Microsoft Comments On Ban Of Gay Gamertags
EDIT: I felt I should add in one more comment to this story. I've seen it in several locations around the net now as Microsoft 'apologizing' for the incident. However nothing I've seen quoted to Microsoft or published by them strikes me as an apology in any way. Therefore I do not accept this as an apology. Nor, would I suspect, would the lesbian gamer whose suspension started all this.
Stephen Totilo over at MTV news has gotten ahold of a Microsoft rep in regards to the chaos around the lesbian suspended from Xbox Live last week.
"It is true that as a matter of policy, the expression of relationship preference in Gamertag profiles and tags is not allowed across the board, whether that's heterosexual or other," Stephen Toulouse, program manager for policy and enforcement on Xbox Live, told MTV News in a phone interview. "But as we saw when we ran into an issue with this [last year,] we started looking into that policy."He acknowledged that the current policy could use improving: "It's inelegant. And it's inelegant because the text-box field is freeform."
The issue from last year she refers to is Mr. Richard Gaywood who was suspended last summer for using his full name.
Some gamers commenting on Consumerist and elsewhere think that Microsoft should simply allow people to use words like "gay." It's not that simple. "On the face of that, we have no objection to that," Toulouse said, "except for one simple problem." That problem? When Toulouse's team started combing through all of the complaints they were receiving last year regarding profiles and Gamertags using the word "gay," between 95 and 98 percent were using the word pejoratively.
Somehow I don't find that surprising. God knows we've seen enough video/audio of players being abused due to name choice. Or you could just join a game of Halo and hear gay epithets in seconds.
One solution would seemingly be to allow users to select symbols or check off boxes that denote one's sexual orientation, gender or other defining qualities. "I think that's a great idea," Toulouse said. "That's the type of thing we're looking at as a solution. ... I can't talk about future plans, except to say we want to provide the capability for our users to express relationship preference or gender without a way for it to be misused."
An interesting idea for a solution. Personally, I'm interested in what our readerbase would like to see in terms of a fix for this problem. What are your ideas folks?
Microsoft Apologizes For Xbox Live Ban On Gay Gamertags [MTV]
[via: The Escapist]
Sgt. Sausagepants
Posted to Video Games on 2 March 2009
· Comments (15)
Other stuff like this: banning, gamertag, lesbian, xbox live
To not be able to state one's own orientation is to essentially promote heterosexuality as the only acceptable state of being; heterosexuals are the majority, and to be unable to be openly GLBT on Live is to be singled out for censure by a defacto tyranny of the majority. It is unacceptable.
Microsoft should continue to police open abuse of minorities, but simply allow people to define themselves. It really is that simple. Legal to define one's self, improper to define anyone else. This should not be a problem; it is merely polite.
GLBT people need to be able to find each other on LIVE so that they can create subcommunities to their need. Sometimes the most effective way to avoid abuse from bigotry, is to play more or less exclusively with alike people. Self-ghettoization serves a purpose, or it would not occur.
As long as Microsoft does nothing, it is promoting a defacto heteronormative agenda against GLBT people. If they do not want the majority to rule, they need to make room, and allowance, for minorities, and support their right to exist openly.
This isn't difficult; they just need to reverse their rulings, allow people to define themselves as they will, and defend their right to do so.
Well put, I also agree with someone on the other post about getting rid of tags like "Ladiesman" and such, that's be a big help.
I don't know that I'd get rid of gamertags like "Ladiesman", as that seems to be erring on the side of too much caution. Though I completely agree that if you won't allow any explicitly queer identities, then that gamertag shouln't be allowed either.
But to literally put too fine a point on it, think of the outcry if gamers weren't able to identify themselves as African-American or Asian. Hell, male or female. This is literally the politics of identity. Seeing as the "bear" term is still under the radar, I'm good, but queers on Xbox Live shouldn't be relegated to the secret handshakes/hanky codes of the '70s.
This is something all online gaming communities are dealing with. (The MMOs come to mind as the perfect Petri dish.) But Microsoft (and Sony) need to find a better way, as their companies' names are on the line.
My 34 cents worth.
My thoughts on this issue: there needs to be a community like Gamerchix, that's supported by Microsoft, specifically for GLBT users. Pardon the plug, but I go into this issue more on Check Your HUD
Let the gaymertags flourish. Let the gaybashing ones flourish, too. That'll make it all the more delicious when Faggoteer trounces Gaybasher like nobody's business.
Exactly,
The aim is to "protect" minorities, yet the consequence is that we are silenced by majority rule. Making the word "gay" akin to "Voldemort" merely disenfranchises us further and, at the end of the day, offends me a whole lot more than someone calling me a faggot on XBOX LIVE.
This is the same backwards-thinking that resulted in "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Rather than police the servers for the bonding that can only occur between two men when they are bashing on the GLBT community, just lift the iron veil and give both sides what they want: Freedom of speech.
-FaggotyFagMcFagster
My two cents comes with a story.
About 4 years ago, I was working in a college library, and I found a book, as one is wont to do in a library. It was a small, thin, unassuming little gray hardcover, without jacket or decoration. The title escapes me, as I believe it was intended to, considering its conservative black font stamped into the standard-type cover. As soon as I opened the book, I noticed how old it was. It had that somewhat musty but ultimately charming smell of aged paper about it, and a quick check of the copyright data told me the text was from 1970-something. Upon reading a little further, I realized why it was so forgettable on its face, why it was so much of a hidden item... the book was about setting up clandestine meetings with other homosexuals so as to escape reprisal. Full of secret codes and hand signals, it read like a bad spy novel... and it's knowledge like this that makes me rage all the more at stupid rules like these.
The community before our generation (I speak to the other 20-somethings that frequent this blog) fought tooth and nail so that we would not fade into the background, or shrink with fear from the big, bad straight man. How can we sit back and allow this kind of BLATANT discrimination, despite any niceties and PR statements that get made, to go unchecked? We have a duty to protect ourselves and each other in our communities, to make sure that the mistakes of the past stay where they belong.
I don't want a gay Gamerchix or other specialty group to hide from the naughty language of 13 year olds who don't know better, and adults who should. I don't want to be segregated from the rest of the game playing community simply because of who I may fall in love with. We need to stand up and be counted in all our myriad and varied ways. These companies have already shown they're not interested in standing up for us.
So we have to do it ourselves.
this is what my profile says:
Hey everyone my name is Blake and i am a 26 year old male living in Utah. I enjoy playing on my xbox wii and playstation why cant we all just get along? I have been with my boyfriend for 5 years now so sorry guys but your advances are gonna bounce right off. play for fun folks theres no reason to get angry. Remember to support your local GLBT community center and causes and if you have a problem with me.......get over it......or dont i dont really care ;-)
....If I write, I love to fuck chicken, they ban me and that's good. But If I write I'm lesbian and they ban me... that is bad? Damn hypocrites!!
There's no need to have these rules. People should be able to state that they're gay, and harrasment is already gonna get you banned. I don't see why there's a distinction between harassing and saying gay.
"the expression of relationship preference in Gamertag profiles and tags is not allowed across the board, whether that's heterosexual or other,"
Does that mean someone can't use the word "straight" in a Gamertag? I'd be surprised to learn that is the case.
Major Nelson podcast this week starts with the topic. (I don't subscribe but the tag prompted me to download it)They’ve got a Policy guy in to talk about it.
Apparently when the issue kicked off last year there was a big rise in people stating their straight preference who were then quickly slapped down for breaking policy.
I think its silly that you’re allowed to state your preference over Live chat but to do so in writing is a punishable offence.
I don't find self "ghetoization" as Jennifer so eloquently put it to be the solution to the problem. In fact I completley disagree with this statement I see a lot of poeple here just going along with single file. Don't be victims of group think, too.
We shouldn't be trying to encourage GLBT players to hang out and play with only other GLBT players. What needs to occur is an act of community acceptance. To most of the bad-mouthing x-box players "gay" was never thought of even once as a sexual orientation it was seen as something divisive or negative. It's loaded with stereotypes that lead them to hate the word not because of its meaning to others but because of the meaning they and those around them have come to see it as. I hang out with these people. They'll be dropping the F word and calling everything around them negative "gay" and I won't demonstrate that it offends or unnerves me. Instead I refuse to get up and leave their company. In time they get to know me as a player amongst them and they enjoy my company and friendship. Then one day, sometimes even within the first 5 minutes of meeting them, we'll start revealing information about each other to get to know each other better, and of course I'll tell them that I'm gay and even introduce them to my boyfriend. Guess what? They don't lash out or react negatively. Up until that moment a casual observer from the outside might have only seen them as homophobic or immature teenagers, confused, somehow less than human or unworthy of their friendship. You would be amazed at the humanity, the compassion, the understanding, the acceptance, the sense of community and dare I even say love, appreciation, and admiration you can get from these people once they actually learn you, this awesome fellow gamer, are gay. Their perspectives might instantly go through some sort-of shift, and whatever compassion or positive views of the gay community they may have already had but been keeping quiet from their friends due to the nature of group think might have come out. I've been in servers where suddenly 2 then 3 then everyone there makes some statement along the lines of "well I never had anything against gay people. you must think we're terrible for saying 'fag' so much." Then I let them know it's alright, it's understandable. That speech is free no matter how terrible and I'm not uptight or angry about it because in the end we're all human beings and we're all equal. And guess what all this ends up leading to?
Acceptance. A sense of community. Gay and straight and everything else under the sun suddenly being welcome there on that server and new people who come in making homophobic comments are told to watch their tongues not by the gay residents but by the straight ones.
And you want to "ghetoize" the presence of GLBT players on the internet? You can work for that all you want, but I will spend every moment of my time playing online to destroy that dream of yours. I want GLBT players to be accepted and seen as human beings on every public server, in every guild, yes even Christian Guilds (I've joined about 8 or so and caused some serious perspective shifts amongst members). I want there to be no place you will feel ostracized or unaccepted.
Ian, you forget that at some point you had to make it known that you are, in fact, a homosexual, and that is the very issue that this article is about, the right to post you sexual preference in your gamer profile. What people decide to do with that information is up to them. Some people are more comfortable playing with people of similar backgrounds, others just like playing with anyone.
The fact that this site exists and thrives proves the point that some level of 'ghetto-ization' is desired, though I think of it more of a sense of community than a ghetto. Hopefully one day it won't be as much as a refuge as it currently is and more of a 'queer perspective' on the gaming world.
While I really don't understand why would anyone prefer to show off their sexual preference in a GAMERTAG, for heaven's sake, I see that this protect with forbidding mechanism works like a trap 22.
Parents are concerned that their kids will get sexually abused on XBOX Live, GLBT people show off their pride in every godforsaken place nowadays, while want to be protected as a minority, and Microsoft wants to remain clean while making a good profit.
Now tell me, if it's still a major problem for many gay people to come out to their own families, is it really a very important matter to rush and come out in a community where the majority are KIDS? Of course we have the right to show our sexual preference. It isn't the question. The real question is, do we really need to show it everywhere? Come on people. Being decent doesn't mean we deny that we're gay.
BTW, if GLBT people wouldn't fight so loudly for protection, maybe there would be no need for extreme ways of protection.