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==] Newsletter==
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! style="background-color: #CC9966; text-align: center;" |'''The ] Newsletter '''
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] <big>'''The ] Newsletter!'''</big><br/> Issue XV: ], ] <br/>
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__NOTOC__
Hello, members and friends of WP:LGBT! I'm not one to be writing newsletters, but I miss our cruise director, ], 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 Misplaced Pages weren't so interesting it wouldn't also be so frustrating sometimes. And vice versa. More than one Wikiproject has ]s blowing through it, but this is one that can't afford to let that happen. Even if you pop in to the ] of the project, you can let us know you're still around.

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=== 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 ] article was delisted as a ] last month, sadly. (Sending a swift kick to ].) A spirited discussion is available for your entertainment on the ] 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 ], 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 ]. Should a pride flag show up at the top of the article on ]? 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 ] on the verandah and stop caring?

=== ] and ]===
For the love of all that is holy, no ] jokes. However, an editor involved in pioneering ] Supervisor ]'s article has included a section about the late supervisor's support of ] and the ]. While it may be accurate, there is a ] 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 ] was brought up as an ] 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-], 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 <nowiki>]</nowiki> around stuff, you can clean up articles. There's a list of articles that need attention at the top of the ]. Or you can start with the ], where the ] received a pioneering award, and was "reduced to rubble" by ]'s wonderful speech. The 20th ceremony of the ], which celebrates LGBT literature, took place in West Hollywood on May 29th . The page needs to be updated with the new winners, to be found on the official website .

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=== ], ] and ] ===
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 ] 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*) ] became a featured article in May. This is ] since it is my personal declaration that there is no such thing as ]. I don't care what ] 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 ] 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 ]'s ] 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 ] 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.

===] and magazines===
] suggests we create an article on ], as it seems such a milestone in the advancement of gay/queer literature. Members of the Quill all have pages of their own (], ], ], ], ], ], and ]). We need to find more info on the Quill per se to reference the page that we create. Perhaps Google Books - and libraries? - can help.

A number of magazines also need articles, perhaps most notably '']'', '']'', and '']''.

=== Mom's nagging for Pride Month ===
It's June, Pride month. Wear ], stay hydrated, get a ], 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 ]s just got fed the f*ck up by the ] 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 ]

=== Fresh faces to brighten our pages ===
Hey, I've seen you around! Sorry there seem to be so many—it's been a while. But we welcome you all: ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ] , ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], and ].

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 Misplaced Pages.

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In the immortal words of Miss Julie, "May all your Wiki days be bright, and may your ] never turn into a ]."

We miss you, ], 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 ] and hurry up and come back. --] (]) 16:52, 9 June 2008 (UTC)
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To stop receiving this newsletter, or to receive it in a different format, please let us know ].<br>If you have any news or any announcements to be broadcast, do let ] know.
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<small> This newsletter was delivered by ] around 16:02, 11 June 2008 (UTC). </small>] (]) 16:20, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

==] Newsletter (July 2008)==
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! style="background-color: #AFEEEE; border: 2px #4B0082 solid; text-align: center;" |'''The ] Newsletter'''
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'''The ] Newsletter!'''</big><br/> Issue XVI: ], ] <br />
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Hello, members and friends of WP:LGBT! Updates about our latest happenings in the gayest corner of Misplaced Pages.

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; Project News

;'''] at ]!'''
An unfortunate effect of a group less active than in the past is that our articles lose integrity. This one is at ] for that reason. The ] 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.

;'''] is at ]!'''
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!

;'''] is at ]! Wtf is going on?'''
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 ] 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?

;'''Two ]s and a nominee!'''
In what I hope will counter the jolt of re-evaluating three Good or Featured Articles, ] and ] passed as Good Articles, and ] (famous San Francisco oft-raided gay bar) is nominated, all by ]. 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 ]?

;''']'''
New WP:LGBT studies member ] 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 ]. 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.


;'''Completely naked women!'''
Ha! Made you look! Even the guys are looking. Gay pioneers ]'s and ]' collection of photographs are up at the . Want to see images of the ? How about , drag queen extraordinaire, and Stonewall Riots participant? Or the contact sheet for ] that showed ? Ok I did mention naked women, and it's true. I found naked pictures of Barbara Gittings. But I scrolled through all of them and you'll have to as well. I'm not that mean, though. . How cute is she?

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;'''Tagging articles'''
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 ] has been rumored to be gay in some newspaper accounts. Although we all know ] is supergay, he won't admit it so instead he does the absolutely awfulest anti-gay things on the planet to deflect suspicion. ], the red headed stepchild of the LGBT world, is tagged with an explanation we have yet to decide if we'll keep.


;'''Member Spotlight: ]'''
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 ], a ] and also a member of ] in addition to being a LGBT project member. A few of Benjiboi's favorite links for making the wikiverse more fab are:
#], a must for anyone redecorating an article.
#], a wonderful and fully linked essay about sourcing and why we need more and better sources.
#, which also searches Google books, is a great help in finding reliable sources.

;'''Member Spotlight: ]'''

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 Misplaced Pages so far was a ] in December 2007 for the first-ever newspaper report on what became ], in the '']''. 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 Misplaced Pages 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 Misplaced Pages for LGBT related subjects. Overall, I wish we could focus more on content creation and improvement, and less on vandal fighting."

;'''Fresh faces to brighten our pages'''
Welcome to all of our new members!: ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ]
If you have a question about anything, drop your question on ]. We'll do our best to answer.

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''"A ] 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 ]'s ] magazine. The lower court had ruled that ''ONE'' was not protected by the ] 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

Thanks for being weak and having lowered standards with me. --] (]) 00:10, 24 July 2008 (UTC)
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To stop receiving this newsletter, or to receive it in a different format, please let us know ].<br>If you have any news or any announcements to be broadcast, do let ] know.
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:*<small>Newsletter delivery by <font face="Verdana">]</font> 13:12, 30 July 2008 (UTC)</small>

==] Newsletter==

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! style="background-color: #AFEEEE; border: 2px #4B0082 solid; text-align: center;" |'''The ] Newsletter'''
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'''The ] Newsletter!'''</big><br/> Issue XVII: ], ] <br />
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<font color=red>'''Wake up WP:LGBT! It's time to kick in gear and get some things done!'''</font>

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; 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 ]. 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.”''

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 ] 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 ]. 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.

;'''The power of Misplaced Pages and ]'''
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 Misplaced Pages played a role in that: in October 2008, 360,238 people read its article. On November 5, an astounding . 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 Misplaced Pages 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.

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! Current political events
! LGBT Media and Literature
! LGBT History
! Sex and sexuality
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| 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
| Articles relating to sex and sexuality
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| ], ], ], etc.
| '']'', ], '']'', ], '']'', etc.
| ], ], ], ], ], ], ], etc.
| ], ], ], ], sexual and gender expression, etc.
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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 (]) from the conservative ''']''' 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 ''']s''', 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 ].
* Keep our ] and ] '''updated'''.
* 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 '''] 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 ] 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 ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], for example. High importance would be ], ], ], ], or ], 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.

;'''So, like ], ]'''
The editors I have admired in the past, who have done great things alone, and who I think can help us all do extraordinary things now: ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ], ] (I ''will'' marry you), ], ], ], ] (I know you're out there), ], and my very ] copy editor, ].

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.

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Miami, January 18, 1977 after the gay rights ordinance was passed: ''While ] 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

Don't go home yet, please. --] (]) 00:10, 24 July 2008 (UTC)
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To stop receiving this newsletter, or to receive it in a different format, please let us know ].<br>If you have any news or any announcements to be broadcast, do let ] know.
|}
|}<small>This newsletter was sent by <font color="green">]</font>'''&nbsp;<small>(<font color="red">]</font>)'''</small> at 21:19, 12 November 2008 (UTC) by the request of ] (])</small>

Latest revision as of 04:32, 18 November 2023

This user may have left Misplaced Pages. Mira has not edited Misplaced Pages since 12 February 2022. As a result, any requests made here may not receive a response. If you are seeking assistance, you may need to approach someone else.
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