On 6/4/07, The Mangoe the.mangoe@gmail.com wrote:
One of the curious things that happens with LGBT people is that they tend towards the theory that homosexuality is notable, whereas articles about social impact tend to be pushed towards the POV that homosexuality is normal and largely accepted-- implying that homosexuality is not per se notable.
One of the most confusing paradoxes of NPOV is the dubious concept that norms exist for all personal attributes. There are no categories or lists of "straight" people or "white" people because either of these is actually perceived as the *absence" of a defining characteristic, or in short, "the norm" (even in specialized contexts where being "straight" or "white" would seem unusual to the "average reader").
Maybe something doesn't seem quite right about this? I'm not sure what could reasonably be done, other than a general de-emphasis of people's sexuality, race, religion, etc.
Of course the average reader who sees a random name like "Pat McFoo" could automatically assume it refers to a straight white male, possibly of Irish heritage (and they might be right or wrong or have mixed results), so this might actually be a bad idea.
I guess the best rule of thumb is to assume "average readers" don't exist.
—C.W.