EA & GLAAD Tackle Homophobia in Gaming
Have you been harassed on Xbox LIVE because of your lifestyle choices? If you’re in the California area and you’d like to hear how gaming has been affected by homosexual bashing and such, EA is providing that opportunity. Some friends of mine at EA sent news that they’re hosting an event for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), the nation’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) media advocacy organization this Saturday.
GLAAD is facilitating a panel on Homophobia & Virtual Communities which will spotlight key issues and include the perspectives of both gaming companies and LGBT gamers. Discussion will revolve around the state of the problem in these communities, policy solutions that have been developed to address homophobia – what’s working as well as what’s not, plus challenges and opportunities.
It’s something you don’t see much of because it’s likely swept under the rug each time but hopefully after this event more awareness comes. I’ve dealt with my own forms of harassment over Xbox LIVE so I understand what it feels like. There are a couple of cool panelists set to speak including Flynn DeMarco (Alias: Fruite Brute), Founder of GayGamer.net and Stephen Toulouse (Gamertag: stepto), Program Manager for Policy and Enforcement on Microsoft’s XBox LIVE.
Event details are as follows:
WHAT: Homophobia in Virtual Communities – Highlighting the Problem and Working Towards Sustainable Solutions
WHEN: Saturday, July 18th, 2009, 11am-1pm
WHERE: Electronic Arts, 250 Shoreline Drive Redwood City, CA 94065
If you can make it out, let me know and I’ll see if I can arrange a meet & greet with some cool people at EA for ya. Event details are here for you to read up on. The event is free and open to the public.
March 27th, 2011 at 1:46 pm
I’ve not experienced it on PSN, but I have heard a lot of it on Xbox Live. I guess that has something to do with the Sony console being more expensive, so the players are older or more mature, and the kids are likely coming from more wealthy families and are better educated. Not saying it doesn’t happen on PSN, just that I have never once heard the word “fag” or “gay”. Well, I tell a lie…I saw someone in PS Home calling someone a fag in text, but they were immediately [and rightly] banned.
Like racism, it is all down to ignorance. In fact half of you ignorant homophobes wouldn’t be sat typing abuse on such a thing as a personal computer were it not for the advances made in computing technology by Alan Turing – the British mathematician and computer engineer who just happened to be gay. There are also lots of gay people in Silicon Valley, Japan and other places working on the technology and games you own, so you really need to learn some respect for your betters. That’s right..”betters”. They are better and smarter than you, as just because you are heterosexual, it does not make you superior to them. It is your actions in this life that determine your worth, and they are creating wonderful things for all of us to enjoy…whereas you’re just sat in your mom’s house shouting abuse into a headset at someone you don’t even know.