You know what Microsoft's Xbox Live does not consider offensive enough to ban? Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned, where players steal, harass other characters, beat on prostitutes, and shoot to kill. And Resident Evil 4, where players encounter a dead female corpse pinned against the wall with a pitchfork through her face in the first few minutes of game play. And NARC, where players smoke pot, roll on ecstasy, and get high on LSD to make their characters stronger. And 50 Cent: Bulletproof, where players take part in drive-bys and gang warfare to buy new music videos. But you know what Xbox Live does deem too offensive? Identifying yourself as a lesbian in your player profile.
As stated in the Xbox Live Terms of Use, a member may not create a gamertag or use text in other profile fields that include comments that look, sound like, stand for, hint at, abbreviate, or insinuate content of a potentially sexual nature. Profiles that do are asked to change the language and suspended until changes are made. In regards to sexual orientation, for gamertags or profiles we do not allow expression of any type of orientation, be that hetero or other. Players can, however, self identify in voice communication where context is more easily explained to all players involved.
Harassment of any kind is not condoned and is taken very seriously; we strongly encourage Xbox Live members to immediately report inappropriate behavior through the compliant tools in the service so that it can be investigated and the appropriate action taken.
The Xbox Live community grows daily, and we continue to explore methods and levels of enforcement to enhance the ways our members connect and have fun, while adhering to a code of conduct that encourages respect and keeps the service safe and fun for all our members.
There’s been a ton of commentary on a Consumerist post about Theresa ... Since most of the commentary has become rather emotionally charged, I wanted to talk about how things work inside Xbox because I think a lot of people are latching on to some kind of “Microsoft sides with homophobes” meme. ...
A few months ago when this first cropped up as something that displeased people, my team saw that although the policy was objective, it’s inelegant. At that time we proactively engaged the LGBT community within Microsoft, as well as external LGBT groups to help inform our policy.
Some people say “hey it’s easy, just stop banning instances of the word ‘Gay’”. We looked at that as a solution, the problem is when reviewing the complaint data historical record, we found that 95+% of the uses of the word “Gay” were pejorative. ...
This led me to a bit of an epiphany. Our policy was inelegant because it was being applied to features that weren’t quite prepared for the range of content. And it changed our thinking about a solution. The key here is to have ways for people to express their individuality or community in a way that’s difficult to misuse.
All of this is meant to say we’re not some monolithic corporation trying to establish social mores. We’re not enforcing censorship or bigotry. In fact harassment of gamers of any type be it homophobia or racism or other, is expressly forbidden and my team will take action against it, up to and including a permanent ban.
It’s a tough problem, but for the past few months we’ve been engaged with internal and external community representatives to help solve it. I don’t have anything to announce about it other than we’re working to try and provide the capability for people to more clearly express themselves in ways that are difficult to misuse.
GLAAD has weighed in. Its statement is here, and includes this:
The online world provides unprecedented anonymity for people. They can, and do, say what they want. Unfortunately, in online gaming that has often translated to homophobic, racist, and misogynistic attacks.
Look at some of these staggering numbers from a survey done in 2007:
88% of respondents said they had heard the phrase “that’s so gay” while 84% said they had heard ‘gay’ used in a derogatory fashion. Over 50% said they felt that games portray gay people in a stereotypical way, while 42% believe gays are under-represented in games. 15% said the industry creates a culture where gay employees “feel like they must stay in the closet”. 52% believed that the gaming community is hostile to gay and lesbian gamers. Only 9% said they “never” encounter anti-gay sentiments from online gamers.
...
As for the rampant homophobia in the online gaming community, GLAAD is also working to address that. In addition to meeting with gaming companies, we’re planning to host a panel discussion early this summer in Silicon Valley. We’ll be discussing the issue and getting feedback from both the LGBT and gaming community about how to fight the defamation and educate users about the impact of their words and actions.
We’re truly in a new era. And with new technologies, come new challenges. LGBT people have fought hard for years to come out of real-world closets — we’re not willing to accept virtual ones.
Anyone who has ever witnessed loved ones coming out — struggling to find the words to say, wondering if they will be rejected by their most cherished friends or family simply for being who they are — knows that even in 2006 America, being open and honest about being gay is still difficult, and at times all-too-dangerous.
Coming out and being open is an act of bravery and honesty. That's something that any mother, friend or family member can and should be proud of.
It is hard enough in this world for gay people to come out, and be open about who they are. It becomes even more difficult and daunting during times when gay people are publicly slandered ...
The bottom line is that families are more whole, friendships are more substantial and nations are stronger when we are all able to stand together in spite of our differences and because of our similarities.
Visibility. Because too many of us don't acknowledge or understand the role hate plays in our daily lives and, more to the point, the role it plays online on social networking and gaming sites. We also don't consider how we contribute to the problem or what we can do to change it. The more conversations we have, the more we talk about what happened to Teresa and what happens to other who are harassed on a daily basis but remain silent, the more we can illustrate how homophobia manifests itself and how to replace hate, ignorance, and even indifference, with acceptance.
Visibility. Try it. For everyone's sake, but especially for the sake of all the gays and lesbians who fall victim to the Mr.Buttars and Mr. Warrens in this world and others more 'fantastic,' and all the Mr. Gays that fall between them in the world's phone books.
© 2009 Kim Ficera
All I can say is, "Right on, Kim."
Posted by: Elizabeth Hilts | February 27, 2009 at 04:07 PM