, but I think I know enough to be able to spot if you've missed anything important. :) <gossip>Have you heard the latest about the Dukes of Lugo? Apparently the divorce (the very first in the history of the monarchy in Spain, I believe) is imminent.</gossip> I'll try to have a review for you by the end of the week, deal? Cheers! Raystorm(¿Sí?) 11:36, 23 November 2009 (UTC)
Great! Thank you very much Ray, I look forward to your comments!
I love a jucy bit of gossip! "If you don't got anything nice to say, sit next to me! (and share!)" As far as the Duchess and Duke of Lugo go, yes, it will probably be the first in the history of the monarchy. But times do change. I don't think it will really affect the popularity of the monarchy though, except perhaps in extream conservative circles. No doubt republicans will make much of it too. But are not most Spaniards more sanguine about such things these days? While dissapointed, I don't think the king will worry too much. I learned in my recent studies that he may have a Majorican mistress living in Switzerland, and issue by her! (Did you know that!) Her name was released in Italian, French, and British press but I haven't found it yet. And there are rumors that the king and queen's relationship has grown quite stormy behind the scenes too! But still, if he can do his job well then I leave their personal lives to themselves.♦Drachenfyre♦·Talk04:45, 27 November 2009 (UTC)
No long no see.
Heya, how goes? Really haven't been on wiki for a while now, I'm a second year at uni and there's lots to do and people to see. :) What you been up to?
Dev920, who misses Jeffpw. 23:13, 7 January 2010 (UTC)
