Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Ortez Alderson


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review).  No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was keep. Daniel (talk) 22:50, 31 December 2022 (UTC)

Ortez Alderson

 * – ( View AfD View log | edits since nomination)

Biography of an actor and activist, not properly referenced as passing our notability criteria for activists. The main notability claim is that he was inducted into a local-interest hall of fame, which isn't "inherently" notable in the absence of WP:GNG-worthy coverage, but other than that the information here is almost entirely biographical trivia rather than noteworthy accomplishments in either activism or acting -- and the referencing consists of one primary source (the self-published website of the hall of fame itself) and a bunch of glancing namechecks of his existence in magazine articles about other things, none of which are WP:GNG-building sources. People get over GNG by being the subject of substantive coverage in reliable sources, not by having their names briefly mentioned in coverage of other things or by having short directory entries on the self-published websites of organizations directly affiliated with the claims -- and nothing stated in the article is "inherently" notable enough to exempt him from having to pass GNG on better sourcing than this. Bearcat (talk) 13:42, 17 December 2022 (UTC) Please add new comments below this notice. Thanks, Liz Read! Talk! 20:45, 24 December 2022 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the deletion sorting lists for the following topics: Actors and filmmakers and United States of America. Bearcat (talk) 13:42, 17 December 2022 (UTC)
 * Note: This discussion has been included in the deletion sorting lists for the following topics: Sexuality and gender and New York.  Spiderone (Talk to Spider) 14:04, 17 December 2022 (UTC)
 * Keep has coverage in a few book and, appears to meet GNG. Oaktree b (talk) 15:11, 17 December 2022 (UTC)
 * Keep in light of ongoing expansion, incorporating notability claims, as well as sources that easily count toward notability per WP:BASIC, and arguably per WP:GNG. Ortez Alderson was involved with many causes, but by far his most significant work was as an AIDS activist with ACT UP; he was a major figure in raising awareness of AIDS within the Black community (and beyond), in leading protests and civil disobedience (arrested multiple times and served prison sentences), and in coalition-building across different factions of the gay rights, civil rights, and anti-war movements. There is so much written about him that it feels like we haven't even scratched the surface yet, but for now I would say, beyond the biography published in the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame in 1991, we have the 2006 profile in Workers World; and chapters 9 and 3 (with additional discussion in chapters 1, 15, and 12) in Let the Record Show: A Political History of ACT UP New York by Sarah Schulman (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). Even if they don't technically count toward notability, we also have primary sources to refer to with care including the Q&A interview with him in Motive magazine, ("On Being Black, Gay, and in Prison: 'There Is No Humanity'"); Chicago Magazine article, They Were Warriors; and Boy with the Bullhorn: A Memoir and History of ACT UP New York by Ron Goldberg. His legacy continues, with mentions in many other books, articles, exhibits, and films, including the Oscar-nominated documentary, How to Survive a Plague; the article about the documentary mentioning the 1992 Ashes Action in The Atlantic (when his remains were thrown on the South Lawn of the White House); and an AIDS art exhibit where photographs of Ortez featured prominently. Cielquiparle (talk) 13:43, 22 December 2022 (UTC)
 * Somewhat hesitant keep, per sources above and improvements made since the nomination. I'm not convinced that any one of these sources is a slam-dunk yes for SIGCOV; however, the volume of them, on a topic that you would expect to be neglected by mainstream sources, suggests to me that there is notability here. Vanamonde (Talk) 19:57, 24 December 2022 (UTC)
 *  Relisted to generate a more thorough discussion and clearer consensus.
 * Keep. Appears to pass WP:BASIC as per the sources identified by @Cielquiparle CT55555 (talk) 02:06, 25 December 2022 (UTC)
 * I finally managed to get ahold of the second book identified by @Oaktree b, We Are Everywhere: Protest, Power, and Pride in the History of Queer Liberation (Ten Speed Press, 2019), which is stronger on Ortez content than I had expected, including extensive references (see esp. pp. 257–259, 296–299, 355, as well as pp. 4, 15, 358). Cielquiparle (talk) 08:38, 25 December 2022 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.