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Are you not stunned?
Nigga, is you be saying a man can’t be a tree?
Nigga, that be racist.
The Wikipedia page for actor Keiynan Lonsdale became a battlefield in the fight over “preferred pronouns” due to a Twitter thread noting Lonsdale once suggested “tree” as his preferred pronoun. Despite doubts about Lonsdale’s sincerity, editors repeatedly changed the male pronouns on his article to “tree” this past week until an editor sought a compromise by removing pronouns entirely. One editor who criticized the move and denigrated the idea of “tree” as a pronoun was banned for a week.
Disputes over LGBT issues on Wikipedia have continuously moved towards greater restrictions on the speech of editors with the recently approved “code of conduct” specifically requiring the use of “preferred pronouns” on Wikipedia and affiliated sites.
Lonsdale is an Australian actor who played the Wally West iteration of the Flash in the CW television series about the DC comic book superhero. During a 2018 discussion on Instagram Lonsdale responded to a fan query about his sexuality by also referencing preferred pronouns saying: “I don’t want to go by ‘he’ anymore, I just want to go by ‘tree.’ I want people to call me ‘tree,’ because we all come from trees . . . I want to call my friends ‘tree’ and me ‘tree’ and everyone ‘tree.’ So, I think, like now, when people ask me what my preferred pronoun is, I’m going to say ‘tree.’”
Editors on Wikipedia have tried to add the “tree” pronoun to Lonsdale’s page on Wikipedia since then, and were repeatedly rejected. While Wikipedia guidelines currently expect editors to use preferred pronouns for transgender individuals in certain cases, non-standard pronouns or “neopronouns” have been contentious and editors have favored using gender-neutral pronouns such as “they” instead. Fighting over Lonsdale’s “tree” pronoun claims on his Wikipedia page intensified after a viral Twitter thread brought up the past comments and encouraged people to use “tree” as the pronoun for Lonsdale:
besties once again i’m reminding u that keiynan lonsdale prefers tree/treeself pronouns ?? pic.twitter.com/adbL8Hw3eC
— theo ? rewatching banana fish (@tiddiesaurus) March 19, 2021
A flurry of people subsequently descended on the article to change the male pronouns to “tree” and established editors repeatedly undid these changes. Other than established editors undoing the pronoun changes the anti-vandalism bot account “ClueBot” also undid edits changing Lonsdale’s male pronouns in the article to “tree” after automatically detecting the edits as possible vandalism. The Twitter user who began the thread about Lonsdale’s pronoun comments praised those trying to change the pronouns on the Wikipedia article to “tree” and suggested editors were “transphobes” for undoing the edits:
i keep repeating myself so i’ll add it here: all of the articles i’ve pulled up use he/they pronouns for tree. this is obviously incorrect, poor journalism, and ingenuity on the writer’s parts. i added the article for proof of what i said, but i don’t support the misgendering
— theo ? rewatching banana fish (@tiddiesaurus) March 19, 2021
With people continuing to restore the pronoun change, an administrator used his special privileges to lock or “protect” the article for a few days, preventing new accounts and unregistered users from editing Lonsdale’s page. However, the lock still allowed editors with more experience to edit the page and several such accounts also restored the pronoun change only for their edits to be undone as well. Administrator Molly White, known as “GorillaWarfare” on Wikipedia, increased the protection level on the page to lock out editors with accounts less than a month old or that have made fewer than 500 edits. White has also served several years on the Arbitration Committee, often likened to a Supreme Court.
Shortly after imposing the stricter lock on the page, White removed pronouns from Lonsdale’s article entirely, citing this as a compromise that would “avoid using the wrong pronouns” without using pronouns other editors would reject. White also added Lonsdale’s pronoun comments to the article. In explaining the move, White took Lonsdale as sincere and rejected using a gender-neutral alternative such as “they” claiming it was not appropriate “for those who have specified different pronouns.” Editor “EEng” objected to this remark by disputing that Lonsdale was even serious, noting his PR representatives consistently used male pronouns, and added: “The idea that tree is a pronoun is, bluntly, idiocy.”
In the ensuing conversation, White repeatedly suggested Lonsdale was sincere in which case she argued the “tree” pronoun should be respected and if “tree” would not be used as a pronoun then no pronouns should be used. When White argued to another user that avoiding pronouns was the only way to avoid potentially using the “wrong pronouns” for Lonsdale, EEng argued doing so means Wikipedia “makes itself look like a confederacy of dunces, and exposes itself to well-deserved ridicule” by seriously treating “tree” as a pronoun.
After a user suggested not using “tree” as Lonsdale’s pronoun was “transphobic” as well, EEng retorted that using “tree” as a pronoun “is lunacy. It’s stupid. Cretinism.” He further suggested those pushing it might be engaged in a hoax to discredit Wikipedia. EEng’s remark was then removed by White as “insulting” and he restored it with words such as “lunacy” and “idiotic” crossed out and replaced with “confusing and unhelpful” instead. White reported EEng hours later at a noticeboard for administrators claiming his comments violated policies on edits about living people by “ridiculing” Lonsdale and also stated they were “cruel to those who use various neopronouns.”
Half an hour later, administrator Harry Mitchell banned EEng’s account for a week and removed his comment on the discussion page for Lonsdale’s article claiming it violated the policy on edits about living people. Many editors and administrators immediately expressed support for Mitchell’s action in the discussion about the ban. Several others opposed the ban or called for its duration to be shortened, calling it an overreaction or defending EEng’s comments as criticizing the idea of Wikipedia using “tree” as a pronoun rather than attacking Lonsdale specifically. However, even editors calling for the ban to be lifted suggested he could be banned again if he resumed his comments.
EEng stated in response to the ban that he made his comments believing Lonsdale never intended “tree” actually be used for his pronouns, but also said he opposed using such claimed pronouns on Wikipedia. He did express support for using other pronouns, including “xe/xem/xyr” pronouns. Despite his comments, EEng has generally advanced a left-wing agenda. Last year he was among other editors pushing the agenda of the Black Lives Matter movement. Then, EEng sought to censor pages about the police shooting of Rayshard Brooks, which was criticized by the movement. EEng’s profile page also includes numerous inflammatory attacks on Donald Trump, including sexual euphemisms about his wife Melania, content which has not prompted any sanctions against EEng.
This is pretty good publicity for the guy who says he’s a tree.
Assuming there is no such thing as bad publicity.
I certainly wouldn’t want anyone to think I was a tree.
I’m a big fan of trees too. I’m not some kind of treephobe.
I’ve got tree friends.
