Wiki Loves Pride
- For 2024 campaign, see Wiki Loves Pride/2024.
LGBT Pride & History Months. The Wikimedia way.
Traditionally the months of June and October have been opportunities for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities around the world to celebrate LGBT culture and history. A global opportunity to come together to discuss and share the knowledge of people involved with the LGBT communities.
The mission of Wikimedia is to empower and engage people around the world to collaboratively collect and develop open educational content, and to disseminate it effectively and globally. The desire to archive and spread LGBT culture and history is strong both within the LGBT and Wikimedia movements.
Wiki Loves Pride
“Wiki Loves Pride” is a global campaign to expand and improve LGBT related content across several Wikimedia projects. The activities of Wiki Loves Pride are focused on June and October. Thousands of LGBT cultural events and celebrations are held around the world during the month of June. October is observed in several nations as LGBT History Month (others observe it in February - which may be added in future years) and is also when “coming out” is celebrated.
It is organized by Wikimedia LGBT. 2013 served as a “soft launch” year to build momentum toward future activities.
| “Wikis present a powerful opportunity for the LGBT communities to document and share our experiences and knowledge with the world. The further the LGBT movement advances, the more important it is that we think strategically about preserving our history and culture for future generations." | “[Wikipedia] improves with your understanding of it. As you understand its structure and the way it’s created, you can get more value out of it. That’s part of what we want to teach in libraries — how to get the most from a Wikipedia article, and how to contribute the most to a Wikipedia article.” |
| Gregory Varnum LGBT activist and founder of WikiQueer |
Richard Knipel President, Wikimedia New York City |
What can I do?
Any LGBT events or organizations interested in doing an activity or event contributing content to a Wikimedia project in the months of June and October (potentially February in the UK) could fall under the umbrella of Wiki Loves Pride. Here are some tried-and-true examples from similar projects. An activity could incorporate elements from one or more of these suggestions, or other creative ideas.
- meetup
- Simple but fun. Provide space at your library for local Wikimedians to hold a meetup. It is a good opportunity to get to know each other and plot the course for future Wikimedia collaborations.
- editathon
- A working meetup. Invite Wikimedians to gather their resources for an in-person editing session, usually revolving around a preselected theme (like a particular library collection or a topic of interest to the community). A great chance to see collaboration in action, and work with the pros.
- workshop
- A beginning wiki literacy and editing workshop could be held for staff or as a public program. There are many Wikimedians with on- and off-line experience in teaching wiki.
- photography and videography
- A picture speaks a thousand words and a video can speak thousands more. Making photos and videos of LGBT culture and history available for use around the world increases awareness of LGBT people.
See Also
Interested?
Are you interested in getting involved with Wiki Loves Pride? Want to talk about any other kind of LGBT content collaboration?
- Join the Wikimedia LGBT mailing list.
- Chat with us on IRC — #wikimedia-lgbtconnect