Another reason to dislike Microsoft.

[alfredo]

http://consumerist.com/5160187/identifying-yourself-as-a-lesbian-gets-you-banned-on-xbox-live

Identifying Yourself As A Lesbian Gets You Banned On XBOX Live
By Meg Marco, 11:53 AM on Wed Feb 25 2009, 77,034 views
Teresa says that she was harassed by other players and later suspended from XBOX Live because she identified herself as a lesbian in her profile. When she appealed to Microsoft, she says they told her that other gamers found her sexual orientation "offensive."

Teresa says:

Read her comment at the link.

[cliffordu]

1. Complete and utter pukes

And I mean vomit.

[alfredo]

2. They disgust me.

[MADem]

3. That sounds insane to me. Doesn't the latest FABLE game have gays and lesbians in it?

How can that possibly be "offensive" if Microsoft puts out an XBOX product that includes GLB people?

[Lost in CT]

21. Yes and FABLE allows gay marriage. Microsoft is more liberal than California. nt

[alfredo]

30. That's what is puzzling. They should have banned the stalkers.

[Lost in CT]

31. I think it is part of a larger generic rule.

XBOX Live is a cesspool. Kinda like the comments section at most local papers.

Honestly Microsoft should find a way to ban the under 18's from the service.

[alfredo]

33. The under 18 crowd is responsible for harassment, not adults?

[Lost in CT]

35. Pretty much. And lets face it outside of pedophiles and magic the Gathering fans

no one wants to play with other peoples children.

I think that setting up a separate XBOX live for adults is one simple solution.

And the fact is children really have no business playing the XBOX anyway. The under 18's should stick with Nintendo and like it. :evilgrin:

[alfredo]

40. Nintendo is good for us geriatrics too. Wii!!

[Occam Bandage]

39. Absolutely. The nasal little voices of 14-year-olds shouting "faggot" at each other

is probably the primary reason I do not own an xbox.

[ZombieHorde]

4. According to some of the remarks, people are also forbidden to

identify themselves as Jewish in their gamer tags.

[alfredo]

7. Why not punish the stalkers, not the victims?

[Deja Q]

15. Because that would be effective and reduce the number of future, profitable shock-jock stories.

[alfredo]

16. I got to stop being practical

[fujiyama]

5. Strange policy and very stupid. Hope she is let back on LIVE.

There are plenty of reasons to hate MS, but on the issue of gay and lesbians in the workforce, I always thought they were pretty progressive, being one of the first companies to offer same sex couples benefits.

[alfredo]

6. Yeah, and Live is an adult game.

[MADem]

22. HUH??? Xbox live is for "kids of all ages." nt

[alfredo]

34. OK, kids and adults that haven't grown up.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

8. Does this have to do with overactive filters?

People kept using "gay" as a slur so somebody added "gay" to the filter?

[Greyhound]

9. K&R #5, as if we needed another one. n/t

:hi:

[YOY]

10. Consoleland is full of 5-year-olds and those with that mentality.

Shame I don't game with her. I'd be sticking up for her 500%.

[alfredo]

11. People need to grow up.

[YOY]

13. It's too easy and anonymity is there.

Guaranteed those who did it were not even adults.

[alfredo]

17. Maybe not emotionally adult.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

12. Microsoft is a utterly schizoid company.

They were one of the first to offer partner benefits for gay employees, and then you see something like this.

[Deja Q]

14. Yup. Blame the whole company... I wonder, what if Microsoft was black?

(now do you get it? One dipshit employee, and a 50/50 chance it's an offshored one, probably did that covertly.)

"They". Did she speak to one person? Or more? Was it Steve Ballmer ad his top echelon? They are the ones who are Microsoft; the workers just work there. Prove that and there's a case. Otherwise it's just one jackanapes trying to make the company look bad.

BTW: Microsoft ex-CEO (he retired) pumps a lot of money into AIDS research via his foundation, and that was even before he retired. I don't think Bill Gates is homophobic and if he is, that's his problem.

[alfredo]

18. The thing is, once they heard of the problem, they punished the victim

anyway. They had more than enough time to do the right thing, but didn't.

[cui bono]

19. Sadly, if she had posted a pic of her kissing another female

those same gamers would've most likely loved it.

[taterguy]

20. Who cares? Gamers never have actual sex anyway

:hide:

[TWiley]

23. I think they are terrified of church types ..... kids and homosexuals

The typical wrong but media-supported stereotype.

Another reason to dislike Microsoft. You nailed that one.

[Roadless]

24. That's horrible.

Don't forget you have to pay money to get on Xbox Live.

Pathetic service.

[EOTE]

25. XBox Live Silver is free.

You only need to pay for the Gold service and that's only like $4 a month. Not bad for unlimited gaming. And with regards to the OP, apparently Microsoft has clarified and said that they don't allow any identifying information regarding sexual identity of any kind, not just gay/lesbian. Seeing as that's the case, I don't see much wrong with it.

[dem mba]

26. no i think it's ok

imagine it's Disney World Online (hypotheticaly - I'm not sure that even exists) and it's a social networking site. Surely, Disney is ok demanding all users remove any reference to sex or sexuality in their user ids. I mean, think of the children!

Now maybe its a stretch to say Microsoft is just like a Disney Online, but its not such a bad policy to remove ALL refrences to sex or sexuality in a user's id, to avoid any potential controversies like this one. If you follow the links in the OP, MS's policy is a blanket policy, covering anything sex-related, even hetero "activities".

[jayfish]

38. The Problem Is That Is Over-broad And Only Selectively Enforceable.

For instance; should identifying one's self as having a wife or husband lead to being banned? How about listing that you have children? If so, do you think there is any possible way to enforce that across the board?

Jay

[endarkenment]

27. What's funny about this (not really ha ha funny, just bizarre)

is that if you have been around one of the online games with the audio on, the homophobic slurs are just about all you hear, everyone is a fag and everything is gay.

[alfredo]

29. I'm glad I never got into online games. Usenet was as wild as I cared

to get.

[OhioChick]

28. Wow......

K&R

[Occam Bandage]

32. I'm fine with a no-sexuality, no-race rule. Live is a cesspool.

It's easier to just say, fine, keep sex and race to yourself, because it's obvious this community is too dumb to handle it. The alternative is to simply ban everyone under 18, but they won't do that for obvious financial reasons.

[Lost in CT]

37. I would pay extra for a seperate no kids service. nt

[Dont_Bogart_the_Pretzel]

36. Wouldn't it be a kicker if someone hacked XBOX user dataBase and changed everyones

sexual orientation?

What would Micro$oft do then?

[alfredo]

42. Or make Pederast as a tag.

[Taverner]

41. Fuckers

Why would anyone take "offense" to what someone is?

That's like someone saying they take offense to you listing yourself as Black, or a Redhead, or a Left handed person.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

43. Microsoft Did NOTHING Wrong Here. Misguided Anger.

Their rules are more than CLEAR as it relates to what is and isn't acceptable in a gamertag or profile. Maybe theresa should learn how to friggin read.

The rules are actually quite logical and there to protect EVERYBODY. Many people use those orientations for mockery or otherwise, and there is no way to discern the difference. That's why as a policy, in order to be consistent, they ban the use of such terms for EVERYBODY, including terms referencing heterosexuality. It is a good rule, and this outrage is completely misguided and misplaced.

[jayfish]

44. Do You Actually Use XBLIVE? Because It Doesn't Sound Like...

you know what the fuck your talking about.

:dunce:

Jay

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

45. Actually I Do. And It Is You That Sounds That Way To Be Honest.

:dunce:

[jayfish]

46. Sorry, I've Been On LIVE Since It's Inception.

The enforcement of "rules" as you quoted is so selective as to be non-existent. If you've spent any time on LIVE at all that would be obvious to you.

Jay

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

47. Then It's Common Sense You Are Avoiding On This Topic.

Just like the illogical cries of those here who say "how come this post wasn't deleted wah wah", when the answer was simply because no one alerted on it, the same goes for LIVE. If people don't alert on the gamertag or profile in enough numbers to bring it to someone's attention, then it is quite illogical to make a claim that it was selectively left alone.

Prove the selective deletions. Betcha can't.

Fact is, the woman in the OP broke the rules that are made quite clear upon signing up. Microsoft does not have discriminatory rules, but instead very thorough and broad rules that incorporate every gender and sexuality. Turning this story into a "Microsoft is evil!!!!!!" story is just dumb.

[jayfish]

48. You're Right About The "Microsoft Is Evil" Stuff.

They're not evil, just dumb and shortsighted. Now, with regards to this whole "no one reported it so they can't do anything" bit. It's a closed system that people pay to use. It's not a free message board. If they can't uniformly police their own TOS, or parts thereof, it shouldn't exist. A profile pre-approval process would suffice quite nicely. The rules might not be discriminatory but they are overly broad, unenforceable and lead to a tyranny of the majority. How many people do you think are going to get bent out of shape and complain when they read that a person has "gay/lesbian" vs. "wife and two kids" in their profile? You're right, I can't prove selective deletions. Anecdotally though, it doesn't smell good. I can't count the number of l33tspeak tags with references to drugs, religion, violence, sex, sexual orientation or disdain for a particular sexual orientation I see during a given session.

Jay