Fri, 10 Mar 2023 17:41:29 +0000
trans, transphobia, wikipedia, antitrans

I haven't made any posts in a while, and there's a pretty good explanation for that. About a month ago, a now banned sockpuppet started a campaign to ban me from GENSEX (just about any article vaguely relating to #trans people/rights, the #antitrans movement, or #transphobia) on #wikipedia for a minimum of 6 months. A few days ago, the campaign succeeded.

Details and links are at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:TheTranarchist#My_GENSEX_Hiatus. Considering the original case lasted a month (despite repeated calls from others to close it from near the start since it was started by a sock), and then another week at a close review, it's hard to give a full breakdown. Suffice it to say, some raised evidence of some questionable sourcing (a few out of hundreds cited total, and never used for major details) in the KJK article, and comments made here about various anti-trans groups/activists. About half, particularly those experienced in GENSEX, supported me, about half called for the full ban, and many in the middle called for some type of targeted sanction on anti-trans BLPs/ORGs. When you consider that the majority felt a full GENSEX ban undue, more when you consider some who voted for the full ban had a history of pushing transphobic and/or pseudoscientific nonsense themselves, and the fact that the only evidence raised was specifically about just some of my articles about anti-trans people/orgs, it's somewhat surprising and deeply disproportionate it turned out as a full GENSEX ban. C'est la vie.

So, speaking to all my previous posts here: I expressed my bias, sure, but I never put unsupported statements in wiki-voice. You can note that I did not call those I wrote about "bastards" and etc on Wikipedia, sticking solely to the sources and the language they used. My tone here has always been very different than my tone there. I never engaged in original research on WP, and every article I've written was with entirely or almost entirely reliable sources. My biggest note from both supporters and detractors has been that I used excessive detail (not a ban worthy offense) - not that I was wrong or published lies or unverifiable statements, but that my articles were overly thorough. And it's anyways easier to copy-edit a thorough article down than to try and summarize so many disparate sources from scratch. Some people started trying to deface articles as soon as I was banned, and even cited my ban as a reason. Luckily, the articles were written with NPOV and RS in mind. You can remove me, but you can't remove all the reliable sources I included (I never left any out and they speak for themselves), nor all the editors who seek to keep Wikipedia encyclopedic and keep out FRINGE pseudoscience and vandalism. I cannot tell a lie, I'm deeply upset about and hurt by the ban. Saddened by all the articles, including those were my edits were wholly uncontroversial, I now have to keep away from. Just today, I saw this wonderful article published and not being able to include it is killing me https://www.crikey.com.au/2023/03/10/anti-trans-disinformation-australia-transphobia/.

Hell, I had some people try and accuse me of violating the ban by 1) participating in the appeal (which is explicitly permitted under BANEX) 2) disclosing the ban on my userpage (which I'm literally supposed to do...), and 3) stating on my own damn userpage " 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."...

In future, I'll be posting in a much more limited fashion. There's an article about a neo-confederate org I've got in the works, and when I post about it here I'll be sure not to insult them - in case I'm banned from writing about white supremacy for openly saying it's a bad thing or using coarse language to do so... I'm going to spend the next few months focusing on articles about tenant unions, tenant rights, abortion rights, police brutality, and white supremacist organizations (the few that don't have a reputation for being explicitly transphobic as well), and whatever other topics I can think of. So stay tuned!