Tag Archives: lesbian

Uh oh. BioWare is apparently censoring the words “gay,” “homosexual” and “lesbian” from the Old Republic message boards.

Why? According to moderator Sean Dahlberg, “As I have stated before, these are terms that do not exist in Star Wars.”

At least you’re not alone, Stephen. Just a hunch, but you can probably expect this to get quite ugly.

Thanks, Kotaku.

Is that the whiff of common sense? The stench of reason? Xbox Live mod boss Stephen Toulouse has confirmed Microsoft is looking at ways Xbox Live users can express sexual preference on the service without getting banned.

His comment came after yet another Live subscriber was banned for ‘causing offence’ by saying they were homosexual in their profile data.

“I can’t say any more at the moment, except to say I’m working right now in finding a way to safely express relationship preference,” Toulouse said on his Twitter.

He added: “Expression of any sexual orientation (straight or gay or otherswise) is not allowed in gamertags.

“However we’ve heard from the user-base they want that capability, so I am examining how we can provide it in a way that wont get misused.”

This is the first time Microsoft has even acknowledged something needs to be done about the fact gay and lesbian people can be hounded on Live then banned.

Bit of a shame the “user-base” had to fight against it instead of anyone with half a brain at Microsoft doing something about a truly disgusting situation, but there we are. We should be thankful for small mercies, hey?

Thanks, Roybott.

A woman has apparently been banned from Xbox Live for stating the fact she was a lesbian in her profile.

An email from “Teresa” has been posted on Consumerist:

I just recently saw a thing on your site about someones gamer tag being banned because it had the word gay in the tag.

I had a similar incident, only my account was suspended because I had said in my profile that I was a lesbian. I was harassed by several players, ‘chased’ to different maps/games to get away from their harassment. They followed me into the games and told all the other players to turn me in because they didn’t want to see that crap or their kids to see that crap.

As if xbox live is really appropriate for kids anyways! My account was suspended and xbox live did nothing to solve this, but instead said others found it offensive.

Today I received a message from another gamer calling me a fag. I am a lesbian, so they aren’t too smart if they cant get their anti-gay slurs right.

Microsoft does nothing to stop this or prevent it, but instead sides with the homophobes. No one will help me get the word out about Microsoft’s anti-gay policy. Not even the HRC who says Microsoft has a positive image with them. Not to me it doesn’t!

Seriously, Microsoft. That is awesome.