Wikipedia:Categories for deletion/Category:Gay people

Category:Gay people

For a general discussion on how to apply categorization to people: see: Wikipedia:Categorization of people (and its discussion page).

From Wikipedia talk:Categorization: Am I the only one who finds Category:Gay people odd, and slightly 'point finger'-ish. We have a List of famous gay, lesbian or bisexual people, which is fair enough as a clearly explained article about those who identify themselves as homosexual, and are famous. The (very incomplete) 'Gay people' category strikes me as mildly offensive. Afterall, think of the upset Category:Black people, Category:Posh people, or Category:Fat people, categories would have. -Erolos 22:22, 1 Aug 2004 (UTC)

As recommended, I propose it for deletion. -Erolos 14:02, 2 Aug 2004 (UTC)

• I agree—delete. But we actually do have the equivalent of Category:Black people, by the categorizations under Category:African Americans and Category:Asian Americans. I think both should go too, though maybe just drop the "s" off the end of each to discuss topics relevant to either (such as the NAACP, Chinatowns, etc.). It is offensive to classify people by sexual orientation, race, or religion, and POV to think that people should or can be classified in such a way. Inclusion in those categories is largely a matter of self-identification—what of multiracial people? It's a different matter to classify someone as a Jewish Orthodox scholar or Christian Evangelical leader, or Gay rights activist, because that is what they have done, as opposed to pushing them into a box of what or who they supposedly are. The same goes for classifying people by nationality—this should be done only to associate people with the countries in which they have been notable or done notable things (a question of simply where they are or where they have done stuff), but not to just tack on their birth country or ethnicity. Postdlf 15:45, 2 Aug 2004 (UTC)

• Delete. This is the first one to come up of the categories with controversial connotations and fuzzy boundaries. May its death be a harbinger of trimming to come. And if Postdlf cares to formalize his/her mentioned category deletion/modification proposals, I will vote in favor of them as well. --Gary D 20:15, 2 Aug 2004 (UTC)
• One further thought, I think the very lack of a Category:Straight people or a Category:Caucasian Americans means that categories such as Category:Gay people and Category:African Americans are inherently POV in their construction, because they are made with the implication that they are different from the norm or the default, which is the white n' straight state of not needing a classification. All others are instead classified based on how they differ from that norm. We need to stop this now. Postdlf 16:49, 3 Aug 2004 (UTC)
  • This is a very good point. I agree that all ethnicity, rather than nationality, and sexuality categories are POV and should be deleted. -Erolos 17:55, 3 Aug 2004 (UTC)

• Delete: I share Postdlf's opinion. --positron 12:50, 2004 Aug 8 (UTC)

• Neutral. Merge into the aforementioned list if possible. -Sean Curtin 20:03, 5 Aug 2004 (UTC)
  • I think that lists are definitely less problematic. As noted above, they can explain the rationale for inclusion (i.e., self-identification), while categories are unannotated. Furthermore, they don't function to brand the subject like a category does. Categories classify. We shouldn't be classifying people by their sexuality (or race), however proper it may be to list who has self-identified themselves a certain way. Postdlf 20:07, 5 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Hear! Hear! --Gary D 20:48, 5 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Okay... so I'm getting general consensus that the list suffices and the Category should be deleted. But I don't know how to delete an article/category - I assumed that was someone else's job... help! -Erolos 12:26, 6 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Unfortunately the only way to do it is to remove the category tag from every article. An admin needs to delete the category itself, but that won't remove any of the links to it. Postdlf 21:27, 11 Aug 2004 (UTC)

• Delete. I just noticed this category when it was added to the article on Michel Foucault, the philosopher. It's a bit irritating to say the least (to have him categorized in that manner, not his gayness.) -- Simonides 04:06, 8 Aug 2004 (UTC)
• Delete. Hyacinth 23:10, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC)

I've started ensuring that the list is updated and move folks off the category. - UtherSRG 21:29, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC)

The category is now blank and ready for deletion. Postdlf 22:02, 12 Aug 2004 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Manual_of_style#Identity. Hyacinth 15:59, 13 Aug 2004 (UTC)