{"id":120,"date":"2009-02-26T11:47:54","date_gmt":"2009-02-26T19:47:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.scott-n-katie.com\/blog\/?p=120"},"modified":"2009-02-26T11:47:54","modified_gmt":"2009-02-26T19:47:54","slug":"day-15-xbox-live-vs-the-word-gay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.scott-n-katie.com\/blog\/?p=120","title":{"rendered":"Day 15: xbox live vs. the word &ldquo;gay&rdquo;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>I don\u2019t consider myself an active gay rights activist, although I was quite sad when Prop 8 passed last year.&#160; And I cried during <em>Milk<\/em> at the Oscar Showcase.&#160; Regardless, I\u2019m not much of an anything activist these days.<\/p>\n<p>But sometimes, things just get me riled up.&#160; Like <a href=\"http:\/\/consumerist.com\/5160187\/identifying-yourself-as-a-lesbian-gets-you-banned-on-xbox-live\" target=\"_blank\">this story<\/a> on the Consumerist yesterday.&#160; The summary: saying that you\u2019re a lesbian in your profile on Xbox Live can get you banned.&#160; Follow the story back and you\u2019ll see that Microsoft has a precedent of doing similar things with other accounts:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Having a <a href=\"http:\/\/consumerist.com\/5008908\/gay-player-name-banned-by-xbox-live\" target=\"_blank\">gamertag like \u201cTheGayGamer\u201d<\/a> will get you banned.<\/li>\n<li>You know what, even having <a href=\"http:\/\/consumerist.com\/5010527\/microsoft-confirms-gaywood-is-an-offensive-surname-mr-gaywood-responds\" target=\"_blank\">\u201cgay\u201d in your last name<\/a> will get you banned.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It is barely believable to me that in a year when <em>Milk<\/em> wins two Academy Awards and when our president has gone on record about overturning Don\u2019t Ask, Don\u2019t Tell, this is still allowed to happen.&#160; (This post is a bit longer, because I got passionate and kept writing.&#160; You\u2019ve been warned.)<\/p>\n<p>The rationale behind this, on Microsoft\u2019s end, boils down to these paragraphs in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.xbox.com\/en-US\/legal\/LiveTOU.htm\" target=\"_blank\">Xbox Live Terms of Use<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>In addition, your use of the Service is subject to your compliance with the Code of Conduct (<a>www.xbox.com\/en-us\/live\/codeofconduct.htm<\/a> and its successors).&#160; You agree that we may also discontinue your access to the Service if you do any of the following while connected to the Service:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Create a Gamertag , avatar or use text in other profile fields that may offend other members.&#160; 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;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>That\u2019s pretty broad, eh?&#160; Regardless, I\u2019d like to break down why I think the arguments for doing this are not good enough.<\/p>\n<p><strong>It\u2019s information that shouldn\u2019t be there\/they brought this on themselves     <br \/><\/strong>A popular argument is that these gamers shouldn\u2019t have put information about their sexual orientation in their gamertags or profiles.&#160; By \u201cflaunting\u201d it, they brought the ban upon themselves because they were inciting other gamers to complain.<\/p>\n<p>This is ridiculous in regards to the latest ban, where the information is in the profile \u2013 an area that encourages gamers to tell others a bit about themselves.&#160; 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.&#160; Should I avoid putting that I like fishing in my profile?&#160; What does that have to do with gaming?<\/p>\n<p>Even where the word \u201cgay\u201d is in the gamertag instead of the profile, how is that irrelevant information?&#160; I assume it\u2019s a large part of that person\u2019s identity, just like if I had a gamertag like \u201cTheShanghaiKid.\u201d&#160; Would that get banned?<\/p>\n<p>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.&#160; While it may be true, that\u2019s not something we need to accept.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Think of the children!     <br \/><\/strong>So, it\u2019s not really as panicky as the clich\u00e9d expression, but I\u2019ve seen others comment that children should be protected from seeing such things at a young age.&#160; What if parents don\u2019t want to have to explain sex to their six year old playing Viva Pinata online with TheGayGamer?<\/p>\n<p>Well, tough.&#160; There are many things that you don\u2019t get to control the timing of in your child\u2019s life.&#160; You don\u2019t really get to choose when you have to explain that you\u2019ve been lying about Santa.&#160; You don\u2019t really get to choose when you get to explain that many people look different on the outside.&#160; Add this to the list.&#160; Besides, explaining to a child about homosexuality doesn\u2019t mean explaining intercourse.&#160; 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.<\/p>\n<p><strong>It\u2019s in the Terms of Use.&#160; Microsoft has a right to do this.<\/strong>    <br \/>Maybe.&#160; 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.<\/p>\n<p>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.&#160; Is expressing your sexual orientation a \u201ctopic or content of a sexual nature?\u201d&#160; I\u2019d say it\u2019s a stretch (after all, it\u2019s really an expression of who I am rather than any actual expression of sexual activity), but Microsoft firmly believes it is.<\/p>\n<p>They\u2019ve repeated that they would ban someone who expressed their heterosexuality as well.&#160; The catch?&#160; It\u2019d probably take a posse of heterophobes reporting that person before they\u2019d even take a look.&#160; I doubt I could find a dozen people on Xbox Live who would want to help me report \u201cTheStraightShooter\u201d or \u201cDireStraights\u201d or even \u201cLadiesMan,\u201d while \u201cRichardGaywood\u201d gets banned.<\/p>\n<p>Sure, Microsoft can stand behind it\u2019s Terms of Use and continue to do this.&#160; That doesn\u2019t make it right, especially when it seems like they\u2019re being pressured into doing so by makeshift bands of anonymous gamers who are simply uncomfortable seeing the word \u201cgay\u201d appear on their TV while chainsawing someone else in half.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I don\u2019t consider myself an active gay rights activist, although I was quite sad when Prop 8 passed last year.&#160; And I cried during Milk at the Oscar Showcase.&#160; Regardless, I\u2019m not much of an anything activist these days. But sometimes, things just get me riled up.&#160; Like this story on the Consumerist yesterday.&#160; The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[45,43,44],"class_list":["post-120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-year26","tag-gay-rights","tag-microsoft","tag-xbox-live","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.scott-n-katie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.scott-n-katie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.scott-n-katie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.scott-n-katie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.scott-n-katie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.scott-n-katie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.scott-n-katie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.scott-n-katie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.scott-n-katie.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}