Online gaming has always been a place where you can run into the worst parts of people, the insults, the racism, and gay bashing can at times border on unreal, but what is more unreal is getting banned for being the target of such flippant hatred. The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation have moved in regards to an issue of a woman being banned for outing herself in her Xbox Live profile.
The woman, simply known as Theresa, was banned after harassment from players who disagreed with her orientation.
“I was harassed by several players, ‘chased’ to different maps/games to get away from their harassment. They followed me into the games and told all the other players to turn me in because they didn’t want to see that crap or their kids to see that crap.”
GLAAD has been outspoken on the issue of racist and homphobic behavior in online gaming.
“The online world provides unprecedented anonymity for people. They can, and do, say what they want. Unfortunately, in online gaming that has often translated to homophobic, racist, and misogynistic attacks.”
Microsoft has been open and willing to enter into a dialogue but GLAAD realizes there is still a lot of work to be done.
“As for the rampant homophobia in the online gaming community, GLAAD is also working to address that. In addition to meeting with gaming companies, we’re planning to host a panel discussion early this summer in Silicon Valley. We’ll be discussing the issue and getting feedback from both the LGBT and gaming community about how to fight the defamation and educate users about the impact of their words and actions.”
Still, lost in this story is what happened to Theresa, as reports are yet to confirm if she got her account back. As always the balance between being promoting a respectful online community and stepping on people’s right to their own voice can be tricky.
Source: Gamer.tm , 360-gamer.com
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For fark sake!
Another pathetic trash news getting hyped for no reason!
First it was Amazon’s Rapelay, now this!
You were harassed?! Fark off! If you were, why didn’t you remove that bloody comment?
Good thing Microsoft banned her!
Sounds like one of those dumb comment excuses you hear in Judge Judy show.
This is a virtual world for gaming, not for social networking! If you want people to care what you are, go to MySpace or Facebook:/
xin0 (February 27th, 2009 @ 5:25 pm)
To set the record straight, Microsoft does not allow anyone to post their sexual orientation, including straight, gay, or bi, either as a gamer tag or on a players profile. Microsoft choose to do this because of the age groups Xbox live appeals too. A large portion of gamers are teenagers, who sadly think it is entertaining to make fun of sexual orientations. The easiest way to solve the problem is prohibit anything sexually oriented.
The girl who posted she was lesbian was not banned by Microsoft. Her account was suspended, meaning she could not play games online until she removed her sexual orientation posting. If she had instead posted “straight” her account would have also be suspended.
I have been playing Xbox live for years, I know for a fact she could have easily blocked any gamers who were harassing her.
Aaron (February 28th, 2009 @ 3:35 pm)
@ Aaron
Do you really think that if someone listed under their profile they were straight they would have also been reported and then suspended?
I really do doubt that the same outcome would occur in such a case. Whether it is Microsoft’s “policy” or not.
David Koenig (February 28th, 2009 @ 6:40 pm)