Double Helix GLBT Employee Speaks Out About Offensive Twitter
While their hasn't been any "official" word from Double Helix about today's earlier fracas surrounding an offensive Twitter posted by one of its employees calling game media websites "f*gs," one of their GLBT employees has contacted me. The source wishes to remain anonymous, but this is what they had to say:
I want to assure your readers that the studio is a very LGBT friendly place with multiple LGBT staff members and we're proud of that. I've never heard that word at the studio and it would never be acceptable. We want to be known for the games that the hard-working staff create, not a thoughtless twitter comment. It's good to see that this word is not acceptable online either, and I hope this particular event serves to ensure more people stop using it.
I'm glad to see someone from the studio, particularly a GLBT employee, coming forward and talking about this. It's good to know that Double Helix does not condone this sort of behavior from its employees and provides a positive work environment for its GLBT workers.
Fruit Brute
Posted to Hot Stuff, Video Games on 25 June 2009
· Comments (13)
Other stuff like this: double helix, gay, glbt, twttter
We believe it, right people? uh, hello? anybody?
Lovely statement, and I want it to be true of course...but who are we kidding as Super Duper reminded us, what with the joys of Xbox Live, its perfectly legit to throw around slurs when all the cool kids are doing it. This whole twitter snafu does bring up some relevant debate on how entrenched in straight privlidge a fair degree of people are. So I guess some good has come of it.
Ever hear this one? "Some of my best friends are gay...but..."
@EasilyFooled: If you're questioning the validity of the statement, I can assure you this is from an employee that I have had a long time association with. This didn't come from a random anonymous source.
Greetings,
I heard back from Sandra Lew, Foundation 9 Entertainment's Marketing Manager, on this issue.
Here is the official statement she sent me:
"Foundation 9 Entertainment and the Double Helix Studio value diversity in all of our employees, industry peers, and customers. We consider the statements made recently on Twitter offensive and completely unacceptable. These statements in no way reflect the thoughts of our management, studio, or company as a whole."
As I understand it, Guy Selga has been placed on unpaid suspension pending final action.
I will be following up with them on this. If I hear anything more - I will pass it along.
If anyone wants to contact me to confirm the "legitimacy" of this information, you can find my contact info here: http://www.nyacyouth.org/about/staff.php#greg
-Greg Varnum
Executive Director, National Youth Advocacy Coalition
"Never heard that word in the studio" ?
How about his blogs? Because he sure does say it A LOT.
http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:wsgmwR8jrA8J:blogs.myspace.com/guyselga+guyselga+faggot&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca&client=firefox-a
http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:f4dgF3BysYYJ:www.guyselga.com/%3Fcat%3D1+guyselga+fag&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ca&client=firefox-a
What the fuck. Before I was talking about the situation as a hypothetical... but given that, this guy's not sorry he used the word "fag" as...he seems to use it alot...he's just sorry he got caught.
@ candymo:
very nice find!!
apparently that HUGE FACKING DOUCHE even thinks the new Coke can is "faggy" too. What a tool.. not to mention another Robot casualty.. beep boop I consume Coca-Cola, just as the Advetising Overlords tell me to!. Lol what a waste of air. Kill it now, with FIRE!!
For the record I have made no excuses what so ever. Yes, I said "fag." I embarrassed the company and my coworkers, all of whom I have a lot of respect for. I expect (and deserve) to be fired. I also deserve every last bit of hate mail I received.
I apologize, not just for "getting caught" as g_whiz said. I apologize because I upset, offended, and embarrassed a lot of people.
@GuyFNC:
I'm stupidly going to feed a very possible troll here but on the off chance you are actually that guy, No your not sorry.
Nobody who uses hate words that much is sorry.
Why did you pull your Videos from youtube then? Correction on the last question actually.
Why did you pull your Videos from youtube AFTER you got caught?
"I apologize because I upset, offended, and embarrassed a lot of people." From your post leads me to believe that you only came to the realisation that this was offensive after this all came to light. I don't believe that for one second. You were happy to let those videos up there and not care who got offended. Now that this is all happening you are suddenly worried about who you are offending?
If you don't believe this is actually me I can send you a email from my personal account gselga@gmail.com.
As for the pulled youtube videos I did so because they contained personal information about my friends and specifically my girlfriend (this is the same reason my myspace page is private). It's not like I just post youtube videos all day of me spewing hate speech. I would never do that.
Let me just again say that I have made to excuses. I deserve all this.
I for sure won't do it again. Nothing I can say will make anyone believe me, so really all I can do is say sorry.
I am going to make this very brief and concise as I POSSIBLY can, but honestly, this really has got to go.
I do not personally know this Guy Selga fellow, but I have been reading in on this subject matter of how he has offended many gays in the gaming industry with his use of words. However, I do not feel that it is fair to continually harass and condescend a man who has whole-heartedly apologized for his mistake.
Yes, his mistake. He mentioned many times on this webpage that he has made a MISTAKE. As cliche as this may sound, people make mistakes. And yes, it was a word that offends the gay community, but you and I KNOW that it was not intended to be used that way. And how can the appearance of a can of coke be described in such a way to compare with a gay individual? Obviously, it was not meant that way. And everyone knows that many people use those terms to mean stupid, dumb, etc. It's the 21st century; let's face it. Those terms have been used in various ways. Hmm... like, to the person who called him a "douche". You meant an asshole, right? Not necessarily the douche chicks wipe their vaginas with, I'm sure.
I want to say that he has made a mistake, but the more I see people pounding him makes me feel like you guys are just bullying someone and invading their privacy just because you CAN. How could you dig through someone's privacy like that? This whole thing was a big deal because he used that term to specific people that had to do with other companies in the gaming field. Would you have crushed this person if his tweet had said, "This coke can sure looks faggy." instead on his twitter? I mean, is it really of our business what they do and say on their own personal home page anyway? Let me rephrase that. Is it ANY of our business to invade one's privacy at all? On top of that, to put so-called "evidence" up on this page to prove your point? It's unfair and immature to be going through people's things to see what kind of people they are. Opinions are opinions. Face that fact.
I am not saying that should not offend you. Of course it should; no doubt about it. But let's be real; so many people out there use homosexual terms: gay, fag, homo... for things that don't directly have anything to do with the gay community. Yeah, sticks and stones ... and words do hurt, but can we be realistic for once? Can't we realize that we can't pounce on one man for his words? Are we going to stand in a movie line one day and give a lecture to those who used these derogatory terms amongst themselves? Let's be real. They will listen, but that is one versus thousands of people out there who use that word (whether they meant it directly to you people or not).
So, does it feel good to pound on one person who's apologized and regretted just because you can?
And you wonder why he removed a lot of things from his home pages. Well, maybe that's because some people don't want to be harassed all the time? Do you really think that making this person feel guilty more and more will make things better for you? Isn't that what bullies do? I mean, it had nothing to do with him "hiding" it or anything. In fact, he had put his pages up in public until it got out of hand. Even after this guy got "caught", his pages were still open to public. Doesn't that make any sense? I mean, come on. If it really did offend you, shouldn't you be happy that all those derogatory terms are removed now? Why take it in such a negative way talking about how he's removed it because he got caught? Why punish them further like that? They did you a favor and removed it. Whatever they're intention was or whatever was going through their head, it's REMOVED. So, let's stop bullying people and move on. It makes me sick to see people put weight on people's shoulders more than what they are already going through. If this person didn't apologize and didn't give a fuck it would mean one thing, but there's proof in front of you. They've apologized, regretted, and apologized some more. What more do you want?
So, let's stop shooting at the tranquil waters and quit firing dirty laundries already. Is it that worth it to make them feel bad? What are you getting out of it? More support, I assume. But all this person is going to do (and can do) is apologize and apologize some more as they have said.
Let's just face reality for once.
As impassioned a response as that was...I again say, discussing the merits of a situation/story is not an invasion of privacy. I don't know if people are following him around with torches, but I don't see anything to give that impression from what I've read here. If he is in fact being harassed as you claim its inexcusable. Two wrongs most certianly don't make a right here, and I'd rather change minds than have any serious reprocussions about this or anything else. As far as I'm concerned, his apology and consideration in the future can file this in the win column.
I think this has been far more constructive than the average situation of this type in that we've discussed the issue, had feedback from the person in question , and gotten (some) constructive dialouge out of it (if we squint). Though I have to say, whenever somebody throws around slurs like this its not something some are likely to forget. Personally, forgiveness is not a problem here. Let's move forward with something of a lesson learned?
As long as he has learned his lesson and let this be a perfect example to others to watch what you say and to maintain your professionalism. People are angry and using him as a prime example and there's nothing wrong with that.