Microsoft has had to apologize after banning a resident of Fort Gay due to the "offensive" nature of his location. Josh Moore is a resident of Fort Gay in West Virginia, but Microsoft decided it didn't need to verify that, and simply banned him because "ohmygod that word has gay in it!"

Even when Moore argued that Fort Gay was a real town, Microsoft refused to hear him out. The company suspended all his gaming privileges until he could provide evidence that the location was genuine. Microsoft warned Moore that if he put "Fort Gay" back in his profile, they'd axe his account and keep the two years of Xbox Live Gold membership that he'd pre-paid. 

"At first I thought, 'Wow, somebody's thinking I live in the gayest town in West Virginia or something.' I was mad. ... It makes me feel like they hate gay people," says Moore. "I'm not even gay, and it makes me feel like they were discriminating."

Microsoft's Stephen Toulouse has since confirmed that the situation is rectified and that his company "is going to make it right." All I can do is shake my head. Ironic to think that Microsoft banned Moore because they thought he was being childish, but only managed to make the entire company look juvenile and immature in the process. 

Gamer suspended over name of W.Va. town: Fort Gay [Yahoo]

Legacy Comments (will be imported soon)

Necro BABS

Rectified .... Get it? Fort gay??? This is why I leave it to Jim to deliver the funny.

MidnightOwl

So that's where you get all of those header images Jim; vacation photos from Fort Gay!!

;)

PenKaizen

Oh I get it, because Rectum.

Neroisonfire

Was it a guy named bigmoose working for them? ;o

seriously, thats rather stupid. I'm really interested in what they feel is enough compensation to make things right considering I'm pretty sure that's illegal on some level.

MuddBstrd

What!? You mean Fort Gay isn't like Whore Island for gay people!? Damn it, and I already booked my flight!

Also, that header image is awesome.

Estrelas

~sigh~ Microsoft...seriously?

Pic0o

So... I wonder what the salary is for the ToS skimmers working for XBL. It must be some hard work (inadvertent, but still awesome) it must be trolling a database for words so morally offensive, like gay.

Not to mention, are MS employees not allowed to use google earth?

As I conclude this post, I realize the MS XBL ToS people are likely outsourced for shit to nothing, thus have no desire to apply some logic and geography.

Mr Andy Dixon

Wow, what a bunch of shit. I thought they were supposedly stopping this practice?

wickedsickzombie

Wow. That looks extremely bad on Microsofts part. I'm curious as to what "going to make it right" is?

Sentry

It really boggles my mind that things like this are still going down.

falinter

Why don't they ban everyone living on the Bering STRAIT or everyone who is from LEBANON cause oh shit its almost LESBIAN.

Killrig

This probably the outcome of outsourced support from Microsoft.

There. I said it.

Almost all large companies outsource customer and tech support these days. Including Amazon and Dell.

Qraze

corporationism only furthers fascism.

KingSigy

Jesus tap dancing Christ, why does Microsoft hate gay people so much? Xbox Live is an open platform where people should be allowed to be themselves and live in towns with the word "Gay" in them. For fuck's sake, MS!

watermanx

Lolzipan

Elsa

... Seriously, MS employees have never heard of Google?? How hard is it to Google the location to verify it.
Yeah, this makes MS look stupid on multiple levels.

Ujn Hunter

Haha! Microsoft is homophobic! Be careful!

andycadaver

Good god, how many times has this happened now? They clearly don't give a shit, otherwise it would stop happening. Even now with the price hike, they're definitely not doing much to improve their image. Which is why I've always kinda thought of them as the Wal-Mart of media corporations.

Ujn Hunter

Now... if he lived in Castle Lesbian...

Darren Nakamura

I understand why they do stuff like this (to keep "gay" from being used as a derogatory term so that people don't get offended), but they really don't handle things very well.

jawshoeuh

haaaaaaaaaahahahahahaha

Kaoslyon

Wow. That's ga.. oh wait.

@Killrig

Fact. Pray you never have to deal with Xbox Live support. It's like slamming your head into a bed of rusty nails covered in lye, over and over again.

Cynical Gamer

I wonder if they banned anyone from Intercourse, PA.

Killrig

@Kaoslyon

I've yet to get support from XBL, but I recently had a 2.5 hour nightmare from Dell's tech support that STILL resulted in my calling back the next day because they forgot to process my return. Unbelievable. I have nothing against outsourcing work, as it improves the economy of other countries, however it becomes a problem for me when I have to call them back 3 times when they didn't do what they said they would.

arbsnotdead

he should've told the to use bing, not google.

Ace829

ShadeOfLight

*sees location is Fort Gay*
*googles 'Fort Gay'*
*finds out it exists*

Seriously, what's so difficult about that, MS employees?
It literally takes 30 seconds...tops.

arbsnotdead

yeah.

RenegadePanda

I thought you were allowed to say gay now. What happened to that?

So they can jump on some guy for using the word 'gay' but they can't manage to ban the foul mouthed 13 year olds spewing actually offensive shit from Modern Warfare? The world works in mysterious ways indeed.

ShadeOfLight

@arbsnotdead

Yeah, that is weird.
I mean; come on, Macon? That's almost like bacon. And that's just silly

eskimo bob

this is the stupidest thing I think I've read all year.

TheToiletDuck

What next? The residents of Hotejaculatingcockalloveryourtitsandface getting banned too?

Also, i'm moving to Fort Gay with MuddBstrd

electrikmayhem

So, clearly they learned nothing from that whole thing with GLAAD last year. This is kind of surprising to me since this happened after they announced that they wouldn't ban people for gay gamertags. I guess all it proves is that Microsof reserves the right to hypocrisy whenever the fuck they feel like it.

cobacel

Microsoft is jsut bullshit ..... I mean come on wtf is this ...... there is a place called DICK LAKE .....

cobacel

I know it may not be allowed but this site only contains 499 funny city names wich many contain city names that microsoft would BANN on SIGHT ! http://www.keepersoflists.org/index.php?lid=3864

JulianProxy

Microsoft needs to just stop this. They are not a homophobic organization by any stretch of the imagination, but they do this stuff, which is clearly contrary to all of their other practices. Instead, how about instead of blanket banning of anything that says "gay" in it, they actually spend some effort to stop legitimate harassment? It can't work out any worse than their current approach!

Ace829

I really hate political correctness sometimes.

runtheplacered

lol

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Gay

Used to be called Cassville but people kept making the sign say "assville". So they changed it to fort gay? Hilarious.

Corduroy Turtle

Fort Gay reminds me of Fuck City from Arrested Developement.

mix

A day in the life of a MS Live worker
Crack knucles and stretch
ctrl+f
"gay"
Enter
1 match found
"Fort Gay"
Ban account

Sips coffee, good day.

meteorscrap

Hey, at least he doesn't live in Dildo, NF.

Yeah. There's a Canadian town called Dildo. Guess what my cousin living there DOESN'T put as his location for precisely this reason?

idrawrobots

My brother got banned for having his location as "yor room -_-" so this is not that big a deal.

Judo Porkchop

*facepalm*

rinkuhero

(13:24:22) fartron: "Ironic to think that Microsoft banned Moore because they thought he was being childish, but only managed to make the entire company look juvenile and immature in the process."
(13:24:28) ***fartron looks back at the picture at the top of the article
(13:25:02) RinkuHero: fartron the article is by
(13:25:04) RinkuHero: jim sterling
(13:25:06) RinkuHero: so what did you expect

meteorscrap

In fact, here's a short list of fun places to call your home if you're wary of the Microsoft ToS.

Anus, France
Climax, Michigan
Climax, Minnesota
Climax, Pennsylvania
Condom, France
Fucking, Austria
Hell, Norway
Hell, Michigan
Intercourse, Pennsylvania
Pussy, France
Tittybong, Victoria
Twatt, Shetland
Wank (mountain)

Corbanski

Fucking Microsoft. Some one should sue them.

Froody42

If it weren't such a trivial matter, I think he could actually have sued them if they had gone through with this. After all, they threatened to withhold the subscription he paid for, just because he gave his correct adress.

Sherwood513

Jim, make sure you follow up and let us know if he gets anything worthwhile out of this mess.

Mr Andy Dixon

@Corduroy Turtle

"Fort Gay reminds me of Fuck City from Arrested Developement."

Check your lease, man.

Excel-2011

It's his fault for living in an immature city to begin with. He should have known better than to put that in the registration form.