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Microsoft Suspends Gamer For Being From Fort Gay
maclizard writes "The town's name is real. But when Josh Moore tried to tell Seattle-based Microsoft and the enforcement team at Xbox Live that Fort Gay was a real place, they wouldn't take his word for it. Or Google it. Or check the US Postal Service website for a ZIP code. I personally feel for those of you from Big Bone Lick, KY."
The summary stops a bit short... they already unsuspended him, the article even says so at the end.
For those with less-than cast iron stomachs, that site is NSFW and _is_ goatse.
499 Odd City names: http://www.keepersoflists.org/index.php?lid=3864
Now I've just rendered every post after mine redundant. Have at it, mods.
I honestly don't care if people are offended or not, just posted so people who are at work aren't going to have a giant goatse ass on their monitor :p
While we're at it, let's note that "lame" has been used for "undesirable" for some time. The problem is it is *also* used to indicate physical disability.
It is difficult to keep up with what offends people, indeed.
That's right - "gay" has been used for "lame" for decades now. The problem is that it is *also* used to indicate homosexuality.
And even before it meant "lame", gay meant happy or enjoyable.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scunthorpe_problem
Please read my Canon EOS tech blog at http://www.everyothershot.com
There's the way that men treat women in general (which has its own share of dismissal, ridicule, and voilence), and then there's the way that transphobes react - its a second knife wound that most people simply don't have to deal with, and have absolutely no concept of how much it cuts to the core. And we all encounter it at some point during our transition. And you hope it doesn't get to the point where you have to call the police because you don't know how THEY are going to react.
Of course, these same people couldn't do what we have to do to be ourselves - not for one day, never mind for a lifetime. Could you picture one of them even pretending to have "the talk" with one of their friends? Heck no! They'd volunteer to have their appendix removed without anesthesia first. That's "manly". Same as not asking for directions, leaving their dirty clothes on the floor, and not changing the toilet paper roll when they finish it - or leaving half a square neatly balanced on the roll so they can say they didn't "really" finish it. Come on you guys reading this, fess up, you do this all the time, and it bugs us that you think we're that stupid. It's 3-ply paper, and you leave a one-ply half square sitting there like an orphan, and you're hoping that when we open the door the draft won't blow away your sorry "excuse" for not changing it. You dissect the toilet paper, and then walk around all day making skid marks in your formerly-tidy-whiteys, rather than change the stupid roll of toilet paper.
In many cases, at some level, at least some of the transphobes know that we have more courage than they do. They don't understand that the real act of courage was confronting the issue and looking at the alternatives, ranging from depressing to grim, and then asking for help and acceptance in an uncertain and sometimes-hostile world.
There are posters on slashdot who are still afraid to "come out" about being trans, simply because they know that someone, somewhere, is going to be an ass. So they stay hidden, same as they do in their personal lives - because they are afraid of the consequences of being "discovered". Been there, done that, traded in the tshirt for a bra and skirt. It's what's right for me, and while I'm willing to discuss it with those who have a problem with it, in the end I'm not the one with the problem.
This is not to imply that slashdot is infested with transphobes - quite the contrary. Most of the slashdot crowd is very supportive, and I owe them for that. At least that's been my experience after I wrote this and this and people began to ask how I knew so much about the whole "woman trapped in the wrongly-gendered body" experience.
On a final note, I guess I really should see if it's possible to change the account name, because when I post something funny and people who don't know go "Dude! That was great!" I'm caught between laughing at the incongruity and going *sigh*. It makes for some interesting back-and-forth. And this account has great karma and lots of equally-great fans.
I'm transgendered as well... I know it's a bit cliche to those that don't understand what we go through, but I've known my entire life. I've struggled with it my entire life, knowing that I can never be accepted for who I am if I reveal myself, finding myself in the position of either rejecting myself (being forced to be something I know I am not) or being rejected by others if I admit who I am. Even that said, I was in denial for a long time, first thinking I was a bit quirky, then thinking I was a cross dresser, then finally admitting to myself that I don't wear womens clothes for the thrill of wearing womens clothes, I do so because that is when I am at peace with myself.
Looking back, I had started modifying myself in subtle ways to find some alignment with my internal gender. I was scared as hell to pierce my ears even though plenty of guys had done it long before me, since I had feared that it would be a strong indicator of what I was hiding inside and despite having a plethora of holes in my ears today, very few people to this day have still seen me with so much as a diamond stud in my ears. I added more hidden girly things over time for myself to enjoy - more ear holes (pieces of monofilament plastic work well to heal and retain them while barely being noticeable), a belly ring, pierced nostril, and shaved legs. I've become bolder in some other aspects, growing my nails out some, wearing clear nail polish, plucking my eyebrows to give them a little neutral definition, wearing heels hidden by pants in public, etc. I've been debating giving myself a permanent acknowledgment of who I am, considering getting maybe the girliest mark of all, a butterfly tramp stamp, but I'm afraid of the consequences of getting accidentally caught since there will be no denying what it is.
Which gets us back to the struggle between who we are inside and what society expects from us based on the outside. My dad has made enough statements in my life that I know he could never accept me and my mom is such a mess herself, that her entire sanity depends on her perception of me somehow being perfect. If I admitted who I was to her, I have no doubts that she'd have a complete psychological breakdown. I'm afraid my two best friends wouldn't handle it well, though I have begun broaching the subject by mocking myself, showing up to last year's Halloween party as a bad mockery of a tranny hooker. That went over well, but as far as they knew, it was a total mockery, just a costume. I have told a few people, all but one of which is female, most of whom have taken it fairly well. Support has ranged from total (followed by a complete betrayal by the same person, so ultimately, that was a lie), to hesitant with much joking to try to come to terms with it, to mostly somewhere in between.
I've struggled with depression for most of my life, even going on long stretches of suicidal depression... for anyone that thinks we wake up one day, wanting to flip a switch to try the other side out for fun, they simply have no clue what we have to go through. Three of the women I've told have been either ex-girlfriends or potential future ones (yeah, haha, I really am a lesbian stuck in a man's body), including the one who eventually betrayed my friendship to make a new suitor happy, and I've come to the conclusion that, while they're fine with what I am as a friend, a more intimate relationship is pretty much out of the question. That, in turn, has caused more despair, as I realize that, sooner or later, I'll almost certainly eventually die alone with dreams that most people take for granted completely unfulfilled. This type of life is hell and nobody would voluntarily choose it. If pedophiles are the one group everyone is encouraged to hate, transsexuals are the one group everyone is encouraged to mock... largely because people don't and, frankly, don't want to, understand us (and sadly, I know quite a few gay people that dislike transsexuals since they're convinced that we're merely gay and would rather change gender to conform to society th