Queer Representation on WikiData

LGBT equality depends on LGBT representation. Despite the advances in civil rights and media representation for the LGBT community, we remain under- and mis-represented in the myriad information systems through which we navigate our daily lives. It is easy to forget that trans identities were not possible on Facebook profiles 10 years ago; that LGBT people historically had to develop their own dating apps and online communities just to have an online home; and that even today, queer stories are obscured and omitted from history on Wikipedia.

Underrepresentation for the LGBTQ community on Wiki platforms like Wikipedia and Wikidata is intertwined with systemic under/misrepresentation of the LGBTQ community and individuals online. As our society increasingly builds data-driven web-based platforms and moves interactions online, this problem will only grow.

Currently we are focusing on:

• Quantifing the disparities around LGBTQ representation.
• Analyzing editorial policies around articles for entries about people that may discriminate against LGBTQ people (e.g., the “notability” requirement for Wikipedia pages on people and how notability is operationalized).
• Using network analysis methods to characterize and visualize how LGBTQ pages are integrated within/linked to other content (another form of marginalization).

Researchers

Katy Weathington, Jed Brubaker

Publications

1. Queer Identities, Normative Databases: Challenges to Capturing Queerness On Wikidata Weathington, Katy and Brubaker, Jed R.
   Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact. 7, CSCW1
   • Abstract
   • PDF
   • Reference
   • BibTeX
   • DOI: 10.1145/3579517
   Katy Weathington and Jed R. Brubaker. 2023. Queer Identities, Normative Databases: Challenges to Capturing Queerness On Wikidata. Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact. 7, CSCW1. https://doi.org/10.1145/3579517

   @article{Weathington2023-Wikidata,
     author = {Weathington, Katy and Brubaker, Jed R.},
     title = {Queer Identities, Normative Databases: Challenges to Capturing Queerness On Wikidata},
     year = {2023},
     issue_date = {April 2023},
     publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
     address = {New York, NY, USA},
     volume = {7},
     number = {CSCW1},
     url = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3579517},
     doi = {10.1145/3579517},
     journal = {Proc. ACM Hum.-Comput. Interact.},
     month = apr,
     articleno = {84},
     numpages = {26},
     keywords = {collaborative ontology, wikidata, sexuality, LGBTQ+, identity, gender, database},
     tags = {wikidata}
   }
   

   The collection, organization, and retrieval of data about queer individuals and their identities challenge the creators and curators of highly structured database systems. While prior research in archival studies and demographics has examined processes of collecting and storing queer identities, they do not examine the complexities of highly democratized platforms that lack top-down mandates that often structure archival schemas. To examine the representation of queer people on open-platform databases, we performed a trace ethnography and thematic analysis of Wikidata, an open collaboration, highly structured database. We specifically examined the creation of, changes to, discussions around, and impacts of properties that encode queer identities, such assexual orientation andsex or gender. We found that changes often have unexpected impacts, that contributors struggled to determine vocabulary for queer identities which were accurate across the diverse cultural contexts of the Wikidata community, that the recording of queer identities could cause a stigmatizing effect for LGBTQ+ individuals, with further concerns of spreading rumors or outing closeted people, and that contributors proposing changes which would cause biased representations of queer people. Our analysis demonstrates inherent and unaddressed frictions when translating queer identities to the confines of a structured database. We conclude by discussing ways that the highly bottom-up, collaborative nature of platforms such as Wikidata, often seen as a major strength, can be vulnerable to individuals or small groups derailing and filibustering changes they disagree with on politically charged topics such as queer identities.