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Gamer Claims Identifying As a Lesbian Led To Xbox Live Ban
Goatbert writes "I just read on the Consumerist about an XBOX Live user being banned for identifying herself as a lesbian. Despite appeals, Microsoft has stood by its position that merely mentioning that you are gay or lesbian is grounds for terminating your XBOX Live membership."
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA..... um.. .. hahahahaha... its just not fair though...
Of identifying your sexual orientation in your profile anyway? Leave that for your Facebook/Myspace profiles or your blog, or maybe even shut up about your sexual orientation like all of us straight people do about ours. Just a thought anyway.
That is so gay.
As long as you get banned from Xbox live for identifying yourself as straight too, I don't see a problem with this...
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
My name is "Spike"
xboxlive won't let me use that name in the "real name" field of my xboxlive profile. It says that it's a banned word.
Why could that be? I think it might be because it contains 'spik,' but even that seems ridiculous.
*shrug*
...spike
Ewwwwww, coconut...
Their rules, if they think others find it offensive then they can suspend your account. However, if it is not explicitly defined in the ToS that sexual orientation in a bio is offensive then she could try and get reimbursed for the account. That is a loooong-shot though.
I agree. The sooner we condemn Microsoft to the abyss, the better.
but do they ban themselves?
Consoles are just a gateway into PC gaming anyway. All the more reason to get a PC sooner than later if console manufacturers are going to also treat you like this.
Exactly. It sounds to me like she wanted to get banned. I'm against banning people for their sexual orientation, race, religion, etc. But if you're some activist who has set out to TRY and piss people off with the purpose of getting banned, that's another story. Getting banned for putting "Allah is great! Christians and Jews are the devil!" in your profile is NOT the same as getting banned for "being a Muslim."
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
... because they didn't want to see that crap or their kids to see that crap.
Whew, I couldn't agree more! Because it's been scientifically shown that exposures to gay people is what causes one to be gay. But why stop at targeting gays on the XBox? Did you know that your child might be befriending another kid in grade school and your child's friend may be gay and not yet know it? The only safe way out of this is to remove your kid from school--did you know that nearly 100% of homosexuals have gone through school? A frightening figure! You better find a conservative Christian school that teaches your child intolerance and how to properly ostracize and judge other people. That's the only way you can provide for them a pure and clean life.
And if the rest of us are lucky, we'll never have to interact with your kid.
This is not helping the already low low stereotype I have adopted of the users of XBox's online service.
My work here is dung.
That identifying yourself as 'lesbian' online is secret code for "I'm a straight guy looking for girl love. Pew pew."
If each mistake being made is a new one, then progress is being made.
One word:
Sue.
Uhm, the article fails to report critical details. Any word on if she's a hot lesbian?
This blog post does nothing but reference itself. There are no formal statements from MS and no proof of any kind given. Show me the proof, then I'll side with you. New tag: proveit
Also, I don't hang my hat on being straight - do you really need to point out that you're gay in your xbox profile? I mean... really? I don't think you should be banned for doing it, but I think it's a little odd.
If you can read this... 01110101 01110010 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100111 01100101 01100101 01101011
Maybe they aren't allowed to operate there for legal reasons.
Disclaimer: I don't even know where Lesbia is (but if you haven't heard of it it's probably Europe, right?) and I've never met anyone from there!
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
all gay guilds or gay guilds that advertised themselves as gay awhile back? I think they got rid of the policy after a media spotlight was shown on it. Perhaps the same will happen here.
Hmm that seems like a plan to get my friends xbl cancled,
I had the stupidity to use my debit card details to buy a $5.00 game for a friend and now my account is being charged per month for xbox live.
Calling them up to remove your details is usless unless you know the gamertag and address of the xbl account holder.
It's a pity I don't know the username and password else I'd be logging in parading my gay rights.. sigh.
On topic this seems utterly stupid, where is the need to censor ones sexual preference, is this meant to protect younglings from knowing that some people like the same sex?!
What is the world coming too!
Don't panic
I wish a major corporation would hand me a lawsuit like this...
TFA doesn't actually provide much in the way of hard details - no username, no name of the person spoken to at MS, no name of a supervisor spoken to (and no appearance of speaking to a supervisor), no investigation of XBox Live rules/EULA, and no interview with Microsoft.
Looks like FUD, until someone does a proper investigation.
In this time of economic crisis, the inevitable ensuing flamewar can heat my house.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZa26_esLBE
Way to go Microsoft, rubber pad the world! It's a VERY Slippery Slope...
XBox Live isn't a civil rights arena. Why should I know or care if anyone on XBL is gay or straight or black or white or republican or democrat or christian or atheist? Just play the game and leave politics and your personal life out of it.
Don't trust a bull's horn, a doberman's tooth, a runaway horse or me.
I agree, homophobes definitely are not normal and should be condemned! Calling them "unnatural disgusting animals" does seem a bit extreme, however, even if all humans can technically be considered animals.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
MS is generalizing the word "fag."
This is similar to how saying "jew" can get you banned from places simply because people have magically turned it into a dirty no-no word.
It's stuff like this (overzealous self-rightousism) that keeps me away from any console and its associated multiplayer system.
Did anyone else have trouble reverse engineering the grammar in the title?
This is unusual, since Microsoft is apparently considered one of the most gay friendly employers in the US.
From the site:
It was one of the first companies in the world to offer employee benefits to same-sex domestic partners and to include sexual orientation in its corporate nondiscrimination policy. Since 1989, Microsoft has supported and sponsored gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender issues at Microsoft. In 1993 an organized employee resource groupâ"Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Employees at Microsoft (GLEAM)â"was launched. GLEAM now has more than 700 members.
The group even has it's own Wikipedia entry (for what that's worth).
What language do they speak in Lesbia? Greek. And it is Lesbos not "Lesbia".
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Let's say your XBOX live name was "Steve1234" could you get banned for mentioning the following phrase, "My husband is logging on right now, his mage would help us out..."?
duh, she didn't want to be hit on incessantly.
lol
Requiem for the American Dream
Tell me the purpose of having a profile, and I will tell you the purpose of putting "I like [whatever]" in that profile. But for gays and lesbians, the issue is slightly different. 'Coming out' is an important part of the process of self discovery and self acceptance for such people. Yes, many go through a phase where they may be a little strident about it, but that is completely natural in a society with so much homophobia. If allowed to progress through the 'angry gay' stage, most will reach a stage where being gay is just another facet of their identity.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Why is it so important for this person to advertise, in a gaming context, that they are gay / lesbian? What does that that have to do with anything? These people give every other gay man or woman a bad name. Homosexuality makes some people uncomfortable and if there's no really good reason, why persist? There is no good reason what so ever to make it a point to let people know who you like to have sex with on XBox Live. BTW. I'm gay so don't go calling me a homophobe.
You're either a "nigger" or a "bitch". Your fellow players will determine which, and announce it, after they kill you...
Obviously, it is ridiculous that once's sexual preference has anything to do with being allowed to play video games on any given environment. Hopefully this statement from Microsoft will see a sharp drop in sales of the XBOX in favor of other consoles, but I fear that Microsoft will simply get away with this....
Nah, if you're a lumberjack, you're okay.
Demanding constant attention will only lead to attention.
...but I've been on XBox live. The vast (and I mean vast) majority of references to homosexuality in that community are slurs. Really, really ugly ones.
So we have a blanket policy saying, no mentioning of sexual orientation in your profile or gamertag. Period. Because, while it's possible that such a mention in a gamertag/profile is a perfectly true, totally non-offensive statement about an individual's self-identified sexual orientation, the odds more strongly favor it being a nasty, hateful comment (or at best, a tasteless one).
If a given behavior has a 1% chance of being legitimate, and a 99% chance of being a TOS violation, doesn't a ban make sense? I'm not sure I'm willing to blame Microsoft for not wanting to go through thousands upon thousands of gamer profiles for approval on a case-by-case basis.
And yeah, why do you feel it's important to proclaim your sexual orientation on XBox live anyway?
Your playing a video game online with a group of pre-pubescent kids and teenagers who are granted nearly full anonymity without any fear of punishment, what did you expect?
Now, due to the vague explanation of what happened given in the article linked in the story, I'm going to make some assumptions here. I would assume that:
* Some kids on Xbox Live noticed that the gamer identified herself as lesbian.
* Due to ignorance, or just for the "lulz", kids decide to file fake complaints against the gamertag in question to get the account banned.
* Microsoft's fully-automated complaint system receives numerous reports from many people about the gamertag in question, and automatically bans the account.
This just goes to show what a failure Microsoft's disciplinary system is. Microsoft made these game consoles and FREE headsets available to kids and teenagers, as well as adults. So, with that many people using an online service, it's fairly obvious that SOMEONE will abuse the system, break rules, etc.
And yet, Microsoft decides to not only use a centralized network infrastructure for Xbox Live, rather than the infrastructure used by most online PC games, but they even made the disciplinary system fully automated. No human involvement. No one checks the validity of reports. No one is in the games to ban abusers. No way of even verifying weather or not a ban was justified or not when someone calls Microsoft's Tech Support. Such an easy thing to abuse.
By contrast, nearly all servers on PC games are administered properly. There's at least one admin on, admins ban the hackers, cheaters, racist/homophobic people, and maintain their server's rules. Nothing's automated. There's always human involvement.
I don't think Microsoft intentionally banned this person or refused to re-activate the account because the user is lesbian. Live's servers received compliments from a bunch of people, automated system bans the account, with no way of telling weather or not the compliments were legitimate or created fraudulently.
Microsoft seems to be ignoring the lesson here: You can't trust machines to babysit children.
The few times that I have played anything on Xbox Live account, the chat is always over run with 13 year-olds, obscenities, and homo-erotic remarks.
Besides, who else thinks, it is hot, that there are lesbian girls actually playing video games? Xbox you just lost my vote, by removing possibly the one female online player.
Just so you know: you are ignorant.
If being who you are causes you problems stop being who you are?! Stop talking about who you are?! Fuck that.
It's too bad you can't accurately describe yourself in your profile. But the only real choice is for people to prove the policy wrong. Everyone should admit be being gay... and then point out that you mean happy. The shear amount of filtering and moderation required to handle a huge amount of grassroots non-violent behavior will befuddle Microsoft.
But I digress. If you are gay you clearly need to be on the Wii.
Nice, it's been a while since I've read a troll that likens the activities of two consenting adults to the sexual abuse of children by adults. You should be proud of yourself, for missing the point in such an epic fashion.
Actually, homosexuality is extremely normal.
[Side note: My XBox Live profile would contain a cartoon video of me jumping up and down shouting "I'm STRAIGHT and proud"]
I recall an experimental result(*) I heard about back in 1987(!) where it was shown that homosexuality in mice could be encouraged by increasing population density.
The conclusion drawn was that it's a natural, built-in population-control mechanism.
* This isn't wikipedia, all replies which are variants of 'cite' will be treated with the contempt they deserve :P
Requiem for the American Dream
First off, banning someone based on their stated sexual orientation is homophobic, discriminatory, and highly unethical.
Secondly, if they're banning people based on their usage of the words "gay" or "lesbian", then they really ought to be listening to their little bastards on voice chat. If you want to ban all mention of sexual orientation, you ought to have people patrolling voice chat and banning people for use of the word "fag", which is extremely insulting and gets thrown around all the time.
Of course, if they did that, they might lose 80% of their subscribers. That said, for the remaining 20% who are uncomfortable with hate speech, it would be really nice.
That's gay.
From the article:
"As if xbox live is really appropriate for kids anyways!" - Teresa
What gives you the right to determine that? What gives you the right to tell Microsoft "I've decided that your network isn't going to be family friendly"? Video games started largely as an activity of children, and thanks to the Wii, is headed back in that direction. Nintendo has found that it's very profitable to get the whole family involved in games, rather than Sony's approach of just appealing to young adult men. Microsoft isn't stupid. They want to do what Nintendo has done. They're at enough of a disadvantage cost-wise against Nintendo as it is. It makes no sense to turn Xbox Live into a ghetto of adults from 18-25, when they can expand to market to all ages.
Ultimately, its their network, a private entity. If she doesn't like their policies, then go somewhere else.
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
Never thought a Star Trek TNG quote would apply to anything but...
"When children learn to devalue others, they can devalue anyone - including their parents." - Captain Jean-Luc Picard
"Quote me as saying I was mis-quoted." -Groucho Marx
I know here they'd be forking out $$$$ in compensation, as sure as if they'd banned someone from there service 'because people found the black colour of your skin offensive'.
Bad show MS, may you go to hell in the courts for this one,
If there were any evidence whatsoever that someone was banned (or otherwise discriminated against) because of their sexual orientation, that is quite illegal in many states (including California, and Microsoft certainly does have a presence in California).
Though, just to play devil's advocate, I can't help but wonder if this person's self-identity is so tied up in being a lesbian that that's all she sees herself as. Because at that point - and you know people like that, we all do - no matter what she does, it's always "because I'm a lesbian" when people react badly.
Well you are a narrow minded bigot arent you?
Homosexuality offends only bigots, and I as a straight person find you far more offensive than
a gay person asshole.
They'll just put a blanket ban on mentioning your sexual orientation or romantic status. The pride people will still be angry but they can't argue discrimination, at least not successfully (I'm sure they'll still argue it is discriminatory because it is in place solely to stem their pride speech, but people won't care anymore).
uhh..
I'm more offended by religious nuts who have this book where all things are pre-judged and it's all written down so that even ppl who can't reason for themselves can tell what is and isn't right or wrong.
Even though such ppl need said book, they don't realise that it's offensive when they try to force their brainwashing on others who can reason for themselves.
Get back to the middle ages with you!
Bloody religious nuts outing themselves all over the place, dagnabbit!
Requiem for the American Dream
Well, if he is a troll, like you say and I think as well, then he didn't miss the point. Technically, that is.
Should they be banning people who harass other people? Who's in charge there?!?
If MS wants to stop people from mentioning their sexuality then I'm fine with that. I think freedom of expression is paramount but activist "victims" really annoy the hell out of me.
But that also means they should stop kids from playing games that are for adults as they shouldn't be doing that and it really annoys the hell out of adults to have some squeaky voice spacker ruining the game.
Which brings me to my next point. If sexuality is a no-no then MS needs to do a a lot more to stop the constant use of terms like fag and gay by the drooling dim-witted children on live.
Surely it'd just be easier to let people have their freedom of speech and make live an adult area or have an adult section & kids section with the adult section having more freedom and accounts used by children banned from accessing it.
Pink Triangle, meet Red Ring of Death.
I don't get it? Does it offend the emo kids?
"I only speak the truth"
Karma: null(Mostly affected by an unassigned variable)
I agree, homophobes definitely are not normal and should be condemned! Calling them "unnatural disgusting animals" does seem a bit extreme, however, even if all humans can technically be considered animals.
Stop it. Stop the Homophobia bullshit. There's no such thing as Homophobia. There are people that think homosexual conduct is immoral, or abnormal. That doesn't mean they have a phobia. A phobia is a clinical condition, recognized by psychologists. There's no such thing in the DSM. "Homophobia" is a marketing term for one side of the argument, a buzzword.
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
saying "I am a lesbian" to "I really like roller derby and Ellen" same identifier, different words. Gay guys can throw in something about ABBA and the Golden girls. Jews can shout out the latka love, and all the furries can throw EYE 3 4CHAN in there for good measure.
The island is mountainous with two large peaks...
Sorry, but this brought a smile to my face, in a Beavis and Butthead way.
Requesting citation as I would be interested in reading those findings. And it would be useful ammunition in future debates.
upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
There are four boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order.
Depends on what "liberty" you're fighting for in this case. If you're fighting to get a private company (one that didn't exactly hold a gun to your head to use their product) compelled to change their operation to suit your dictates... well, then you're not fighting for liberty in that case. You are in fact taking their liberty away.
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
Because being a Lesbian automatically makes you 100x more attractive to guys. There's no WAY they'd ban a girl.
Furthermore, you know it's bullshit because she says "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."
People with kids don't play X-Box live. People with kids certainly don't check user profiles. She was either doing something obscene, or that's not why she was banned.
Either way, I find it all fishy.
Most often-used (and non-actionable) slur on XBox Live: "Fag"
So I guess if you call someone else a fag, you're A-OK. If you call yourself one--WITHOUT the hatefulness!--that's a bridge too far, buddy! People can get offended! by that word when it's not meant as a personal insult. But if you want to insult someone with it ... eh, that's just gamer culture, grow a spine, wuss.
I'm of the DA/DT mindset myself .. but good god. Microsoft needs to reinstate her account and apologize to her IMMEDIATELY if it wants to avoid a major PR nightmare. If it doesn't, well, I guess its reputation just sinks deeper into the muck of mainstream loathing than it already is.
Incidentally, I read the article ... and anyone named "Richard Gaywood" has got to have the most unfortunate name in modern usage. Totally ban-worthy .. even if that IS your honest-to-goodness given name, you don't use it to play XBox Live. Ever.
It's not a lie. It's the truth with lossy compression.
My experience with xbox live is that on the whole it's a homophobic racist teenage boys. The crap you hear on the audio is horrific. I'm surprised at the double standard.
Islam? Atheism? Dark skin? Sounds like Microsoft needs to get their heads out of their asses.
He sleeps all night and he works all day.
After all, when I try to think of who might be pissed that their kids were exposed to openly gay people I get this image of a man in a plain colored button up shirt and a beer belly from...well, too much beer screaming into their rotary phone in a southern accent complaining about "them gays".
I guess if you identified yourself as "strait" that would be grounds for termination also?
Hey don't blame me, IANAB
Well my whole "shtick" is the pretend like I am flaming gay...I've still not been banned!
Microsoft seems to be ignoring the lesson here: You can't trust machines to babysit children.
Um, sure you can. Just don't expect them to be babysat well. Hey, my PS2 with Puzzle Quest or Dark Cloud works great for babysitting my kids. Doesn't mean that they won't stop playing the PS2 and start doing anything else though.
People go like "fuck you piss shit cunt nigger fuck fuck asshole fucking nigger I kill you fucking fuck fuck the fucking fuckers fuck your mom" on xbox live all the fucking time.
Will they ban you for indicating that you're black? If I say I'm caucasian, then I get banned too? "Hi, I'm a heterosexual white man"; does THAT get me banned, because I mentioned my race, sexual orientation, and gender? Come ON! While it's certainly true that some people are guilty of oversharing with some information about themselves, it's just plain out-and-out discrimination we're talking about here. So WHAT if she's a lesbian? Big effing deal!
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
From an open minded view gays and lesbians are exactly like other people in mind. But the public rarely has an open mind. Most people do not enjoy hearing about whether you're gay or straight, it's like telling someone who doesn't want to know about what you did with that cute girl from the bar. When I say gay you think screwed up mentally or weird. It's also a common insult in high school. The strict definition, however, is "of, indicating, or supporting homosexual interests or issues." So yes, I would prefer if you wouldn't tell me about it. Please keep it to yourself. It's fine if you happen to mention your homosexual wife/husband but rubbing it in my face just pisses me off.
You can't trust machines to babysit children.
Sure you can, Asimov's First Law remember.
I reject your reality and substitute my own.
...but I can think of some misguided but almost rational reasons for the policy:
- Specifying sexual orientation could be construed as prospecting for potential partners. XBox Live is not a dating service.
- Specifying your sexual orientation explicitly could be interpreted by some as a politicized statement. XBox Live is not a political forum. ps- this falls apart when Microsoft encourages you to contact your elected officials to protest whatever they are planning to to do that might impact Microsoft's XBox business. It's only a matter of time, if not before this gaffe, soon enough.
- Advertising anything beyond game-related facts is just asking for trouble. XBox Live is intended for game-related discussions, facts, and entertainment. Anything else is a distraction. Of course, gaming is a distraction, so this is logically inconsistent on some level.
And I think all of these arguments, save the first, are lost and pointless.
The first argument is also pointless, but for a different reason. I haven't seen a public forum on the Internet yet that didn't turn into an A/S/L chatfest. It's the way it is, and the younger the audience, the faster it happens.
Good luck with that policy, Microsoft. You will lose this fight, or lose more $ than it could possibly be worth.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
having what drink you like, what tv show you like, or hell, even your FUCKING name in your profile anyway then ?
let me tell you - the sum of ALL those things, INCLUDINg sexual orientation, makes up WHO you are.
that's the purpose behind people expressing their sexual orientation. it may not be a defining factor for YOU, or in your eyes, but it is, for many people.
im neither gay or lesbian and i approve of this message.
now get outta my lawn.
Read radical news here
This is a socio-political story, not ANYthing to do with technology. WHY is it even HERE?
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
Words don't always mean just what their roots would imply. For instance, xenophobia means hatred of strangers. There is such a thing as homophobia. And since you bring it up, you may want to look in your latest DSM to see if homosexuality is immoral or abnormal.
You can justify your bigotry any way you like, but it is still bigotry. Southerners had similar justifications for slavery, but now we look back on them as ignorant, backwards and racist. Just like future generations will look back at homophobia.
Just because some dude in a weird outfit claims that some invisible guy in the sky says that something is bad and wrong does not make it so. The only people who think homosexuality is abnormal or immoral are people who's religion or culture told them that. Nobody is born thinking it is wrong. Nobody arrives at that conclusion without coercion from an outside source.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
ya nice idea in a day half a canada would be gay....LOL
Putting the automated banning systems abuse, 18th century attitudes and humans rights violations aside... 'Think of the Children!"
There are a lot of kids playing video games... so advertising your sexual preference in your profile is a bit off, regardless of what it is.
Except I've watched legitimately good players get banned as "hackers" ... some of us couldn't figure out how to hack until a few years later. A friend of mine spent most of his life playing HalfLife Team Fortress, and eventually found out people thought he was a "hacker" because they thought he was using some hacked up OpenGL library to see through walls... surprise, such a thing exists! XD Admins are generally inept.
Support my political activism on Patreon.
What language do they speak in Lesbia?
English, maybe? I heard they speak english in What...
I live in Canada. According to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, "15. (1) Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination and, in particular, without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability." Also - 2. Everyone has the following fundamental freedoms: a) freedom of conscience and religion; b) freedom of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication; c) freedom of peaceful assembly; and d) freedom of association. http://laws.justice.gc.ca/en/charter/
"Question everything, including this!" - http://technoracle.blogspot.com/
Naked Picard...
Seems like a strange policy given the current cultural climate. It could indeed of course be related to the "this is not a dating service" comment earlier. The point of X-Live is 13-y-o's after all...
Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
I can see that some people are offended by the thought that there are homosexuals in the world, and I know that some people really don't like to see anything that might offend them.
It isn't Microsoft's job to pursue justice, it's their job to keep the peace here. So being "fair" isn't the goal the goal is to keep as many people happy as possible.
However, the people that are offended by the thought of homosexuals sharing the planet are (in my experience) offended by quite a bit. They are impossible to please.
So, instead of banning the people who mention "lesbian" in their profile, they should just ban the people who complain. Then the XBox live community won't have any more complaints, and peace will reign.
This is just a fool, trying to use "oppression" as an excuse to flaunt her sexual preference and circumvent the policy Microsoft has put on posting sexually given names.
Straight people won't go with names such as "manwhore" or "sexmachine" because they're sexual driven name. If you IDENTIFY as a Lesbian, more than anything else a human can be identified as, then that's just sad. Sort of pathetic in a way.
What does being gay have ANYTHING to do with gaming online? It doesn't belong on your info. She deserves it.
You're gay, we get it, if you really want some attention, go somewhere else to get it, because no one gives a shit.
Why not just have everybody post their sexual orientation in a type of protest. Microsoft would rethink their policy if they were faced with kicking everybody off... Me, I'm a bisexual lesbian trapped in a man's body.
Today is an ephemeron, doomed to the crypt of yesterday.
As long as you sleep all night and you work all day...and put on women's clothing.
If I said "I'm black"... and a bunch of folks from the local KKK just happened to be on the site with me, and had a problem, because they don't fraternize with folks who's skin ain't whiter than the driven snow. And I told X-Box, "Hey that's discriminatory, abusive, and a potential grounds for a civil action!" You best believe the X-box folks would be banning bigots like they were going out of style.
So my questions is... "What forms of bigotry are supported and which are not?" They need to make it clear. Many Muslim and Jews despise each other and some Christians can be added to the mix. So if I can hate homosexuals, can I also hate people who I think are the spawn of Satan??? And will X-Box support me in my hatred, it's a fair question? Can I abuse people on the basis of Political Affiliation? How about Age or Sex? Let's boot all the Latinos and Asians off!
X-Box, you took the low road. You backed the wrong team. You sided with bigots, in the process abridging the dignity and rights of another. Nobody asked you to condone a behavior, and you had every right to feel any way you wanted. However, when those feelings got expressed as openly hostile or abusive behavior, you've went too far, and now you're going to experience a social backlash that will feel a little more like whiplash. You need to be jerked and hard. What you did was wrong, hostile, infantile, and grotesquely un-evolved. Grow up. Get it screwed on straight. This is the first world not the third. We don't kill people here because they see the world differently. Fix this snafu immediately!
You can protest against Microsoft by switching to Linux now. Everybody wins.
To be fair, mentioning you are heterosexual should also get you banned. Fair is fair!
Who cares if you get banned,
That just means MS doesn't get your money for your subscription.
At the rate they ban,..
there will be like 2 people left in a year.
Their loss, not yours.
No. no. no. NO. NO! That's the stupidest argument ever, if only because rape also is done (in abundance) by animals. So you can't win the discussion. At least until the power hungry feminists in charge of PC nowadays stop defining everything as a function of "power" and we can start actually getting some real explanations and therefore solutions.
You're boned. But maybe not literally.
... suck more than Microsoft? I don't get it. Whenever there is a choice, they do the evil fucked up thing. What the hell is wrong with them? Do they have a death wish or something?
Why make a deal out of this?
Assholes.
It depends - if they ban all declarations of sexual preference then they are safe, even in Canada. Equality laws are just that - if you treat everyone equally badly then its ok.
"Who the hell cares"
Its a stupid game, who cares what you are or what you claim you are.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
This actually happened to me.. I had been on the job for a while and a new person was hired.
Me: Hi, I'm Danny ...
new guy: Hey, I'm Gay
(well I thought I had not heard right...)
Me: Oh, Hi Gary Welcome to bigcompany
new guy: No, my name is David and I am GAY
me: Oh, right... So welcome David.
new guy: Thanks.
Note that I did not open with "Hi I'm Straight".
[Names have been changed to protect privacy]
If she's a lipstick lesbian she should stay, those babes are kute, and it's hot when they kiss. The butch looking biotches, we don't want those nappy headed hoes.
It is hard for me to believe this, because Microsoft is one of the friendliest GBTL companies. However if it is verified that this has indeed occurred it would make me furious. And MS should be wary about its ramifications. This bad publicity would not do well for MS. GBTL groups would line up and call national attention to MS policy, because MS is such a huge presence in the world. If MS does not address this travesty I for one will stop purchasing games and other product from MS. I will fly into Apples hands or Linux. I am certain many others would feel the same.
It's not about homophobia. It's about gaming.
Xbox Live isn't a dating service, gay or straight. I have yet to see anything that disputes that the user would have been similarly banned if they had "I'm heterosexual" in the profile.
Like it or not, sexual orientation is a mature subject. Frankly, it sounds to me like the user did, in fact, either have an agenda to push or was soliciting something. I really want to know just why did she feel compelled to express her sexual orientation in her profile? At any rate, I'm pretty sure that if I put something like, "I'm into bondage and have a latex fetish" in my profile, I'd be just as banned as she is, even though last time I checked, I'm straight.
I consider myself about as enlightened as they come, but there's a time and a place for everything. Microsoft's gaming service is neither the time nor the place to express sexual preferences, and Microsoft was perfectly justified in banning this user. Just as justified, incidentally, as they would be when they hopefully banned the people who made sexual slurs when they encountered her.
I don't have anything against gay people. What I do have a problem with are people—gay or straight or anything else—who use everything in life as a forum for their cause, even in "neutral" places such as an online gaming service.
Oh, and if you think you're getting the whole story from the banned user, you're incredibly naive. Microsoft most certainly wouldn't ban a user so quickly unless either 1) the user was doing something much more questionable than merely having "lesbian" in her profile that she's not telling us here, or 2) she was warned beforehand about her behavior and chose to continue engaging in violating the terms of service.
Everyone who plays online games knows that it's actually moderately difficult to get banned unless you're incredibly stupid or actually trying, which is another reason that I think the user is either soliciting something or pushing an agenda. In either event, she's doing the gay community a disservice by being needlessly confrontational, not helping them.
Appeal to authority is a type of logical fallacy. But it is also a logical fallacy to assume an conclusion is wrong just because the argument uses a logical fallacy. There are good, simple arguments against murder. Specifically, we have almost all agreed to the social contract that states: I don't want to be murdered, therefore, I agree not to murder and to punish murderers. See how simple that is?
I have never heard a good moral argument for denying anyone their right to express their love how they choose, given that that expression doesn't violate any other agreements they may have.
My current working hypothesis is that the 'homosexuality is wrong' meme is part of a larger, dysfunctional social dynamic. This hypothesis predicts that cultures that are more isolated in space and time from certain 'epicenters of violence' will show certain traits, namely: no ritual genital mutilation, no ritualized child abuse, no social hierarchy, no strict sex roles, and no sexual taboos, including adultery, homosexuality, or even incest. The hypothesis also predicts that in those cultures, each of those sexual activities will happen less often than in cultures where they are forbidden.
In my opinion, the evidence seems to support this hypothesis, although it is hotly disputed by some. Such cultures have existed, do exist, and they are quite isolated from said epicenters of violence. For references, you may want to start with The Continuum Concept by Jean Liedloff, and Saharasia by James DeMeo.
If I'm right, it doesn't prove homosexuality is not wrong. But wrong is not the default position, one must come up with a good reason, one that the vast majority can agree to, for censoring the behavior of another if that behavior doesn't harm you directly. And just to be clear, 'moral outrage' is a type of self-harm.
As for sociopaths, they should behave according to the generally accepted principles such as 'do unto others as you would have them do unto you, if you were in their shoes,' because those principles make sense and give them the greatest likelihood of success in life. That's the same reason most of us are born with a conscience and very few people are sociopaths: because it makes sense, even at a genetic level. Cooperation is just as universal a principle as competition is, that is obvious even to those of us who don't believe in a higher power.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Sean Penn just won an Oscar for a character defending gay rights in the 1970s.
Seems like society hasn't advanced much in three decades.
If they have a shred of tolerance, everyone who uses XBOX live should:
s/$/\-lesbian$/
for their gamer tag (or whatever they call a handle on their system).
Are they going to shutdown a million users?
No, *I* am Spartacus!
Threepio is SO gay.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
since sexual orientation is not at the federal level, she cannot sue in federal court, but usually some states and cities have sexual orientation at the state or city level. She would have to sue Microsoft at the state or city level and cite the state or city law that was broken.
In my humble opinion, I don't think she should be banned for being a lesbian. That has got nothing to do with playing video games.
I don't buy the "she'll be picked on by other gamers" defense either. I am a Christian but I do not pick on people for their sexual orientation. Maybe some Christians do, like the Westburrough Baptist church or whatever, but I don't. I am not a member of that church or any church that is biased against sexual orientation.
The only way they could have banned her is if she went into a rant bashing some other group on her profile like "I am a lesbian and all men are pigs and all Christians are idiots" then that might warrant a ban as she is more of a Rosie O'Donnell lesbian than an Ellen Degeneres lesbian and is offending people with hate speech. Even then it should be a warning to change her profile and repeated offenses warrant the ban.
Then again Microsoft owns the network she connects to, just like Wikipedia can mark an article for deletion and vote on it because it is part of their web site and network. Wikipedia while deleting articles for reasons that make no sense, still have the right to delete any article on their web site or ban any user for any reason. It really depends on what the terms of service say and if she violated any terms of service.
I think there is more to this story than reported. Like when the lesbian couple was ejected from a baseball game, we later learned that they were making out in public which is an ejectionable offense even for straight couples.
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
It's wrong to ban someone just because they put "I'm a lesbian" in their profile, but I can see banning someone who is constantly forcing this on other people (like the type of person above) because that other person is irritating others with it. I have also met a man hating lesbian stereo-type, someone who might go on a game and start slagging off men in a fashion no better than trolls should be treated as a troll, regardless if their topic is about computers, cars, tv, music, sexual orientation, race or religion.
The wiki page is as good a place to start as any.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
There are web sites that are specifically known as gay hook-up sites. These web sites were not envisioned as having this purpose originally, but that is what happened. Most of these sites closed down because of this. The messages are generally really raunchy, explicit and vulgar.
I don't blame Microsoft for explicitly not wanting any part of this on XBOX live. This has nothing whatsoever to do with someone being gay and maybe subject to some kind of ostracism by other gamers. In fact, I would believe this is the exact opposite.
The problem is such that once you have this kind of community all you can do is shut down - there is no way to get rid of the problem.
Reading a newspaper today is like getting the opinion of the world from one man's opinion. What gives?
He's registered on XboxLive as Penis van Lesbian. I thought everybody knew.
[UID-HeinzIntel]
Obarthelemy is not using that example to justify, he's using it to disprove the naturalistic fallacy the guy before him used.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
If MS thinks that this is a way of ensuring their gaming environment is kid-friendly, they're nuts. Even Disneyworld knows better.
Plus if they really want a kid-friendly environment that satisfies the helicopter parents, they should ban all of their violent games along with the sexual references. But, ohhhh, that's where the money is. Which is what shows this ban to just be another symptom of America's really screwed-up view of Christian virtue across the board:
1) Sex
2) Violence
?!?
3) Prophet!
We are the 198 proof..
That's gay!
I've never played a game of halo on xbox live where assholes weren't making racial slurs and just generally being assholes. Seems like a good reason not to renew my xbox live account next month.
Bart: Sharing is a bunch of bull, too. And helping others. And what's all this crap I've been hearing about tolerance?
Homer: Hmm. Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
they "discriminate" not those who have some sexual orientation but those who talk about their sexual orientation.
Why is being any more "family un-friendly" then being straight?
Gay or straight, I would rather not have my kids watch you have sex. However other then that, what does it matter?
nobody wants to know your sexual preferences, particularly in an online community devoted to being friendly to children.
What a numbskull.
-- Programming with boost is like building a house with lego. It's a cool but I wouldn't want to live in it
I have recently learned that I am a bisexual man. For obvious reasons, this has been very difficult on me. To date, only a few people know about it. Its a very scary thing to admit and I am struggling with it.
I have used online gaming as a way of "coming out" but anonymously and to see the reactions. They have ranged from very nasty responses to nothing at all. It has helped me a bit, but I got a long way to go.
Its more for me to be able to admit it. We live in a very cruel world that people would treat me very differently and very poorly if they had found out. I doubt I would keep my job for very long if my boss caught wind of it. Of course they wouldn't fire me for being bi, but they would find another reason.
Maybe someday I will be able to, but I really doubt it. Bigots like Microsoft is encouraging people to react this way. I find it unacceptable and hope they get fined in a big way for this.
So if I wander around for a while sniffing other peoples butts, regurgitate my own sick and eat it again, then curl up to lick my own balls for a while, that'd be okay with you ? After all, animals do it !
Um, I would hate to shock your sensibilities or anything, but, how do I put this? This is the Internet. That's porn to some people here.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
In a similar vein, I'm curious what "game" it is that you feel minorities are playing?
Well, Xbox Live, of course!
Stephen Toulouse works on the live team and posted his thoughts on the matter.
I did a comic up about this very subject in 2006 when Blizzard did a very similar thing in WOW.
postmodernsideshow.com
no matter you agree or disagree with gay/lesbian you have no right to discriminate against any minority and to do so only shows your own ignorance and stupidity. I hope this gamer, or any other who's had this issue, is reinstated and given adequate compensation for microsoft banning them for what amounts to someone elses bigatree
Yeah, the Angry Tux syndrome is horrible, I say, Horrible! I couldn't take it and continued my escape all the way to the OpenBSD. The cruel judgement from my small community drove me to move to a big city, where I finally could practice my BSD loving nature openly. Even as a BSD carpet eater, I can appreciate the pains and sufferings of a true Tux catcher in this world filled with Windows normativeness.
You Unix folk just can't understand the plight of a Mac user, trapped in the middle between our boxy, misshapen roots and this voluptuous new Unix body with it's pretty little Intel processors and our perky new PCIe slots. Trapped between two worlds, misunderstood by both, who do WE turn to for solace?
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Well, if he is a troll, like you say and I think as well, then he didn't miss the point.
He can't. It's permanently attached to his head.
At least then you can just go to another server with another admin. All of these admins are players as well ... not MS employees. MS needs to allow players to create and moderate their own servers. Perfect competition breeds the best results.
I'm sorry, but if mentioning being gay on XBL really warranted a ban, nobody would be on there anymore. Try playing ONE Halo 3 match. Everybody on there is not only homosexual, but at least several different undesirable races... Usually both at the same time...
Dark Cloud? That's child abuse! :-) I hit a brick wall in the game when I had to level up the guy with the hammer because he was a required character on a level. Combine that with the water thing and the repairing weapons thing, which means you can end a level with essentially less money than you had when you went in, and you can find yourself in a position of becoming less able and less able to be able to pass that brick wall. The game needed more balancing work.
Dark Cloud 2 on the other hand fixes that, you can actually earn money. Much better game, well worth playing.
First, I've been given demerits, in one form or another, for various words, phrases, and comments, in different places on the internet. "Buttmunch" of all things, on Runescape, got me a warning. "Buttmunch". I've called my own kids that, and worse, for more than 20 years now. It's a stupid term, that signals irritation, without being overly vulgar or crude. And, I was warned. And, Runescape isn't a democracy - they make the rules, you abide by the rules, or you leave. Same with XBox. If they have rules that you don't discuss muffdiving or peterpuffing, then you abide by those rules, or you leave. Some gay bitch is no better than any of the rest of us. OBVIOUSLY, she is militant about her desires, or she wouldn't have ever gone public with this. Rat's ass? I don't give even a small one for her. She needs to quit trolling game sites.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
I am undead, you insensitive clod!
I think we can all generally agree that this is outrageous, and blatant discrimination.
Nobody is talking about what to do about it though. Seems to me we should all be going on and defining our orientation on our profiles, whether it be straight, gay, or lesbian.
See if they start banning hundreds or thousands of people...and if they don't ban those labeled straight too then there's great grounds for a lawsuit there...
Could we talk about Richard Gaywood who apparently can't use his name in Xbox Live, neither as a nickname nor as real name.
LIVE is full of teenagers with nicks like ~uberKILL4H~, so I tend to give +3 modifier to anyone I see who actually knows how uppercases are supposed to operate.
Not to mention the whole "what if a word is common name in one part of the world, while obscene in other, such as Wanker"-issue which mr. Gaywood also mentioned.
Much more interesting than some (probably) teenager who has to go around shouting I'M A LESBIAN! DO YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THAT?!
Anyway, isn't "gay" supposed to be the *positive* way to refer homosexuals? Instead of queers, fags or Eltonjohns? When did a word which is also a synonym for "happy" become so rude that people should switch names if they happened to inherit it..?
Chronologically late.
Oh the Irony that someone who has an "X" on her box (as far as males are concerned) should be banned from X-box live.
Straight people aren't offended by someone saying they're gay. Small-minded fuckwits are.
They're just jealous, like me, She is most likely getting more pussy than most of us here.
-1 disagree is not a modifier for a reason. -1 troll, flamebait, redundant, overrated are NOT acceptable substitutes.
Microsoft has a rule that gamertags can't be anything that is "potentially" offensive.
Someone I know had "Queer" in their gamertag and they were forced to change it. The person in question was not gay, so perhaps this is the best policy, but there are a few of potential problems. The first is that there is, believe it or not, different definitions for words such as the one mentioned above. The second is what happened here, where someone really is gay. Doesn't matter though, they either have to enforce it every time or not at all. Finally, who's to say what's offensive? I have another friend who had their gamertag banned because it contained the word "Fart".
Why do so many gay people seem to make it their mission in life to force their sexuality down everyone's throats as though they are some great crusade to change everyone else's morality?
Firstly, in just about every social situation I find myself in, the fact that I am heterosexual is completely irrelevant so I don't bother telling anyone that's the case. I'm sure there are many gay people who also have the same attitude - but why, in my experience, do so many gays (particularly men) have to make this outward show of their homosexuality? Like one gay colleague of mine who used to insist on trying to tell me about his latest sexual partner in graphic detail where I had not once ever discussed my sex life with him (or with anyone else) at work?
Secondly, I support 100% the idea that whatever goes on between 2 (or more) consenting adults is entirely their own business and if gay people want to fight for equal rights to heterosexuals then good luck to them. But please don't expect me to be particularly interested, okay? I don't want to see anyone being beaten up or killed for being gay, Christian, Muslim, black, etc. etc. but at the same time I don't consider homosexuality as normal behaviour from my own moralistic (and religious agnostic) viewpoint.
A lot of gay people really need to get it into their heads that most of us really don't care about their homosexuality - so just get on with it and stop forcing it down our throats all of the time.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
to put things in the right order again.
Oh, the beautiful gloss of greality!
IMO, this is more of an indication of the narrow-mindedness of the general Xbox-Live demographic than of Microsoft. Microsoft is a business, so it's likely that this person got banned because of a huge number of complaints from their customer base. They don't want to lose business, so they appeased their customers.
If however they didn't receive all that many complaints (comparatively speaking), then I think someone needs to take serious legal action against them if possible. It may sound a bit hypocritical or contradictory to hold them responsible in this case, but this to me sounds like a problem with the mindset of the general population, and Microsoft can't really be held responsible for that.
Gays and lesbians, on the other hand, must make an effort not to broadcast our orientation, and we do it by self-censoring what we talk about.
Lies, this small minority of society tries to force their radical gay agenda upon the vast majority of society and dictate all other people's norms and values according to their tastes.
What's that gay parade celebration for? A piece of propaganda funded by tax payers.
In a free society we can think what we want and also disagree.
if it came from a straight person, would not have attracted any notice whatsoever.
No shit Sherlock, cause the vast majority of people are straight otherwise humans would not exist.
What else can I do for you? Fund your gay parade and such?
Yeah, I'm off topic. So?
If they are being harsh on their consumer, I think people should read this "Nobody Farts in World of Warcraft" and think whether to start grinding wow gold now or be fooled by fools.
If they allow GayWhomever, must they then also allow FagMaster5000? if they banned such an individual I think it would be a reasonable move, but he might then claim discrimination. Idk. Better to just keep any form of it out than have to deal with the management and staffing issues resulting from having to identify and approve every name.
How do they determine what names to accept, and if they accept some, must they then accept all?
XBox Live isn't a place for hook-ups, so sexual preferences should not be listed in your profile. They'd suspend "I like to have sex with women" whether you're a man or woman.
I was under the impression that one of the top reasons men have been such excellent targets for sexual harassment cases (fairly or not) is that men have classically blurted out for everyone everywhere to listen about their sexuality. Like "Man you should have seen the legs on that babe. She was amazing!"
The thing is, even saying "Yeh, I'm a guy..." and later "Let me check with my boyfriend" is theoretically identifying as a homosexual or at least bi-sexual. Yet, if you say "Yeh, I'm a guy..." and later "Let me check with my girlfriend" then it's alright.
Frankly, I'm against the way the gay movement has been executed so far, but I respect what they are trying to accomplish... at least the serious ones.
FTA:
"Microsoft does nothing to stop this or prevent it, but instead sides with the homophobes. No one will help me get the word out about Microsoft's anti-gay policy. Not even the HRC who says Microsoft has a positive image with them. Not to me it doesn't!"
Sorry but if even the HRC (www.hrc.org) don't support her view then frankly I think there probably is more to it. Quite a few of Microsoft's top people are homosexual so it is also unlikely management would support a homophobic view.
I think there is more to this story than is being let on, all we have is one person claiming what happened, no evidence provided, no verification from anyone else and so on.
Her story just doesn't add up as someone who has been victimised when even the HRC sound like they basically told her to FO.
If she really has been victimised and the world is out to get her she could at least post e-mails from Microsoft but it's not like she's even done that.
I think we should go dance the Gay Gordons infront of Microsft.
You couldn't say "I had good competition earlier from Japan", because "tit", "jap", and for some reason "lier" were banned words, even if they were parts of other words.
The dryads in warcraft 3 randomly say "I'm gay".. ..might be why it's not available on the Xbox?
Dark Cloud? That's child abuse! :-) I hit a brick wall in the game when I had to level up the guy with the hammer because he was a required character on a level. Combine that with the water thing and the repairing weapons thing, which means you can end a level with essentially less money than you had when you went in, and you can find yourself in a position of becoming less able and less able to be able to pass that brick wall. The game needed more balancing work.
Dark Cloud 2 on the other hand fixes that, you can actually earn money. Much better game, well worth playing.
Got 'em both for Christmas. We've not bet the bonus dungeon of dark cloud, yet. I'm on like level 65 of the demon shaft. I was waiting to beat that before starting Dark Cloud 2. We didn't have any problems earning money. The problem is that even now at the end game bonus dungeon, you just don't earn anything. It's worse than dragon quest! (O.k. you do earn about 20 units of wealth per monster, but when the gems cost 3000 units of wealth each? And I hate their fishing minigame.) My advice is to take Hammer back to that first dungeon and level his weapon up there. Actually, at that point playing with Hammer was more a matter of luck than anything else. That game was fiendishly difficult in dungeon one! That just made us want to bet to more. It was a family project.
If they are being harsh on their consumer, I think people should read this "Nobody Farts in World of Warcraft" and think whether to start grinding wow gold now or be fooled by fools.
Actually it was R2D2 that was the flamer, you would not know it,
but he loved to being behind Luke on the xwing...you could always hear him scream...
"wreeeeeeeehhhh".
If enough people report you as causing problems, you get banned. If a few people where able to harass her enough and get enough people to report her, thems the breaks. She should have reported them and contacted Microsoft earlier. Its just rhetoric on her part. Its also entirely possible that she actually caused problems for other users, and being gays is just a convenient card for her to pull.
"...whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive...it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it..."
Ok I haven't been on Xbox live in awhile so maybe things have changed. I used to play Halo 2 online via xbox live.
I don't see the big deal. When I was on the only thing people seemed to talk about was identifying each other as: Gay, Fag, Homo, etc...
Seems like the whole community lead an alternative lifestyle really, so I am not sure what the big deal is about lesbians... Girls need love too y'know! :)
Whatever else you wish to say about opponents of homosexuality, they don't have a phobia
You are ignoring the dozens of publicly confirmed cases where anti-gay politicians, preachers and activists have been caught trying to hide their homosexual trysts. Deathly afraid of their own inner urges, they try to mortify everyone like themselves. And those are just the ones that we hear about because they're famous enough to make the news. At a conservative estimate, there are tens of thousands of self-repressed genuine homophobes in the USA.
So it's OKAY for a prepubescent boy to call me a faggot in his annoying shrill girly voice, but it's NOT OKAY for him to be RIGHT.
Someone pass me some of Microsoft's weed. I'll probably be seeing the invisible pink unicorn soon anyways.
Call me pedantic, but if she got banned for saying she's a lesbian, that's discrimination and a civil suit should follow. But... If she used the word "lesbian" in her profile, and that is considered to be against the terms of acceptable language, then she's SOL. Nobody has the right to ban you because they don't like who you are, but they do have the right to ban you for using words they don't allow on their service.
Beat that (if I managed). Sorry for trolling.
Would I also be banned if my screen name was heterosexual-bob? If so, its fair. If not then they are homophobic.
I'll be willing to accept a ban on advertising your sexual orientation in online games, so long as it came with a ban on *accusations* of sexual orientation.
Which is to say, you can ban this lesbian if I can ban everyone who ever types "u r so gay" online.
Your tactic here is known as 'poisoning the well.' You want to put a shadow of a doubt out there. You have no proof of any misconduct on this woman's part, but plenty of proof of other's misconduct. People shout 'fag' all the time on Xbox Live. Guys hit on girls all the time there. Yet no one punishes them. You hear this woman's story and immediately begin a propaganda campaign implying, again and again, that she must have done something offensive. Why is that?
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Become a Mac user, and you came come out in both ways...
*ducks*
- Written from my iPhone -
Nah, f**k it. Microsoft doesn't deserve another cent of my hard-earned money until they re-write their TOS and apologize to anyone who was banned.
And for those who say "think of the children," this is a teachable moment: people have sexual orientations, it's part of their identity as HUMANS. Asking gamers to never mention their orientation or their partners or anything related to sex is just not going to fly. Better to turn off the profiles altogether if you want us all to be cartoons, eh?
Also, my avatar is anatomically correct. Deal with it.
This is the type of reactionary /. story that I love. Somebody posts about a one-sided post about some possibly egregious policy of some company.
What we don't have is comment from the other side, either in the form of email or direct comment from the company in question. The XBox Live contract forbids the use of offensive terms. Are terms like lesbian and gay themselves offensive? No, but there is no way to have apply a policy automatically and have it understand context, so sexxylesbian69 would be singled as would WellAdjustedLesbian8. I'd like to see a response from Microsoft on the actual policy.
Do they automatically suspend accounts with "offending" tags and then reinstate them when the user can clarify the use? I don't know, the article doesn't tell me. In this example, there is likely some bad customer service, the CSR might not understand the policy and might just be quoting the only thing they know. Those who believe they have been wronged ought to push to have the call escalated to a supervisor who might be able to fully explain the policy and actually help.
It would be nice if the linked article were actually a piece of "journalism rather than another opportunity to prove how bad Microsoft is, even though we still by their products.
Dude, we're talking about Microsoft. The word isn't "Competition," it's "Domination." It's synonymous with "Cheating," even when playing by the rules (to remove any distinction between "domination" and "cheating").
Support my political activism on Patreon.
Parent post is an obvious troll. For a lot of people their religious beliefs are something they take seriously, probably as seriously as they do their sexual preference. To say that "hounding" someone based on one of these is to be encouraged and that the other is to be condemned is hypocritical.
Don't forget how he loved to 'probe' every electric orifice he ever passed by...
I think it's time for all of us to add "I'm a lesbian" to our profiles. Let Microsoft ban us all!
Nah, you need to go search for profiles that mention "husband", "wife", "boyfriend", "girlfriend", or "partner" and complain to Microsoft that the explicit mention of sexuality offends you and according to their terms of service, they must ban the offending party. If Microsoft wants no discussion of sexuality, make them play by their own rules. I'd do it myself, but I don't do XBOX (Live or otherwise).