Microsoft imposes online "don't tell" policy on homosexuals

Identifying your sexuality in your Xbox Live profile is "offensive," according to Microsoft. When one lesbian complained about harassment, it suspended her account.

[#1 posted by zuzu , February 25, 2009 8:43 PM]

When did Microsoft assimilate the Mormon church?

[#2 posted by stupidnickname , February 25, 2009 9:02 PM]

"Hello, we're here to share with you the good news about the Book of SYSTEM ERROR."

[#3 posted by Ahoj , February 25, 2009 10:39 PM]

I was going to write something funny, but I don't think I can beat Zuzu+stupidnickname

but as a queer who games I've always felt like an outcast because of everything that is said on the channels. Although I've met some interesting people, Like a queer furry fundamentalist christian.

and still, nothing delights me more than bringing up the original definition of twink to a bunch of people in WoW

[#4 posted by Anonymous , February 25, 2009 10:53 PM]

Apart from whether it is Microsoft's policy to be homophobic, this was a decision by an individual. I'm not interested in a token apology from the PR department, I want him or her fired - that would convince me Microsoft takes this issue seriously.

Is there even any excuse for this kind of behaviour these days? Why do we still tolerate these idiots instead of treating them with the contempt they deserve? If someone did this to a black person, a jew or a moslem (or any religion for that matter), or a woman, there would be outrage.

I'm queer, and last time I checked my money was as good as anyone else's. If Microsoft doesn't want any of it, then they are going about it exactly the right fashion.

[#5 posted by musicalwoods , February 26, 2009 12:37 AM]

Hey, wow, someone else that knows a gay furry fundamentalist christian...

[#6 posted by Simon Cameron , February 26, 2009 6:18 AM]

Microsoft is generally a pretty progressive company socially. I imagine this sort of thing happened because they didn't want ANY discussions of sexuality on their service.

It may not be right, but it's not necessarily homophobic.

[#7 posted by Anonymous , February 26, 2009 6:43 AM]

Saying one is a lesbian isn't a discussion of sexuality any more than a man saying he is married is a discussion of sexuality.

[#8 posted by Halloween Jack , February 26, 2009 6:47 AM]

It happened for the same reason that it originally happened on WoW: the company doesn't want to spend any more time and money than it absolutely has to on customer support, therefore their default answer to people being harassed is, "Hey, you asked for it."

[#9 posted by Powerphail , February 26, 2009 7:09 AM]

I think #5 and #6 are spot on -- I doubt Microsoft are raging homophobes, but would just rather avoid any sort of mention of sex or sexuality on their online gaming service, which is fair enough really. It does sound a bit odd though, and I hardly imagine identifying yourself as gay could possibly warrant an account suspension, but hey.

Also, I'm waiting for someone to say "Yeah, it's a gaming service not a GAYming service, lol". That would make my day.

[#10 posted by didymos , February 26, 2009 7:28 AM]

It's strange that, on Xbox Live, there is no punishment for labeling others as homosexual, nor for being labeled by others as homosexual (and in my experience, one cannot play a multiplayer game on Xbox Live without experiencing at least one end of that transaction).

But declare *your own* sexuality, and the banhammer comes down. Nice.

[#11 posted by Joho , February 26, 2009 8:27 AM]

I suspect that this ban is being misunderstood or misrepresented. There's no evidence in this story at all: no screenshots, no emails from Microsoft, etc. There's not even a real name for the victim. It's some anonymous person posting an unverified claim to a blog.

More likely, this sounds like a case of people abusing the Xbox Live reporting system, which is actually a more interesting story. If twenty people report to Microsoft that someone else is being offensive, what's Microsoft supposed to do? Unless they're logging the voice chat, they have no way to know what this woman did or did not do. If they have twenty people saying she's behaving offensively and one person saying otherwise, what's the right response?

[#12 posted by Nelson.C , February 26, 2009 9:43 PM]

The right response is for someone to monitor the allegedly offensive person to check whether the claim is true then boot them off if it is. Or if it isn't, monitor the accusers to see if they make a habit of making unprovable claims, and if they do, boot them.

[#13 posted by Cassandra , February 28, 2009 6:37 AM]

#6 & #11:

At the bottom of that story there is a link to a story detailing the response from Microsoft, which details that "for gamertags or profiles, we do not allow expression of any type of orientation."

I have to say that I don't agree with that policy; I wonder why they put it in place. Perhaps they thought it might stop gay bashing or sexism? Maybe. But I feel like a tag like "Luvhotchix" might get past that filter, expressing both a sexuality and sexism.

[#14 posted by postmodernsideshow , March 8, 2009 11:40 AM]

A few years back Blizzard had a similar debacle with World of Warcraft. I did a comic about it.

It's just as relevant today:

http://www.postmodernsideshow.com/2006/09/15/comics/bezs-blog/gc0027-wowfags/