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According to a report on The Consumerist,Microsoft's Xbox Live has mandated that a gamer/customer of the onlinegaming venue change his GamerTag due to a gay reference contained init. From the article:
Reader Grant says that his gamer tag "theGAYERgamer" was recentlybanned by Xbox Live. He hoped that a call to customer support wouldsort things out but all he received was a confusing explanation from anXbox Live supervisor. According to the supervisor, it wasn't that shefound the name offensive, but it was the "greater Xbox community" thatfound it offensive...
The Consumerist wonders why the Xbox community gets to decide, and whether the decision has homophobic overtones.
Interestingly enough, we just logged onto XBLand noticed that the similar-sounding account"gaygamer" is active. We checked that one because of the well-known website of the same name. So it's unclear whether "theGAYERgamer" was singled out for some reason or if there is more to the story.
Original Letter:
Quote:
I talked to a supervisor there, Roxy, who told me that she didn'tpersonally find the fact that my gamer tag had gay in the nameoffensive, but that the greater Xbox community did, so i would have tochange it. I hope I'm not the only person who finds this don't ask,don't tell policy disgusting... eek
From Grant, thegayergamer
We think you deserve a better explanation than this. Despite whatthis Xbox Live CSR told you, we're not convinced that it's the "greaterXbox community's" job to classify offensive material. At best it soundslike this "supervisor" was trying to pass the buck. At worst, it'sdownright homophobic discrimination. Would "theHETEROgamer" also bebanned?