Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Gender identity/Discussions
Discussion timeline
editA central table of community discussions on gender identity from throughout Wikipedia. For anyone interested in discussing or changing our gender identity guidelines, it's helpful to become familiar with prior discussions on the topic. (Requests for Comment and Requested Moves are in bold.)
| Date Y/M | Subsection | Page | Conclusion/Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2004/6 | Trans people and pronouns | Manual of Style/Biography | The use of pronouns on the article Patrick Califia was discussed, but not concluded. The main propositions were to use only masculine pronouns or feminine pronouns when referring to time before Patrick's transition and masculine after. Discussion was primarily about clarity for the reader e.g.: alignment with Patrick's presentation and the (then) recency of his transition. Patrick's identity was also discussed in terms of how it might make Patrick feel (who was contacted but didn't seem to reply) and respect for his current identity. |
| 2006/1 | Identity | Manual of Style | First instance of gender identity guidance. Original wording: Where known, use terminology that subjects use for themselves (self identification). This can mean calling an individual the term they use, or calling a group the term most widely used by that group. This includes referring to transgender individuals according to the name and pronoun they use to identify themselves. |
| 2007/4 | Transgender pronoun / identity | Manual of Style | |
| 2007/8 | Pronouns | Chevalier d'Éon | |
| 2007/9 | Transgender pronoun issue | Manual of Style | |
| 2008/8 | Gender | Manual of Style | |
| 2009/2 | Gender of gender-ambiguous persons | Manual of Style | |
| 2009/6 | Gender pronouns | Manual of Style | |
| 2010/6 | HTML comment for trans women | Village pump | |
| 2010/6 | Manning's sexuality/gender identity | Chelsea Manning | |
| 2010/9 | It is relevant that Manning is transgender | Chelsea Manning | |
| 2011/4 | Pronouns | Sonia Burgess | |
| 2011/8 | Renée Richards, and Gender Identity | Manual of Style | |
| 2011/12 | Singular They use because the subject prefers to use gender neutral pronouns | Manual of Style | |
| 2012/5 | Fundamental problems with MOS:IDENTITY | Village pump | |
| 2012/6 | New template for trans women | Village pump | |
| 2012/8 | Proposal to modify MOS:IDENTITY | Village pump | |
| 2013/8 | Chelsea Manning move request 1 | Chelsea Manning | Chelsea Manning's page was moved from her former to her current name about a month and a half after she came out. The debate over the move received some outside media coverage. (See: the media section at the top of Talk:Chelsea Manning.) |
| 2013/10 | Chelsea Manning move request 2 | ||
| 2014/9 | Should the historic figure of the Chevalier d'Éon be referred to as a man or a woman? | Chevalier d'Éon | |
| 2014/10 | Birth Name | Laverne Cox | |
| 2015/6 | Problem analogous to the above discussion | Village pump | |
| 2015/6 | MOS:IDENTITY clarification | Village pump | It was decided that in the 1976 Summer Olympics article, Caitlyn Jenner should be referred to as male rather than female. This was a partial rejection of the Manual of Style's gender identity guidelines, which, at the time, were unequivocal: Wikipedia favors self-designation [of gender identity], even when usage by reliable sources indicates otherwise. Any person whose gender might be questioned should be referred to by the pronouns, possessive adjectives, and gendered nouns (for example "man/woman", "waiter/waitress", "chairman/chairwoman") that reflect that person's latest expressed gender self-identification. This applies in references to any phase of that person's life, unless the subject has indicated a preference otherwise. |
| 2015/6 | Birth name in parenthetical | Caitlyn Jenner | |
| 2015/7 | Clarifying/updating WP:BIRTHNAME with respect to MOS:IDENTITY | Village pump | It was decided that that Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Biography § Names should be updated to say that a trans or non-binary person's former name should only be mentioned in the lead if they were notable under that name. |
| 2015/8 | Pronoun pref | Manual of style | |
| 2015/9 | Requested move 15 September 2015 | Sonia Burgess | |
| 2015/9 | MOS:IDENTITY clarification close | Manual of Style | |
| 2015/9 | Outing and Wikipedia | Manual of Style/Biography | |
| 2015/9 | Cisgender is mainstream and germane, Should all of the uses of cisgender be included in this article? | Caitlyn Jenner | |
| 2015/9 | MOS:IDENTITY clarification close | Caitlyn Jenner | |
| 2015/10 | Preparing two proposals that would change transgender policy | Manual of Style/Biography | |
| 2015/10 | References to academic publications with transgender authors | Manual of Style | |
| 2015/10 | Parallel discussion on transgender authors in citations | Village pump | |
| 2015/10 | Clarifying MOS:IDENTITY in articles in which transgender individuals are mentioned in passing | Village pump | A few months after Caitlyn Jenner came out, the scope of the MoS's gender identity guidance was essentially narrowed to main biographical articles. For those, editors were still advised to use the person's latest expressed gender self-identificationfor any phase of that person's life. But for articles where a trans person was just mentioned in passing, the MoS now offered little guidance except that editors should use contextto determine how to refer to them. |
| 2016/1 | "The Wachowskis" vs "The Wachowski Brothers" | The Matrix | |
| 2016/3 | Gender changes and deadnaming | Manual of Style | |
| 2016/5 | RfC: How should the directors of this film be presented in the lead? | The Matrix | |
| 2016/8 | RfC: Allow inclusion of former names in lead section of biographies covering transgender and non-binary people | Manual of Style/Biography | |
| 2016/11 | Retroactive use of transgender pronouns in indirect quotations? | Manual of Style | |
| 2016/12 | RFC: Gender | Albert Cashier | |
| 2017/4 | No birth name | Laverne Cox | |
| 2017/5 | Naming transgender people in other articles than their main biographical article | Manual of Style | |
| 2017/5 | RfC regarding MOS:GENDERID for genderqueer people | Requests for comment | |
| 2018/3 | Applications of the transgender/non-binary birth name guidelines | Manual of Style/Biography | |
| 2018/3 | Photo, RfC on article image | Daniel Mallory Ortberg | It was decided that it was better not to have a photo for writer Daniel Mallory Ortberg than to have an old photo from before he was out. |
| 2018/4 | MOS:GENDERID | Manual of Style | |
| 2018/6 | Guidelines regarding birth names of trans individuals | Village pump | |
| 2018/7 | Deadnaming trans people | Manual of Style | |
| 2018/07 | Request for Comment about pronoun usage | Albert Cashier | Albert Cashier was a Union soldier who was assigned female at birth and lived as a man for over 50 years. In 2016 it was decided that the article could refer to Cashier with female pronouns. But in 2018 it was decided that the article should be rewritten to avoid pronouns entirely. |
| 2018/8 | WP:GENDERID advice requested | Village pump | |
| 2018/9 | More recent pictures | The Wachowskis | It was unanimously decided that, for the The Wachowskis article, it was better to not have a lead image than to have an old photo where one of the two sisters was not out. |
| 2019/1 | Gender information | Village pump | |
| 2019/1 | Request for Comment - Crediting the Wachowskis | The Matrix (franchise) | It was decided that Lana and Lilly Wachowski should be credited as The Wachowskis in the leads and infoboxes of articles about films they made before they came out as women, with footnotes detailing how they were originally credited. |
| 2019/2 | Pronouns | Rose McGowan | |
| 2019/2 | The Signpost: Humour: Pesky Pronouns | Wikipedia Signpost | |
| 2019/2 | The Signpost: Humor deletion discussion | Miscellany for deletion | |
| 2019/3 | MOS:GENDERID and death, MOS:GENDERID Suggested change | Manual of Style | |
| 2019/3 | Recent move, Requested move 12 March 2019 | Sonia Burgess | It was decided that the article on human rights lawyer Sonia Burgess should use her female name as the title, regardless of the fact that she was still presenting as male at work when she died. |
| 2019/5 | Requested move 1 May 2019: Genderqueer → Non-binary | Genderqueer | |
| 2019/5 | Second alleged perpetrator (minor) | STEM School Highlands Ranch shooting | Discussion over how to refer to a suspect in a 2019 school shooting who is reported to be transgender. |
| 2019/6 | RFC about Tilda Swinton | List of people with non-binary gender identities | |
| 2019/7 | Extended-confirmed-protected edit request on 18 July 2019 | Stephanie Hirst | The subject of an article requests, on the talk page, that her former name be removed from the article. |
| 2020/8 | RFC to broaden MOS:DEADNAME | Manual of Style/Biography | |
| 2020/8 | RFC on how MOS:DEADNAME should handle attribution for previously released works | Manual of Style/Biography | |
| 2020/8 | RFC: Use of deadname in quotes | Manual of Style/Biography |