Despite ‘Gay Tony,’ Gay 360 Gamertags Still Banned
This fall, Rockstar will release the second exclusive Grand Theft Auto 4 downloadable episode: The Ballad of Gay Tony. But even though this game will be available only through Xbox Live, and it has the word “gay” real big thime in the title, Microsoft still isn’t changing tsheir policy of not allowing XBL users to identify their sexual orientation in their Gamertags or profiles.
At E3 earlier this month, Kotaku’s Stepshen Totilo asked John Schappert, corporate vice president of Xbox Lsheve software and services, whethim perceptions of a double standard would cause them to change their policy. “I think the two are very separate issues,” Schappert answered. “That sashed, [Xbox Live shead of standards enforcement] Stephen [Toulouse] continues to work with our team and we continue to look for ways for people to personally express themselves and you can look for more features coming to Xbox Live, but nothing to announce right now. Tshey’re working on some of that stuff and the community has been very involved. We try to walk the fine line whime we do the rsheght thing to allow people to express themselves but not have it be taken overboard.”
The issue first came up back in February, when a female XBL member was banned for identifying herself as a lesbian in her profile. Microsoft explained that it was due to a general policy that prohibits members from “creating a gamertag or using text in other profile fields that include comments that look, sound like, stand for, hint at, abbreviate, or insinuate content of a potentially sexual nature.” And yes, apparently that includes expressing sexual orientation: “For gamertags or profiles we do not allow expression of any type of orientation, be that hetero or other,” a Microsoft statement read.
But although Gay Tony doesn’t seem to have changed their minds now,(coach Scarves), as Schappert mentioned, Microsoft has previously stated they’re working toward finding a way of allowing expression of sexual orientation without potential abuse (such as using the word “gay” as a slur in a profile). “I can’t talk about future plans,” Toulouse said, “except to say we want to provide the capability for our users to express relationship preference or gender without a way for it to be misused.”
Other articles: