Game Companies' Positive Treatment Of GLBT Employees
Electronic Arts, Microsoft, and GameStop deserve a round of applause. The Human Rights Campaign Foundation have awarded these companies a perfect score when it comes to the treatment of their GLBT employees. These are not new developments for any of the three companies. Both EA and GameStop received the highest rating last year and Microsoft has sat at the top for the past four years. The ratings themselves are made up of different criteria including protection against discrimination, partner benefits, diversity training, and GLBT community outreach.
HRC Foundation President Joe Solmonese said of these companies:
The 2009 Corporate Equality Index shows that corporate America understands that a diverse workforce is critical to remaining successful and competitive. In the absence of a federal law that prohibits workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity or expression, it is up to employers to take the lead and implement policies that ensure all their employees are protected.
That really warms the cockles of of my heart this morning. Knowing that there are companies out there that don't offer any sort of protection for their employees, places like Microsoft and EA should be commended. We have more allies in the world then we realize.
[via Game Politics]
TheDoctor
Posted to Hot Stuff, Miscellany on 15 September 2008
· Comments (7)
Other stuff like this: electronic arts, gamestop, gay rights, hrc, microsoft
And yet Xbox Live bans people for having "gay" in their gamertag to protect the sensibilities of moral middle America.
Right, the GamePolitics site (and further clicking through to the news blurb via the HRC) also mentions consumers. Needless to say, I raised an eyebrow and scratched my head.
It's easier [and cheaper] from their standpoint to just ban the word as opposed to moderate the use, given the XBL demographic, the average cretin on live has an IQ less than 100 anyway, so they don't have the ability to do anything beyond shout abuse wirelessly, so I wouldn't feel too threatened.
Don't worry yourselves too much, I'm an XBL user and don't feel offended, nor slighted by MS or it's decision, I am sad the word still has negative connotations, but Rome wasn't built in a day, and they're not outright banning gays from the service.
But yeah, I get somewhat irritated when people are finding reasons that blatantly aren't reasons to get uptight about everything, not everybody supports us, but not everyone is against us, it's a slow process and bulldozing the heads of everyone all the time accomplishes nothing but pisses them off, it's a slow process.
Seriously, some of you need a reality check, the whole world isn't out to get us, and even the slightest bit of positive news some of you are all over it proclaiming it false, stop making yourselves feel victimised all the time.
You should all have a nice scotch, and toast that the world is improving for us very slowly, very very slowly.
Does anyone actually have any proof that the move was made because it offended sensibilities?, or are you just going to use the same lines of rhetoric that didn't convince me the last time this was brought up.
From Stephen Toulouse of Xbox Live:
"We recieved a complaint on the Gamertag and determined that it did indeed contain sexual innuendo. Now granted, there could be an argument that the text is not pejorative to homosexuality and should therefore be allowed. But there is no context to explain that. Gamertags are visible to everyone and it would be hard for me to defend to a parent of a young child who saw it that the name did not contain content of a sexual nature."
What the hell, I didn't see that coming, okay that walked the line from a seemingly necessary move to damn right shitty.
That's pathetic from XBL, indefensible pandering balls.
I asked and received, thanks for bringing this to my attention, I didn't know.
You are very welcome.
This is why I canceled my XBL account...which has been VERY tough on me. However, I will not re-instate my account until Microsoft does something, anything about this.
I could be waiting for quite some time. I did contact GLAAD, and they are aware of this situation, so much so that I was told they are starting a new division that deals directly with new media venues:
"We've been following this story for a few weeks now at GLAAD and are aware of the pretty ludicrous policies against using the word "gay" one's name, as if "gay" always implies sexual, explicit, or adult content.
Beginning in two weeks we will have a new department at GLAAD, headed by the Director of Online & Digital Media. I am saving a file of complaints relevant to his new field, and this is one of them.
Thank you for reminding me of this important story, and feel free to write to GLAAD in the future with any other incidents."
Unfortunately, I haven't heard anything since.
It REALLY pisses me off that "gay" is assumed to be controversial and therefore banned in all cases - but, it would be nearly impossible to effectively moderate and to be honest I'd rather it just be banned completely than have to put up with fuckwits using it as a pejorative. And let's face it, it's used that way 90% of the time online.
However, Neo, I'm not sure what you're getting at. People have very good reasons for being offended by the banning of the word "gay" regardless of context.
And the only reason the world is getting better at all is because certain people (too damn few) put their reputations and lives on the line and stand up against ignorance and bigotry.
Maybe while you're sitting around drinking scotch you could toast to the social activists (like GLAAD) who make it possible for any gay person to have a halfway decent life.