Homophobia on Xbox Live: Here’s Why

Have you jumped off of Xbox Live due to homophobic comments from your fellow gamers? Well I’ve got the answer. Some of the people behind Live are homophobes too.

Jamie Durrant is a gay video game producer at Microsoft who works with a team of homophobes. I can’t decide what shocks me more. The fact that Mr. Durant endured name calling like “Fag Boy Jim”. Or the sad realization that the people taunting him were grown men who should have known better.

I’m sure there are lovely and open minded people working at Microsoft. Unfortunately, the company is allowing itself to be seen as a homophobic sausage den. I don’t feel comfortable gaming online for this very reason: I’m sure to encounter sexual harassment. As a woman who would like to work in the gaming industry I’m incredibly disappointed.

It’s time to carefully revise the community standard’s on Live so that gay gamers are not punished for being harassed. I also see a business need to recognize the diversity of employees and customers in a business as global as gaming. Revising HR standards to embrace the diversity of today’s workforce would be a great first step.

[Via - DailyMail]

Update: I want to thank my readers (Eye-Shuh and Denis) for pointing out that this case is still being investigated. These are alleged claims. But I’m definitely interested in the story. I believe it’s worth discussing and I’ll be following it to see how it develops.

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Tagged as: gay gamers, homophobes on xbox live, homosexuality and gaming, xbox live

Denis

Last year when the Human Rights Campaign listed Microsoft as a company with 100% support of a positive LGBT work environment, I raised an eyebrow.

While this seems to indicate a problem in the work environment itself (I'm wary of accepting this until more news has released, but am interested), I still don't see how a company who has all the problems it does on Live can be given that distinction. I understand why they want to keep sexuality away from tags (then you have to police abuse of them), but as Lesbian Gamers recently brought up, it isn't effective.

Slurs are still in place. As you mentioned, straight sexuality can still be mentioned. All it does is reinforce the media trope that to be queer means that one is purely thought of in a sexual basis, something from which our society needs to progress.

eye-shuh

Keyword "allegedly". None of this has been investigated or confirmed yet, and while if true this would be a serious and horrible issue I feel many people are moving way too quickly on saying this is what happened.

I'm willing to give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt for the moment until more factual evidence is presented.

I like your blog but I'm a bit disappointed that you would be so quick to label the XBL team as homophobes.

I do think MS needs to look at the XBL user name policies, but words like "gay" and "homo" SHOULD be kept out of tags. Not everyone who wants to use them is going to do it in a positive way or because they're gay and Microsoft shouldn't have to sort through millions of usernames just to catch the one or two appropriate uses.

bukolae

You bring up a valid point. None of this has been confirmed by the Microsoft team in the UK. But I have yet to see any comment from them on this issue (they simply denied the claim and failed to comment). I also respect the Daily Mail's ability to fact check its stories. The article also mentions that Jamie Durrant is on government backed leave from his job. So something definitely happened there. And I think it's important to at least discuss it given the rampant homophobia that occurs on Live.

Re Gamer tags: I think the XBL policy should be applied across the board in reference to sexual orientation being mentioned in one's gamer tag. We either ban all references to sexual orientation in the tags or we allow it for everyone. Right now homosexuals on Live are being unfairly targeted and the XBL team needs to work on fixing that. They are paying customers too. They shouldn't have to feel the need to hide that part of themselves if straight gamers aren't being held to the same standard.

I know it's a delicate issue. But I think this is an opportunity for Live to make the customer experience awesome for anyone who wants to play online.

Michelle

Really?

I tend to take anything that the Daily Mail says with a pinch of salt...

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