A Wikipedia article created earlier this year about the term “adult human female” characterizes it as “hate speech” against transgender individuals. The page, created by an editor who has smeared numerous conservative figures, was added last month to a navigation box about President Donald Trump’s second term that is included on hundreds of articles and connects the term to claimed “persecution” of transgender individuals under Trump.
During an interview last Friday for the United Kingdom’s Channel 4 News about his new book The Seven Rules of Trust, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales was asked about Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk’s claims about a “woke takeover” of the site. Arguing that just reading Wikipedia would disprove the claim, he cited an exchange with someone on social media who asked “What is a woman?” calling it a “gotcha” question. He stated that checking Wikipedia’s article on women shows “woman” defined as “adult human female” (technically, “adult female human”) and this would rebut claims Wikipedia is “crazy, woke left” as critics have alleged.
Had Wales checked the article specifically on the term “adult human female” instead, he would see it described in the introduction as “a slogan adopted by anti-gender and gender-critical (also known as TERF) movements” followed by the claim scholars describe it as “a dog whistle for transphobic beliefs and a form of coded hate speech.” That article also characterizes it as “a trans-exclusionary and gender essentialist statement” limiting women to those “strictly assigned female at birth and cisgender.” Wales would further see the term associated with the claimed “persecution” of transgender people during the second Trump Administration.
The article was created by editor “Tataral” earlier this year and included in a “hate speech” category, while highlighting Trump using the term in an executive order excluding biological men who call themselves transgender from female prisons and sports. Simultaneously, Tataral fought for alluding to transwomen in the “woman” article’s introduction, but was unsuccessful. An article on Trump’s executive order was also created by Tataral at this time with “adult human female” prominently identified as “anti-trans” and linking to the term’s page, though this mention was later removed. The section regarding Trump’s policies at the “adult human female” page currently contains only one independent source, a British gay magazine, associating the term with his policies.
Previously, Tataral created the page on Trump’s mugshot taken during the Georgia election investigation, a fact boasted of on the user’s profile page where they also admit being a Trump critic. Aside from efforts to smear Trump, Tataral has been involved in smearing Turning Point USA co-founder Charlie Kirk as far-right following his assassination, an act that prompted criticism of Wikipedia from Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT).
Tataral also engaged in similar smears of Acting U.S. Attorney Ed Martin following his letter inquiring about bias on Wikipedia earlier this year. Most recently, Tataral was involved in smearing and attempting to delete the article on the Free Press media outlet founded by Bari Weiss, who is known for criticizing transgender activism. That followed her appointment as CBS News editor-in-chief, which prompted some editors to discuss blacklisting the outlet in the future.
Soon after creating the “adult female human” page, Tataral began linking to it from other articles, an encouraged practice on Wikipedia. This included linking to it from the article on gender-critical feminism, which does not consider transwomen to be women, along with the articles on a Trump campaign advertisement criticizing Kamala Harris and the What is a Woman? documentary about transgenderism by conservative commentator Matt Walsh. Later links were added by editor “Usr Trj” to the page about a philosopher critical of transgender activism. Usr Trj previously sought to falsely label the centrist Weiss as “conservative” following her CBS appointment. Another editor added links at articles attacking Norwegian feminist groups opposed to transgenderism.
On the page for women’s rights activist Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull, also known as Posie Parker, Tataral added links repeatedly to the “adult human female” page claiming she popularized the term’s usage by critics of transgenderism. Tataral also attempted to link Parker to neo-Nazi groups, but editor “Sweet6970” removed the material from that page and the “adult female human” term’s page. Another editor removed more material from the term’s page due to failing to comply with Wikipedia’s sourcing policies. Material in the page’s introduction claiming scholars call the term “adult female human” a “dogwhistle” and “coded hate speech” was also removed repeatedly for being unsupported by the article’s sources.
Prolific left-wing editor “Aquillion” added sourcing and material to support the “dogwhistle” material, but material on “coded hate speech” was removed again as unsupported. Editor “MjolnirPants” subsequently restored the material and initiated a discussion on it. Claiming the term “adult human female” was “very obviously” hate speech, MjolnirPants pointed to several sources. None actually claimed it was hate speech or that scholars considered it hate speech. The material was removed several weeks later for this reason before being restored again, after which editor “Raladic” added numerous sources to support the claim, though these only gave brief singular mentions of the term. An admin subsequently locked the page so only highly-experienced editors could contribute.
Whether “What is a woman?” is a rhetorical question or simply a question with “adult human female” as the desired answer was also a subject of dispute with editors repeatedly fighting over the description. Sweet6970 subsequently opened a discussion about it with various left-wing editors insisting it be described as “rhetorical” in nature. Editor “Void if removed” noted it was more accurate to call it a “gotcha question” as activists intended people to answer it to illustrate their views. An editor arguing for calling it a rhetorical question cited numerous sources, none describing it that way with one only stating it was “almost” a rhetorical question. The article still presents the question as “rhetorical” in nature.
Last month, Tataral expanded the “adult female human” article’s introduction with material connecting it to “persecution of transgender people” in the Trump Administration. Stating this claimed persecution was “aimed at denying their existence, removing transgender rights and protections, and employing dehumanizing language,” the expansion repeatedly linked to a “Persecution of transgender people under the second Trump administration” article created by Tataral. In that article, Trump’s policies were tied to claims of “transgender genocide” and compared to persecution under Nazi Germany.
A couple days after creating the article on “persecution” of transgender people under Trump, Tataral added that page to a navigation box containing various articles concerning Trump’s second term. Later that month, another editor linked the “adult human female” article in the same navigation box, specifically including it in a parenthetical associated with the “persecution” article. Due to this addition, the “adult human female” article is now linked from hundreds of articles using the navigation box, which associates the term with a claimed “persecution” of transgender individuals.
Despite what Wales claims, edits of this nature are emblematic of Wikipedia, particularly regarding LGBT issues. A “code of conduct” imposed by Wikipedia’s owners was invoked by admins supporting the temporary ban of an editor using a person’s username instead of singular “they” pronouns. Another editor was temporarily banned for rejecting “tree” as a pronoun. Earlier this year, a committee enforcing the code of conduct threatened a Polish editor with sanctions over a Bible verse condemning homosexuality in his profile on a Wikipedia-related Discord chat group. Wikipedia’s front page also promoted a gay sex spot earlier this year. Such activity is consistent with the site’s widely-observed left-wing bias.
(Disclosure: The author has been involved in disputes with several of the parties mentioned in the article)
T. D. Adler edited Wikipedia as The Devil’s Advocate. He was banned after privately reporting conflict of interest editing by one of the site’s administrators. Due to previous witch-hunts led by mainstream Wikipedians against their critics, Adler writes under an alias.
