How a teacher and her students are bringing queer equality to Wikipedia

During a time when LGBTQ+ history is under attack in classrooms and libraries — through “don’t say gay” bills, book bans, and the erasure of references to trans people on national monuments — University of California, Berkeley, professor Juana María Rodríguez’s 10-year project that adds LGBTQ+ history to Wikipedia is more important than ever.

In a partnership with Wiki Education, Rodríguez has students in several of her classes create entries on queer events and people, with a focus on Latine women. Right now, fewer than 20 percent of Wikipedia biographies are of women, despite Wikipedia being the largest digital encyclopedia ever created, she says.

Her students have made an impact. They have added more than 300,000 words and 3,500 references, edited 588 articles, and written 63 articles, Rodríguez says, noting that the project has garnered 96 million views.

These additions are also important because AI technologies learn and extract information from sites like Wikipedia. It is important to include fact-checked information from excluded communities, so that, in turn, these sites can train AI models as accurately as possible on excluded and marginalized communities.

“Right now, so much of the information generated by AI is sourced from Wikipedia and therefore includes the biases that already exist — biases that overlook the contributions of women, people of color, sexual minorities, and other marginalized groups,” Rodríguez says. “Therefore, in a small way, Wikipedia pages that specifically highlight the histories and contributions of queer and trans people of color help counteract that bias, while also frequently highlighting the research of scholars of color and others who study these topics.”

Professor Juana Maria Rodríguez in her classroomBrandon Sánchez Mejia

Rodríguez tells her students they are laying the groundwork for others to learn from and then add to. Examples of those entries range from California trans activist Adela Vazquez to closed queer bars like Esta Noche, the first San Francisco Latine gay bar. For the entries, students need to provide solid sources and evidence to support the subject.

“You have to actually bring the receipts,” Rodríguez says. “All of these assignments are organized around an annotated bibliography where students have to find high-quality, reliable sources.”

Rodríguez’s students become experts on “little areas of influence,” and in becoming experts in these smaller areas, it “demystifies the research process,” she says.

“Truth is sort of this slippery concept, but research isn’t,” she adds. As a researcher, she understands the power of facts and accurate information. “Wikipedia is, by definition, a neutral source. But it is a resource that is based on reputable new sources, and these aren’t opinions or hot takes; this is research that has been done.”

Rodríguez says she’s been targeted by conservative media and students, who she says are threatened because of the work her students do. Why?

“Published research becomes another way to reveal the lies that are being told,” she explains, “not just about queer people, but all people who are currently under attack.”

This article was written as part of the Future of Queer Media fellowship program at The Advocate, which is underwritten by a generous gift from Morrison Media Group. The program helps support the next generation of LGBTQ+ journalists.