I don’t consider myself an active gay rights activist, although I was quite sad when Prop 8 passed last year. And I cried during Milk at the Oscar Showcase. Regardless, I’m not much of an anything activist these days.
But sometimes, things just get me riled up. Like this story on the Consumerist yesterday. The summary: saying that you’re a lesbian in your profile on Xbox Live can get you banned. Follow the story back and you’ll see that Microsoft has a precedent of doing similar things with other accounts:
It is barely believable to me that in a year when Milk wins two Academy Awards and when our president has gone on record about overturning Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, this is still allowed to happen. (This post is a bit longer, because I got passionate and kept writing. You’ve been warned.)
The rationale behind this, on Microsoft’s end, boils down to these paragraphs in the Xbox Live Terms of Use:
In addition, your use of the Service is subject to your compliance with the Code of Conduct (www.xbox.com/en-us/live/codeofconduct.htm and its successors). You agree that we may also discontinue your access to the Service if you do any of the following while connected to the Service:
- Create a Gamertag , avatar or use text in other profile fields that may offend other members. This includes comments that look, sound like, stand for, hint at, abbreviate, or insinuate or relate to any of the following: profane words/phrases, topics or content of a sexual nature, hate speech (including but not limited to racial, ethnic, or religious slurs), illegal drugs/controlled substances, or illegal activities;
That’s pretty broad, eh? Regardless, I’d like to break down why I think the arguments for doing this are not good enough.
It’s information that shouldn’t be there/they brought this on themselves
A popular argument is that these gamers shouldn’t have put information about their sexual orientation in their gamertags or profiles. By “flaunting” it, they brought the ban upon themselves because they were inciting other gamers to complain.
This is ridiculous in regards to the latest ban, where the information is in the profile – an area that encourages gamers to tell others a bit about themselves. The idea that being gay is not relevant information for Xbox Live is like saying that any piece of information not related to gaming has no place there. Should I avoid putting that I like fishing in my profile? What does that have to do with gaming?
Even where the word “gay” is in the gamertag instead of the profile, how is that irrelevant information? I assume it’s a large part of that person’s identity, just like if I had a gamertag like “TheShanghaiKid.” Would that get banned?
Saying that they brought this on themselves is akin to saying that we should accept Xbox Live as a community where homophobia is the norm and accepted. While it may be true, that’s not something we need to accept.
Think of the children!
So, it’s not really as panicky as the clichéd expression, but I’ve seen others comment that children should be protected from seeing such things at a young age. What if parents don’t want to have to explain sex to their six year old playing Viva Pinata online with TheGayGamer?
Well, tough. There are many things that you don’t get to control the timing of in your child’s life. You don’t really get to choose when you have to explain that you’ve been lying about Santa. You don’t really get to choose when you get to explain that many people look different on the outside. Add this to the list. Besides, explaining to a child about homosexuality doesn’t mean explaining intercourse. Maybe the sooner a child learns that gay people exist and are no different from everyone else in most regards, maybe the less homophobic that child will be.
It’s in the Terms of Use. Microsoft has a right to do this.
Maybe. The Terms of Use seem intentionally vague and broad in regards to who Microsoft can ban, and from the stories that get published, it seems that they end up folding under pressure from other members of Xbox Live.
What these bans tell us is that members of Xbox Live feel more vocally uncomfortable about the word gay then other potentially controversial gamertags and profiles. Is expressing your sexual orientation a “topic or content of a sexual nature?” I’d say it’s a stretch (after all, it’s really an expression of who I am rather than any actual expression of sexual activity), but Microsoft firmly believes it is.
They’ve repeated that they would ban someone who expressed their heterosexuality as well. The catch? It’d probably take a posse of heterophobes reporting that person before they’d even take a look. I doubt I could find a dozen people on Xbox Live who would want to help me report “TheStraightShooter” or “DireStraights” or even “LadiesMan,” while “RichardGaywood” gets banned.
Sure, Microsoft can stand behind it’s Terms of Use and continue to do this. That doesn’t make it right, especially when it seems like they’re being pressured into doing so by makeshift bands of anonymous gamers who are simply uncomfortable seeing the word “gay” appear on their TV while chainsawing someone else in half.