Mon, Mar 02, 2009 | 10:03 GMT
Live boss on gay ban row: We want people to be able to express themselves in a way that can’t be misused
Xbox live policy chief Stephen Toulouse has admitted that the service’s current stance of the expression of sexual orientation is flawed, and that a solution to the issue of people being banned for including such information in their profile data hinges on users not being able to abuse the facility.
“It’s not an elegant policy,” Toulouse told the Major in his latest podcast. “It’s an objective policy, but that doesn’t mean everyone’s going to experience it in the same way.”
He added: “We’re taking a look at a way in which we can provide the ability for people to express themselves in a way that can’t be misused,” but said he had “nothing to announce” yet.
Toulouse said that the Live team has been working on the issue since last summer. It was thrown into the limelight last week when a woman was apparently banned for saying she was a lesbian in her Live profile.
“When we came across this last summer, we took a look at what we can do about it, and one of the proposals [was] ‘Why don’t you just stop banning those words? Why don’t you let “gay” be expressed?’
“And so we thought, ‘OK, that’s a reasonable request. Let’s go and take a look at the data.’ And we found that somewhere between 95 and 98 percent of the time, depending on the month, the use of the word – I’ll use the word ‘gay’ as just the predominant example – the use of that word was an an insult.
“You know, ‘That’s gay,’ or ‘You’re gay,’ or ‘Joe is gay,’ something that was definitely against our terms of use.”
Toulouse added that the current Live stance has led to him being personally abused.
“I tell you, the amount of mail I get that calls me horrible variations on ‘homophobe’… but once I explain, people go, ‘Oh, this isn’t an easy problem to solve.’”
Get the audio file through the link. Well worth a listen.
Related posts
PEGI boss in “work for the good of the people” shock
14 
Posted in: Hot, Microsoft, Xbox 360, Xbox Live
Tags: joe is gay, Stephen Toulouse
14 comments
#1
Blerk
02/03/09, 10:12 am
It’s true that some people will use this as an insult, but surely the decision of whether or not to reveal your sexuality over Live should be up to the person in question. If someone wants to say that they’re gay on their Live account or in their gamertag then why the hell shouldn’t they?
And if that offends some people then… good! Those people deserve to be offended.
#2
Tonka
02/03/09, 10:19 am
I think this whole debate is gay TBH.
#3
G1GAHURTZ
02/03/09, 10:20 am
I believe that what he is saying is that there is a blanket ban on words relating to homosexuality.
When you’ve got 10′s of millions of users, obviously you can’t look through every profile to check them. Especially when people are changing their profiles all the time.
So they all get banned.
Anyway, there’s no need for it. It’s not going to make you a worse gamer, or stop you from collecting Achievement points if you can’t write about your sexuality in your bio or anything like that.
#4
Retroid
02/03/09, 11:27 am
One of the only things I can think of would be to have a ‘gender’ setting on XBL profiles which could include straight / bi / gay variations.
#5
Blerk
02/03/09, 11:31 am
If they did that, they could also include an “I am a bigot” toggle which would make ‘unnatural’ users invisible to people who still think we’re living in Biblical times.
#6
Gekidami
02/03/09, 12:18 pm
Gay Joe: Against Microsoft TOS. Sorry Joe.
#7
Patrick Garratt
02/03/09, 1:26 pm
The “Joe is gay” bit in the podcast made me spit my tea.
#8
bytemap
02/03/09, 5:10 pm
Hmm…didn’t realize the other side. He makes a good point about potential abuse. I mean what would stop a kid or anyone from making an insulting gamertag featuring the word gay.
I do like Retroid’s comment. Give the user that profile preference and done.
#9
David
02/03/09, 5:59 pm
Maybe its just me but why is it important for people to tell strangers their sexual orientation.
#10
OrphanageExplosion
02/03/09, 6:47 pm
It is of crucial important when cruising for a piece of ass.
#11
David
02/03/09, 6:51 pm
yeah probably that lol
#12
Gekidami
02/03/09, 6:53 pm
Dont know David… I’m totally straight by the way.
#13
theevilaires
02/03/09, 7:34 pm
just wondering why MS hasn’t banned me yet on Xbox live ??? can someone explain this?
#14
fearmonkey
02/03/09, 11:39 pm
Your sexual preference on a GAMING service is not important. This isnt facebook, the service isnt meant to be a total social entertainment solution as such.
Just becuase someone is straight, gay, into midget porn, fondles plant life, into suffocation, etc etc does not mean it should so define them that it matters on a game matchmaking service.
Im all for peoples rights, and no one should be chastized for their sexual preference, but on Xbox live, it doesnt matter and its not needed.