Teresa says that she was harassed by other players and later suspended from XBOX Live because she identified herself as a lesbian in her profile. When she appealed to Microsoft, she says they told her that other gamers found her sexual orientation "offensive." - NoahDavidSimon from Bookmarklet

Woah....that's ludicrous - Shevonne

huh? WTF? - Parth Awasthi

One of the comments says it best: "You do not have freedom of speech in private businesses." That's the great thing about FREE enterprise and free markets: you're FREE to shop somewhere else. Try that with your soon-to-be-mandated government health care or your mail delivery, where if you don't like it, that's tough balls. - Craig Eddy

not sure why Xbox is giving sexual orientation an option here. isn't the idea to shoot the other player? it might be best to have, "don't ask don't tell". I'm not sure players should know why a person is aiming a virtual gun at them. I'm not saying getting your kicks is wrong... but most of us don't sign up to get beaten up by bull queers. - NoahDavidSimon

The PS3's PS Network's "Home" is FULL of lesbians. - Will Higgins™

@Will: ...that are actually guys ;) - Jemm

Jemm - NOOOOoooooo! - Will Higgins™

the question is more complicated then just sexual orientation. the question becomes more in terms of the nature of certain forms of sexual behavior. certainly we live in a free society where people should do what they want... but there is a certain sexuality to violence that we must address. on that matter is it appropriate at all for men and women to be shooting guns at each other? perhaps gender segregation is more complicated then our bodies. they don't let men and women play basketball together. - NoahDavidSimon

it is a funny issue because it seems to really open up a sore spot. society simply can not address all the classifications of gender and sexuality. by simply identifying a character as straight or gay it limits the spectrum of psychological profiles. this is why our government should not create social contracts merely on who we like... but our civilization needs to create structures that reflect our architecture - NoahDavidSimon

there is less an issue of gender orientation and more a dynamic of if a person is an objectifier or an objectified. is a person dominant or receiving. does a person get off on being shot at or not? being that this world is virtual... it doesn't even work because it is a waste... it is a sacrifice... a martyrdom of time we all choose. we are all there to be submissive to the machine. in life there is an architecture to female submission in sexuality. babies can be made. If I agree to get shot at on xbox do I get to make other lives? - NoahDavidSimon

Why put your sexual orientation in your profile? Politics, sex and religion have no place on a network where people just want to play games. - Paul Grav

this assumes that it is just a game. I think politics, sex and religion have no place in the virtual world exactly because they do. it is an example of how transparency must be limited. we are all there to be submissive to the machine and therefor our hidden agendas might have symbolic implications that destroy the community. I'm not sure I would want to play this XBOX game. - NoahDavidSimon

I hope she sues Microsoft and wins. Bad move on their part in this day and age. - Robert Couture

The Code of Conduct is pretty explicit about this: "Don't create a gamertag or motto that other users may be offended by, this includes comments that look, sound like, stand for, hint at, abbreviate, or insinuate any of the following: profane words/phrases, sexually explicit language, sexual innuendo, hate speech (including but not limited to racial, ethnic, or religious slurs), illegal drugs/controlled substances, or illegal activities. Don't create a gamertag or motto that references controversial religious topics, notorious people, organizations, or sensitive current or historical events that may also be considered inappropriate. - Craig Eddy

http://support.xbox.com/support... - Craig Eddy

So, even though I believe it, I wouldn't expect Microsoft to allow me to put "Jesus Loves You" in my motto. Nor would I expect "I only swing straight" to be allowed. - Craig Eddy

I agree Craig. though I do giggle at the idea of someone shooting a virtual gun and telling you that g-d loves you. - NoahDavidSimon

I'm actually less interested in the legalities in this... because I am certain that MSFT opened themselves up to this and they only have themselves to blame. What I am interested in is the very sexual dynamic of virtual hunting and why it might be threatening to bring in identity into this. certainly the industry opened themselves up to something when they created Tomb Raider and Street Fighter. now the question is what does a gay character do to a game when the very game is a play at domination and submission. - NoahDavidSimon

I'm certain there are no coded answers to these questions. we invite sexuality into the sphere. the virtual vixens are in fact very "lesbian" esque... and of course they also create a male hetero fetish. They are muscular and they are aggressive... the industry created this out of it's own desire to sell games. but in fact it is popular because it appeals to a desire for men to submit. to role play something that they can't in life. - NoahDavidSimon

I believe that the user is very different the the character. you submit to being Lara Croft when you play her. you are not straight you are not a man. you are Lora Croft - NoahDavidSimon

it is a matter of health to allow a certain level of libidinal desire that might be damaging to oneself. we as human beings might even be more healthy because we experiment with this other side. this duality. I'm not sure this should be coded as homosexual or transgender. if this element is dangerous to the game then it should not be an option. - NoahDavidSimon

It's pretty obvious that most of the people commenting have very little familiarity with XBox Live. Microsoft has stated that putting anything that could be construed as sexual in nature in a user profile or gamer tag, puts a user's account in question. That being said, LIVE is hardly what I'd call a tolerant community, but microsoft would ban a gamertag like "StraightGamer" or "HeteroDude." - Jon Anderson

Further reading: http://kotaku.com/390593... - Jon Anderson

yeah... I am not familiar with Live. the gender and preference is an option or no? the entire market for this is because the natural male instinct for hunting and fighting is taken away from society. people are repressed. if they invite the natural fetish into the sphere... then it is their fault - NoahDavidSimon

There is no "sexual orientation preference" option, thank goodness - Craig Eddy

oh... ok. that was not made clear in the piece. then I don't blame them for wanting to filter out those details. they shouldn't allow me to say I'm Jewish either btw. I question the very need for a user profile there. I'm not sure a VR shooting range where you don't know people is a place to make friends - NoahDavidSimon

Most of the people I'm 'friends' with on LIVE I either know in real life or met through common interests sites/groups. Gaming with strangers can be -to say it nicely- effing terrible. - Jon Anderson

wow... so "GayerGamer" was the dudes name. hypothetically if I were to change my name to say "HebrewHammer" that would probably be offensive as well? or say some dude whose name is "Christian"? MSFT is making a lot of discression here. I'm not sure I agree with that finding. essentially they are saying it is a name issue... but they have no problems with political discourse or historical belief in a name... but they do have issue with the semantics of sexuality in a name. how about a name like Virginia?perhaps it is the name... intending not so much his sexual identity... but that is seems to reflect other people. saying "GayerGamer" seems to reflect a detail that other people are "GAY" and he is just the most "GAY" - NoahDavidSimon

There's a field in your profile called Bio, it's limited to 499 characters. You're prompted with "Enter some information about yourself.". If a fellow gamer has filled in their bio, I'd expect to see some generic stuff such as game preferences, location and maybe age. - Paul Grav

You're not obliged to enter your real name. So if you're real name is "I hate christians" then there's no problem, because you're not obliged to enter it. You are obliged to enter a gamertag, which can be anything you like, expect for what MS judges to be offensive or controversial. - Paul Grav

...especially as XB360 is populated by kids insisting on calling each other "fag" at every opportunity. She should call her lawyers. - Chris Nixon

Chris the mere fact that there is bigotry does not mean you change the rules without a lot of thought. I wonder how much thought went into this. did they pull it right away; did they have a debate about the many ramifications. to me it isn't so much if the name is right or wrong... because I think there is a lot of context. - NoahDavidSimon

There was no thought. Can you imagine the number of people that have questionable gamertags or bios? This one was a no-brainer. - Paul Grav

I can't even understand how this was even contemplated. Idiotic complaints belong in the bin not matter how many there are. At the moment in the UK on a BBC kids TV channel, there is a presenter who has one arm cut off at the elbow. There have been hundreds of complaints from parents claiming this scares their kids. It is an idiotic fascist complaint, and the BBC rightly ignore them. - Chris Nixon

Please don't take this the wrong way. I've been on x-box live since it came out. If you play any FPS like CoD you know the "high" caliber of some of the people you play with. There are a lot of juvenile delinquents on there. I can't count how many people I have muted and/or reported. There's no real bio on there where you can broadcast your sexual orientation so she chose to put that out there. Why would she do that? Was she naive in believing that these prebuscent boys (whose brains aren't functioning fully) would just love and accept her? Was she doing it for attention. Was she testing to see what would happen? - Jason Shultz from twhirl

I just question her motives for putting lesbian in her profile. She was wrong for getting banned for it. Obviously, the people who harrassed her were wrong. They harrass everyone for any number of reasons. It still doesn't make it right. - Jason Shultz from twhirl

@Noah Sexual orientation isn't an option on xbox live profiles. she wrote it in. - Jason Shultz from twhirl

there is that context that I was contemplating. like the cartoon in Rupert Murdoch's newspaper that people feel is racist and Lou Dobbs on CNN says isn't... the question in the end is the context. and you can see obviously this girl is playing at people's inner demons and fears... and yes even bigotry. it was meant to provoke... and in doing so... for right or wrong about the ideal name being sexual or non.. should not be allowed. - NoahDavidSimon

@Jason. How does MS know whether she is or isn't a lesbian? Anyone can put that in their profile. I think MS were right to take some sort of action. - Paul Grav

I take it back about MSFT being to blame. they did the right thing. I thought they were creating facebook profiles on XBox and punishing people for saying they were gay. virtual fire ranges are no place to test to see if the boundaries of our society are fair. We know they aren't. It is a given. - NoahDavidSimon

bump - The Black Book