So all those shoot-em-up games with blood, sex, violence, and cussing isn't apparently NEARLY as scarring as sexual orientation to peoples children.

...Who the hell gets their kids an x-box Live account anyways? Parents these days...

Since when was Xbox live a place to advertise your sexual orientation, gay or straight?

A guy I know is half jewish, and his xbox live handle was "DirtyWhiteJew". They told him he couldn't have the word 'jew' in his name and made him change it.

@mookiemookie: Since when is being open about your sexual orientation a crime?

@Ubik2501: Who said it was?

Something similar happened to my friend - he listed that he is gay in his profile and was banned. If my memory serves me right, he eventually gave up and created a new account.

What a bunch of crap. I'm sorry she has to put up with this stone-age attitude! Just goes to (sadly!) show that humans aren't "evolved" at all, we're still just a bunch of stupid animals! :-/

@mookiemookie:

I believe the point is, you can advertise anything you want about yourself on xbox live or anywhere else for that matter. If she had put in "catholic, black, iranian", I doubt they would have an issue with it. Land of the free, and all that...

I don't think this is anything directly personal. There are a lot of words you can't use in your gamertag. I'm guessing they don't allow stuff like this in order to cover all their bases as far as possibly offensive things go. Calling this an anti-gay policy is a bit of a stretch IMO

@mookiemookie: It's not as if she was going up to every person she played against on Halo, killing them, and saying into the microphone, "By the way, I'm a lesbian!" It was IN her profile.

Having it in the gamertag, I can understand. It's too exploitable to use against another user in an offensive manner. Having it in your profile and being banned for it...I don't get it. Something "doesn't jive" about it.

Simply put, it's wrong that she gets punished when those harrasing her doesn't.

I'm a male lesbian. Does that mean I can't identify myself as such? For shame MS. Do you tell your employees they can't have pride? I mean, your in Washington, not California!

Why is this an issue? If I wanted to express my straight sexuallity into my xbox profile, I would expect the same thing. This is a non gamer related issue, almost as if the person is looking for a problem. And yes, the statement holds true about an appropriate place for kids, but then again, knowing that it is MOSTLY kids that play this...why did she feel the need to express her "gayness" ?

You do not have freedom of speech in private businesses.

Thank you, move along.

@mookiemookie: You clearly implied it was inappropriate in your first post. I know I know, you're making the point that 'just because you have the right to do something, doesn't mean that it's the right thing to do.' But having a right to do something does that it does mean that it's alright to do something, even if if makes someone uncomfortable. That's the point.

@dragonprism: "It's not as if she was going up to every person she played against on Halo, killing them, and saying into the microphone, 'By the way, I'm a lesbian!'"

And now I'm bummed that she wasn't, because I think that would be awesome.

Bah, let gays, jews, lesbians keep it. If your son/daughter is searching for these tags then he/she already knows about them.

Seems like they're hiding behind the "Think of the children" firewall.

I predict people on both sides of this argument will have come together with sound compromise by the time Consumerist closes the posting for this thread.

@Skankingmike: Sure, but denying it in such a stupid, arbitrary way can be Bad Customer Service, which is kind of what this site is about.

@Ubik2501: since when is being forced to change your x-box live username a punishment for a 'crime'.

That's so screwed up I can't even get snarky about it.

Am I the only one that thinks the (') icon on the XBox is appropriate, because it looks like it's flipping the bird?

@Skankingmike: This isn't about freedom of speech. It's standing up for what's right. A profile is for describing who you are, which is what she did. If you homophobes are offended by this that's your problem, not hers.

@downwithmonstercable: I think I misread the post because there are two stories mixed in. So, in reference to the woman who is a lesbian, my stance is still that MS is not anti-gay, they're just not going to be policing what people say to you.

@RosettaStoned: OJ Simpson... NOT A JEW.

How offensive can it be if it's one of the most heavily used words on XBL?

Seriously. Every time I get on GOW2, it's "OMG that was so gay!" and "Stop being so gay!" and "Using the mortar is so f***ing gay!"

They also use another euphamism for homosexual pretty regularly. Honestly the only place I /don't/ hear it is playing Left 4 Dead, because I only play that with people on my Friends list.

@harlock_JDS:

I was under the impression you can't discriminate based on age, color, religion, etc. For some reason sexual orientation seems ok though.

I'd say if someone was forced to change their tag because they are jewish, that would be religious discrimination. I doubt someone would have to change it if their name was "Fragger4Jesus" or something.

What screws one of us screws all of us.

@rpm773: LOL. Let's track down IP addresses and facebook profiles for everyone like with the iphone. Get everyone together and group hug, and all that. It'll be another consumerist victory.

@mookiemookie: I don't personally know if there is a field in the profile to fill in stating such (I doubt it). However, there is obviously a history (as per the accompanying stories) of anti-gay anything going on with this arm of the company (a publicly traded on at that)

@harlock_JDS: In this case, I think he/she meant, "punishable offense".

The OP's gamer tag wasn't the issue however. It was her profile.

@Bob Higgins: "A profile is for describing who you are, which is what she did."

And by doing so, you are exercising the right of "freedom of speech," the myth of the internets.

While it's not RIGHT of Microsoft, Skanking's got a point. They've got the right to do this. But like Crow said, it won't look favorably on MS and ultimately leads to a degraded level of customer service.

Paying for a service, you should be allowed to give yourself any handle you choose. Just another way of taking ownership away from consumers (you're technically leasing their services for a period).

The words "gay" and "jew" can be used as insults but are also neutral descriptors. Banning their use altogether does not allow users to identify themselves as gay or Jewish. Micro$oft could cover their asses by holding users responsible for their own gamer tags.

I've been on Xbox live for over 3 years now and I can tell you, someone having the word "lesbian" on their gamer card is the least parents or other people need to worry about being offensive. The number of misogynistic, homophobic, racist people on Xbox live is quite sizeable. I've overheard some pretty offensive comments in multiplayer lobbies, as well as been the target of some myself (Gears of War guys are none too tolerant of a girl playing on their skill level!)

Perhaps Theresa, you're playing in the wrong gamer community? There's several to choose from which you can identify yourself with -- Family, Recreational, Underground, Hardcore -- I don't remember the exact names, but you get the gist of the categories. Perhaps you should switch to Hardcore or Underground if you are not already there -- I find there are lots of open minded people in these communities (and I've never heard the word "parent" once), and you learn to just get over the low-lifes -- the mute feature works wonders.

While I"m not a person to go around spamming my sexual orientation I find that most if not all places are homophobic.

People say "Why are you allowed to tell others of your sexual oritentation". As if it's only gay/lesbian people doing it. Sexual Orientation is part of your idenity like it or not.

If a guy had a gamertag "LadiesMan" I SERIOUSLY doubt it would be banned. Or any number of offensive 'heterosexual' slangs for sexual behavior.

Same goes for the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell". If you don't want to hear another guy talking about the guy he went out with the night before then I don't want to hear about the chick you went out with and what you thought about her.

The simple argument, sexual orientation is apart of your idenity. It will come up in conversation, appearance, or how you describe yourself. That is not a crime. But we homosexuals like they are breaking a crime and do nothing to heterosexuals when they speak the same words.

Not about special treatment, it's about equal treatment.... equal rights.

Bad Microsoft. If you do this, then you must punish the inappropriate heterosexual declarations of sexual orientation.

@Saboth: The problem is that being Catholic, African American, or Iranian isn't exactly a hotly debated social issue.

And while its definitely the "land of the free," that whole argument doesn't exactly mean much on a private network that you pay to have access to. If you don't like it, you vote with your cash.

When I play video games, I play it to get away from all the stuff going on in the world. I don't want it complicated by gay/straight Repub/Dem, choice/life nonsense. I just want to have a good time.

I'd imagine that some parents might not want to explain to their 6 year old playing Viva Pinata or something what a "lesbian" is either. Lets let the kids maintain their innocence and have fun being kids, and let those of us who just want to play a damn game play a damn game without having to think about all the things that go on around us.

@Saboth: The difference between those two examples is the word "Jew" is it's often used as a derogatory term. Jesus, however is not.

I challenge you to find a time when someone said, "Just lend me some dollar, you freakin' Jesus!"

@Skankingmike: It's not a "freedom of speech" issue, actually, it's one of discrimination. Other players harassed her purely on issues of sexuality, and Microsoft chose to take punitive action against her based on the fact that some people found her lesbianism offensive. Microsoft is apparently complicit in harassment and discrimination, and this is not something that should be taken lightly.

@Skankingmike: Hey, Skank, no one suggested Micosoft was outside their rights. The article simply outlined the facts.

There is still the question as to whether or not it is appropriate for Microsoft to ban such actions.

I tend to favor a don't ask, don't tell policy. I don't want to know if you're straight, gay, bi, married to 62 different women, or hermaphroditic. Just play the damned game.

@Eryk: I would really love to think that simply being gay- not gay marriage, or gay adoption, or anything like that... just being gay... stopped being a "hotly debated social issue" in, like, the 80s. But that's just me.

@SacraBos: it's the universal symbol for the power button/indicator. My computer has a button like that, so do most other electronic devices... sometimes it looks like a circle with a line inside it, but the point is, is that it represents the on/off state of the device, hence why it is a zero with a 1 within it.

@floraposte: I think Lesbain Halo is a pretty cool guy. eH kisses girls, and doesn't afraid of anything!

I had the Gamertag since right around the first day of Xbox Live ... AsianNationPimp ... Built up a nice 34000 gamerscore .. no issues ... Last week out of the Blue they made me change it after posting on Cnet.com ..

I dint even bother trying to fight it .. but censorship of any kind is sad

@Skankingmike: You don't? So, let's say that you own a restaurant or a book store or whatever, it's okay to say "no lesbians allowed in here?" and because it is a private business that wouldn't be illegal? I wouldn't be so sure.

@idip: Would that include things like "pics plz" to a chick? Because I'd totally get behind that policy.

@Eryk: Oh, come on. "lets let kids maintain their innocence" -- because GAYS ARE EVIL!

@downwithmonstercable: ...and they may suspend your account.

What's the problem? They're going to call her gay anyway :P

How is one chased around on xbox live? People can only join your specific game sessions and follow you if they are on your friends list.

I agree that it is dumb to ban people for things in their profiles because the voice chat in games is used purely to be offensive to others. But if they find a profile offensive, they should put a block on the profile. Not ban an account.

@DrMorison: That issue is not the same as freedom of speech. That is discrimination. The difference is one is focused on one group whereas freedom of speech covers a broad spectrum from anywhere to disagreeing with a politician to stating your sexual orientation.