User:Your Friendly Neighborhood Sociologist/Bio

Hello Wikipedia, I'm Your Friendly Neighborhood Sociologist! YFNS for short, and not to be confused with Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man.

I first joined at 18 about 3 years ago as TheTranarchist before renaming my account. I've lived in NYC most of my life and I'm a computer scientist and sociologist; my academic research tends to involve extensive archival research and applications of technology to sociology/healthcare/history. I'm one of those scary trans youth some of the media tells you don't really exist, having come out at 16 after years of closeting.

I joined Wikipedia as an editor after realizing just how poor our coverage of trans topics has been, with many articles woefully out of date - specifically, I saw Conversion therapy made no references to transgender people. Hell, I still see editors try and whitewash gender identity change efforts (I ended up writing WP:No queerphobia about that). It is vital the information we provide is accurate as misinformation can go far and do real-world damage otherwise - especially in this topic area where far-right groups have poured millions into anti-trans pseudoscience (The SPLC has a series of introductory articles on the topic if you'd like to learn more [1]). So, I strive to document our histories and our elders' organized struggle for a better world. And the history and present of the organized hate campaigns operating against us. And, mostly unrelated but my secondary focus, the history of tenant and labor organizing within New York City.

I've always loved Wikipedia; a free global compendium of knowledge built in real-time by and for the people is amazing on so many levels! For the most part, I've loved the community I've found here. I'm thankful to all my friends on and off the project who've supported me, helped me improve as an editor, and kept me going through transphobia and harassment. I'm so proud to collaborate and work with everyone else here!

If you have any questions or need help, please feel free to email me at atranarchist@proton.me or reach out to me on my talk page!