In yet another unfortunate case of Microsoft's political correctness backfiring, Xbox Live became the scene of a fresh case of banned homosexual behavior. A female gamer who outed herself as a lesbian found her account barred from Live after Microsoft responded to bigoted and homophobic complaints.
"I was harassed by several players, 'chased' to different maps/games to get away from their harassment," explains the former Xbox Live customer, detailing the effects of her Gamertag profile stating her sexuality. "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.
"As if Xbox Live is really appropriate for kids anyways! My account was suspended and Xbox Live did nothing to solve this, but instead said others found it offensive."
Now, I can see what Microsoft is doing. By banning and all mention of gays and lesbians from its servers, the platform holder is enacting a scorched earth policy on all potentially offensive material. Logically, if nobody can use the word "gay," nobody can use the word derogatorily.
However, this kind of situation is clearly sending a very wrong message, and it does look like Microsoft "sides with bigots," as the victim of the ban accuses. It's a knotty and difficult question, but MS is only making itself look as bad as the pathetic homophobes with its current answer.
Also, since when did male gamers hate the idea of lesbians? That just confirms my belief that most Xbox Live players are latent homosexuals.
Contest:
5:40 PM on 02.25.2009
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M$, what is the meaning of these shenanigans?
For some reason, Halo just makes me want to put my nuts on another man's face. I've never been able to understand it.
Also, if anybody gets upset over someone's sexual orientation, they seriously need to rethink their priorities and get a grip on reality.
It's only to be expected that the state of society will be in a flux while the acceptance of homosexuals is a slow process. The same thing happened to blacks in the wake of the civil rights movement. Eventually, people realized they were being imbeciles, and got with the program.
But, as with every evolutionary change, for better or worse, there are casualties.
Parental controls.
Don't ban what your kids see. Ban your fanny until you can control what plops out of it.
(to quote that mediocre comedian)
This does make Microsoft look awful, although I do have to wonder whenever something like this comes up why you would have a user name like "lesbian_babe18" or whatever she calls herself. Is it really progressive at all, or is it just a ploy for attention that can backfire?
Not that she isn't entitled to use any name she wants despite Microsoft and their BS, I just don't see the appeal of picking that sort of name.
Who cares if your are playing with gay/lesbian people, what difference does that make at all?
MS is just as bad for banning this person.
I also agree with Volomon.....
Why should Microsoft reverse the decision? It's a private network, and they haven't done anything illegal.
Being straight/gay/black/whatever has nothing to do with gaming, and flaunting shit like that in the cesspool of XBL is looking for trouble.
Is microsoft telling people they can't identify themselves in certain ways? I don't see how calling yourself a lesbian hurts anyone. Sure, it angers ignorant people, but really, those ignorant people shouldn't be able to control the contents of another user's profile. Part of being in a community is identifying each other's lifestyles and forming bonds.
If it were any other undue reason for which a person had been banned, this shit would have already been taken care of.
*reads over his comment again before deciding to whether or not it's suita-*
This is complete bullshit.
Who are you to tell people what does and doesn't concern gaming. It is subjective. Have you been to the C-Blogs here? You'll notice that gaming spills into other avenues of a persons life. When you immerse yourself in a hobby, you can equate anything you want to it.
First off, when I think of things that should get a person banned I think of Racism, Sexism, words which the censors have decided are unfit. I don't think calling yourself gay fits into anything like that. Your sexual alignment is part of who you are, but when you are in a minority, like a gay women videogamer, I'd imagine you'd have to advertise it if you wanted to meet others who are like you.
And secondly, here you are telling me that gaming has nothing to do with sexuality? Have you ever played a video game? Pick ten random games and examine the female characters.
Either way, this is just Microsoft taking the easy way out instead of trying to get to the heart of the matter. Why aren't the people who were oppressing her in the first place punished?
"That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness."
Exerpt from the Declaration of Independence. Since when can someone's sexual orientation effect their basic human rights as set forth by that document? Is it an over the top answer to this problem? Maybe as its applied to government more than private enterprise. But a private enterprise can't deny people these rights just because they are a private enterprise.
Second: I'm going to go try this on live with one of my secondary gamertags to see what happens.
Oh my god, you people are freaking insane! Once again, when you start making demands like that, you start putting up barriers.
It is none of your business why this person, assuming she lives in a free country, decided to list her sexual orientation on her fucking live profile. Does she have to have a reason to bring it up? Is there a rule that says you can only list "video game related" items on your profile? Well then what is the point of a profile? Isn't it a place to talk about yourself?
If you start regulating what people can and cannot say on their profiles(so long as it is harmful to no one, which I'm pretty sure calling yourself a lesbian fits), then you are taking away the freedom to be an individual.
Because a lot of people are proud to be "X" and see no problem with letting other people know.
@kaspar
I am sure they were gay guys too.
The trolls.
Do you think that is clever? You took the easy road. If you disagree, at least argue your point. Don't just say "Nah Nah Nah Fatty Fat Fat." like a fucking 5 year old.
It makes you sound ignorant.
How many companies/consoles have you been accused of being a fanboy of.
Also, are you a fanboy of anything?
This was MS saying "don't suck", and she sucked. And then got ban hammered. I don't care about anyone's sexual preference, doesn't bother me one bit. But again, if MS says no on their service, nothing you can really do. I remember getting my profile locked til I took out a reference to standing around in a fight with my pants down. Didn't think it was really offensive, but oh well, someone else did.
I thought it was an interesting post, so just because you don't care about it doesn
I just realized how pointless arguing with you would be.
@ALBINGYNO
Fuck off. This community doesn't need more trolls.
@Jim
I <3 you
If you hate him so much, then leave. The rest of us wouldn't mind, Mr. No Blog and Five Comments.
I agree, MS is siding with bigots. Next they'll ban Middle Eastern users (for having "AllahPwnsJesus" as their tag), then it's the Jewish gamer tags ("HebrewSpammer") then what's next? Hindi("KaliBBQSAUCE")? Asians("KillRoundEyeDevil")? Africans? South Americans?
Someone pointed out that people are allowed to have "straight" names.. This screams of a double standard.
Check off another reason that I refuse to subscribe! (other than me paying for internet twice)
You can mock people and call them forum activists, but you don't know what people do in their own time. And do you know what is worse than a forum ACITVIST? I'd say a forum DETRACTOR. Especially when we are talking about rights.
If the only way that people can get attention is through being "forum activists", then let them. We've seen fast responses from news getting spread over the internet. No company wants to look like Nazis.
I think the worst thing you can do is just lay back and take it. Either you don't care about other people's rights, which is bad. Or you do care, but you are too much of a pussy or too lazy to say anything, which is worse. Or maybe you just have this delusion that the world is too big now and things can never get accomplished, but I'd say that is incorrect. People have a louder voice NOW than they ever have.
Look at the overall response to this. Looks pretty negative wherever you go. I've seen it on a few sites, actually. I like that people are responding negatively. I would start to worry if everyone posted the "just lay back and take it" post, like you did.
If it was in the fine print, people didn't know about it. Now they do. When you are voting with your dollar it doesn't help that PSN is free. And for the Halo fans, Killzone 2 is right around the corner. Bad time to look like a bunch of space nazis.
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!
Seriously, it doesn't matter if what MS done is wrong, which it is, they have'nt done anything illegal. Sadly, this is how things are at the moment, amd will remain for a lomg time.
The only real thing we, as gamers, as human beings can do is to lodge complaints with MS over this, but I have a feeling that will have no avail whatsoever. :(
Anyway, seeing as I am a muslim, BACK TO KILLING THE GAYS AND THE EVIL INFADELS!!!!!!!!!!! MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!
/end sarcasm
The ones who sould be banned are the harassers, they too broke the ToC's, yet we see no justice, MS is a big fat hypocrite, simple as.
It is crazy how, the more you talk, the more ignorant you sound. How do you do that? Is it just a troll thing, or does it stretch into other aspects of your life?