The next day, I did an interview with The New Statesman, and within days was bombarded with emails complaining that I had deceived the interviewer by not mentioning I was trans and demanding that I out myself as trans on my Wikipedia user page. Somebody defaced my user page that night to say "My name is [my assigned masculine name], and I've always been a fantasist. Nowadays, I call myself Abigail." He said that he did not regard this as an outing attempt: "You're a Wikipedia administrator, right, with delete buttons and all? If I'd meant it to stick, there are lots of other sites on the web."
Medioimages/Photodisc/Photodisc/Getty Images
I've got a suggestion for a place you can stick that thing.
The Arbitration Committee (or "ArbCom") washed its hands of the core issue, tacitly supporting that Chelsea Manning's page stay "Bradley." Around that time, a friend and cisgendered editor was told he was "too involved" to use admin powers on articles about trans people -- he was never given a reason, but it seemed like the problem was that he knew trans people (me), so clearly he couldn't be objective about any trans people anymore. Presumably anybody that knows a man is forbidden from editing pages on other men, since they're so clearly biased.
Wikipedia
I assume this is just a placeholder until a breath-neutral editor can come along and clear up the bias.
That's when I left, and as of today I haven't considered going back. I love research. I love editing. I love being a part of big Internet projects like these. But I hate having to fight against threats and harassment just to be heard. They made it twice as hard for me as it should have been, and it just stopped being worth it. That's the story.
Quick, somebody make the relevant updates on the "Notable Internet Assholes" page.
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