Talk:Gay community

I started this article from scratch here at Citizendium.--Ian Johnson 04:48, 26 July 2007 (CDT)

Original author notes

This article is part of a range of gay related articles I am in the process of creating at CZ.

There will be needed sources and relevant links added soon, and I hope that other CZers will feel very welcome to join with me to help build this and other GLBT related articles. --Ian Johnson 04:48, 26 July 2007 (CDT)

Definition

"The gay community is a collective reference to those people in society who are homosexual." Isn't it possible for someone who is "in the closet," in society of course (not a hermit), but not part of "the gay community"? This seems to me to be very important. To assert that all gays are by definition part of a "gay community" seems to make the notion of a gay community practically meaningless. But if not all gays are, by definition, part of a "gay community," then what is required to be part of it (of one)?

I think of this on analogy with the folk music community. There are people who are very fine musicians but who virtually never play with others, or only as part of a band that occasionally plays out, but never interacts with other musicians. I don't think they're really part of a folk music community, in any useful sense of "community." And I can actually give some clue of what I think someone has to be to be part of the community: they have to know other people in the community, to play music with them either in jam sessions or bands, they attend concerts and festivals, they might teach classes or attend them, etc. --Larry Sanger 01:51, 28 July 2007 (CDT)

Excellent observations. Working on it now. --Ian Johnson 01:59, 28 July 2007 (CDT)

Rename "The Future" to "Criticism", "Debates", or "Current Debates"?

Great job on this new article, Ian!

Since most of the section on "The Future" is about current debates concerning the "relevance of notions of a gay community", wouldn't it make sense to rename the section title to "Current Debates" or something similar? Matthias Röder 18:09, 10 August 2007 (CDT)

Thanks for the kind words. Very good suggestion too. Always just jump right in and improve it. I would love to see more collaborators on all the GLBT stuff. Gay community is still needing a lot more work and everyone's help can lift it up. I took the liberty of implementing your suggestion as ==Current issues== but please make it whatever you think suits it, especially as the article evolves and others contribute to it. --Ian Johnson 09:05, 11 August 2007 (CDT)

"Current Issues" is perfect! Best of luck with your articles, I'll try to contribute wherever I can! For instance we could have an article about Gay and Lesbian Musicology. I'm not an expert in this field, however... Matthias Röder 10:46, 11 August 2007 (CDT)

That would be BRILLIANT to see. Start up when ready - me, you or anyone. Great topic idea. --Ian Johnson 10:48, 11 August 2007 (CDT)

I will talk to some of my musicology colleagues who are more knowledgable than me and try to convince them to start work on such an article! I'll keep you posted! Matthias Röder 10:50, 11 August 2007 (CDT)

Excellent. --Ian Johnson 10:53, 11 August 2007 (CDT)

Moving article to cluster box formatting

This is my first effort at having a cluster box format so am learning as I do this. --Ian Johnson 12:54, 12 August 2007 (CDT)

I believe Chris has made the "info" page format deprecated; the "metadata" pages, used by {{subpages2}}, is the most up-to-date. --Larry Sanger 12:59, 12 August 2007 (CDT)

Cheers. Done, but feel free to amend if there are errors in this. The links through to related articles can be improved by cross-linking using subpages2 formats, but I ran out of time today. Used straight (!) links for now, except for Stonewall riots as an example of how to do this. --Ian Johnson 14:22, 12 August 2007 (CDT)

Disclosure

Closet UK: 49% of gay people are too scared to come out at work. Steve Bloomfield. January 29, 2006. The Independent. Retrieved: August 12, 2007 - This article refers to the issue of being out in the workplace at work, and quotes the company I manage, Out Now. It is about the issue and not our company, so I did not think any conflict of interest exists, but if it is preferred to be replaced with some other citation that is perfectly fine by me. --Ian Johnson 14:56, 12 August 2007 (CDT)

Audience

Surely, this article should be addressed to all people, whatever their sexual orientation and wherever in the world. So, terms like GLBT must be carefully explained on first use! It is also too American-oriented: there are some gay people and even communities in Europe!--Martin Baldwin-Edwards 10:30, 15 August 2007 (CDT)

There is a seperate article for GLBT, but as I commented on that talk page, I think it would be better to do away with that article and present the defenition in this one for clarification. --Todd Coles 10:53, 15 August 2007 (CDT)

Yes, I think I agree, Todd. But at the least, this article should link to the GLBT article, which I didnt even know existed.--Martin Baldwin-Edwards 11:53, 15 August 2007 (CDT) Ah, I see it does link, but it is not so noticeable...--Martin Baldwin-Edwards 11:55, 15 August 2007 (CDT)