Forum:Category:Non-heterosexual real world people

Opening Post
Alright. So I would have preferred for User:JDPManjoume to have written this one up, as it's his baby, but it was pretty far up the docket when we were closing up the temporary forums and the reason there was no ruling on the talk page is because of the proposed forum thread. It's time for me to write an opening post where we can discuss this.

The issue began in July of 2021 when JDPM stated he was interested in creating OOU categories for real world non-het, non-cis people, as well as IU and OOU categories for PoCs on the list. As best I can tell, User:Epsilon the Eternal then created the categories Category:Non-heterosexual real world people and Category:Non-cisgender real world people in December of 2021. JPDM then brings up concerns about citations a month later, saying that everything should be rigorously sourced, and he was concerned that some of the pages were perhaps not quite as solidly sourced as he thought they should be.

This comment, however, prompted User:RadMatter (no longer with us) to respond, insisting that the category simply isn't needed.
 * Why must we divide people due to their sexuality or gender identity?

Now, I maintain that this comment is in express violation of T:BOUND, as this specific reasoning was litigated extensively in the thread that established the existence of in-universe categories for the groups in question - with the reasoning found to be unconvincing. See specifically Thread:271132 at User:SOTO/Forum Archive/The Panopticon IV for this discussion. (As much as I'm embarrassed by my comments there as a new user on the site.) The closing post for this has been lost, but Jack and DiS's arguments were not found to be convincing and these categories were created. With that said, RadMatter's comment here generated quite a lot of discussion. For those who wish to read the entire conversation, you may do so at Category talk:Non-heterosexual individuals. However, I will summarize the discussion, as I understand it, for the purposes of this thread.

Arguments in favor

 * 1) These categories are useful for research. Those who are looking into subjects such as these will find them tremendously helpful to have all of the information in one place.
 * 2) These categories are helpful because they serve to highlight all the people who are part of minority groups, show that they're an integral part of the history of Doctor Who, and for those who are members of these groups and feel isolated, they can feel more connected through this.
 * 3) Noting that certain writers, for instance, are members of a minority group can influence how you read their work and provide important context for understanding the perspective they're approaching subjects from. For example, Patrick Ness, Juno Dawson, or Paul Magrs.

Arguments against

 * 1) While it's true that those conducting academic research might be interested in using these categories, so too will people researching minority groups in order to harm them. There's a very real possibility for abuse here, and we can't control what people do with the information being gathered.
 * 2) More specifically, people in some of these marginalized groups have expressed their hesitations in these categories existing for this reason, and that should be enough motivation for us to remove the category.
 * 3) We shouldn't divide people based on categories like gender identity or race or what have you, it makes these minority statuses seem like they're not "the norm".
 * 4) Categories have second class status to articles on this wiki anyhow. If a category is causing problems, the simplest thing to do is delete it and work on making the articles in question better.
 * 5) These categories will always be incomplete, given how many people have contributed to the franchise over the past 60 years.
 * 6) If we place someone into these categories incorrectly, that's potentially libelous and/or catastrophic depending on their specific situation.

Keep

 * User:JDPManjoume - Supports Favor 1 and 3, I believe also Favor 2.
 * User:Dmitriy Volfson - Very much in favor of Favor 2.

Delete

 * User:RadMatter - Against 1 and 2.
 * User:Jack "BtR" Saxon - Against 2. But also comments on a specific example where someone wishes for their information to be removed from their page. (Which I think even those in favor of keeping the page are in favor of.)
 * User:Scrooge MacDuck - Against 1, with emphasis on 1.1 and I guess implicitly Against 3, since he seems to think that the proper solution is to make Queer representation in Doctor Who an even more robust page.
 * User:Chubby Potato - Against 1.
 * User:LauraBatham - Against 1, 4, and 5.

Ambiguous

 * User:Epsilon the Eternal - Bounces back and forth. Supports Favor 1, then Against 1, then his very last comment seems to indicate that he sees no daylight between the category and Queer representation in Doctor Who.
 * User:OncomingStorm12th - Supports Favor 2, but only comments at the beginning of the discussion, before it really gets going.
 * User:SOTO - Not really buying RadMatter's arguments, but doesn't explicitly comment on the overall topic, and this was before the discussion really got going.
 * User:BastianBalthazarBux - Suggests a compromise to delete the category but keep the citations, but doesn't really engage, not clear if he thinks this is the best idea or just a compromise between the options being discussed.
 * User:Shambala108 - Seems to be leaning against based on Against 3. Isn't really explicit with her thoughts and more comments on technical issues.
 * User:Bongolium500 - Seems to be hinting towards Against 3, but not explicit, it's all of one comment in a response to Epsilon.

I note as well that there's been some discussion of this on twitter, both for and against.

Cards on the table, what do I think? I think the arguments in favor are decently strong? The one concern is Against 1. There's just no way around it, there's a lot of violence against people in minority groups, and people in these groups have an understandable worry about violence. So we have to ask, does this category meaningfully increase risk? I'm not sure. It's a real tricky question. All of the information we're using is going to be publicly available anyhow, we're not outing anyone. It's just the centrality of the information that will be a concern. But quite a bit of the information is already present at Queer representation in Doctor Who, so I'm not entirely convinced that this category meaningfully contributes to violence. (Now, categories for other minority groups that we might not have such pages for might very well do so. We don't have extensively sourced pages for disability representation in DW just yet, for instance. That's a more complicated question. But these particular two categories don't seem to me to be much of an issue.) I think with proper sourcing and the ability to opt out we're probably handling this the best we can as far as what we're actually responsible for.

The question then becomes, from Against 1.1, whether the worries of the people in these groups are themselves reason to remove the categories, even if the worries in this particular instance are slightly misplaced. And that's a nuanced topic with no obvious answer. There are similarities here to our previous discussion on slurs, (see Thread:277667 at User:SOTO/Forum Archive/Help! and Forum:Temporary forums/Slurs and derogatory terms) except that there's notable disagreement within the marginalized groups as to the benefit of these categories.

I don't think much of Against 5 or Against 4, to be completely honest with you. Against 5 is predicated on the idea that we're not following proper procedure for this category, which assumes malpractice on the part of wiki editors. By this standard we should change all our rules because if they're followed incorrectly bad things can result. Against 4 is true for all of our pages. These comments are trivialities not unique to this situation.

Against 3 is true, but does not in itself constitute reason to delete a category.

Against 2 is, I maintain, a violation of T:BOUND / T:POINT. We discussed this for months in the thread that instituted IU categories for non-het and non-cis individuals. It wasn't found to be a compelling reason to stop the creation of those categories. If we discuss it in relation to this issue it will absorb the entire discussion, still take months, get us absolutely nowhere, and resolve absolutely nothing. The argument proves too much, if it were to be successful it would also require us to delete our IU categories for non-cis / non-het individuals based on the exact same arguments presented at the time, which is a clear violation of T:POINT. This particular argument cannot be made, imo, without violating wiki policy. All of the others are kosher, just this one has issues. (As a result, we also shouldn't discuss Favor 2, as these are two sides of the same coin. The wiki has decided that categories like these, ceteris paribus, are acceptable. The reasons for this decision shouldn't be discussed because it will get us absolutely nowhere.) (Of course, I say this as a non-admin. If an admin likes, they can endorse these terms of discussion in this thread.)

Now, that's just me. But, full disclosure, I do find Against 1 to be worrying. I think this is a thorny issue and ultimately we need to discuss it in a systematic manner. I know I sound like a broken record at this point "we should ask for opinions from the broader community", but I think this is true for this issue as well. It's an issue where a lot of people will have thoughts, and it's going to be contentious. idk man. This is probably the opening post I've written where I'm the least confident. Najawin ☎  07:02, 4 June 2023 (UTC)