I think the idea of a forum is counterproductive. I get along on Wikipedia by not knowing that my colleagues are, like any normal swath of the population, often bigots of all sorts. Better to be silent and thought hateful than to speak and remove all doubt. The last thing we need is a forum to foment unrest and drama; enough of that is created during the course of actual editing.
I'm all for relaxing of the "not myspace" rules, because I think they often are excessive and silly. Wikipedia is a hobby, not a job (with respect to those who work for the Wikimedia Foundation), and I don't think I'm alone in not finding a "professional" atmosphere particularly enjoyable. Humans need to form communities and the way women are socialized makes us, in general, even more apt to form communities. But a forum or debate type environment does not foster community, or at least not the kind of community that we want.