This is funny. Yes, there is a real town called Fort Gay in Virginia, but Microsoft apparently didn't believe it: http://www.destructoid.com/microsoft-bans-xbox-live-user-for-living-in-fort-gay-183390.phtml "Microsoft has had to apologize after banning a resident of Fort Gay due to the "offensive" nature of his location. Josh Moore is a resident of Fort Gay in West Virginia, but Microsoft decided it didn't need to verify that, and simply banned him because "ohmygod that word has gay in it!" Even when Moore argued that Fort Gay was a real town, Microsoft refused to hear him out. The company suspended all his gaming privileges until he could provide evidence that the location was genuine. Microsoft warned Moore that if he put "Fort Gay" back in his profile, they'd axe his account and keep the two years of Xbox Live Gold membership that he'd pre-paid. "At first I thought, 'Wow, somebody's thinking I live in the gayest town in West Virginia or something.' I was mad. ... It makes me feel like they hate gay people," says Moore. "I'm not even gay, and it makes me feel like they were discriminating.""
*sigh* sooooo we can no longer use the word "Gay" which used to mean happy no more. Golly, gee whiz Andy. Edit: I am just remarking on the politically correct rules. NOT that slurs should EVER be used against anyone..if it even is a slur. I rightly dont know. gay people use it.
The other funny part is with Microsoft, that they make really hard to unsubscribe from their Xbox live service. One very fast and effective way is to do so if you start to use words like this a lot while gaming or you put inappropriate words into your profile. Then they ban you without asking... Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!
Microsoft sucks. Bill Gates sucks. He should get out of the software business altogether so he has more time to devote to poisoning the third world.
Ah, homophobia "At first I thought, 'Wow, somebody's thinking I live in the gayest town in West Virginia or something.' I was mad. ... It makes me feel like they hate gay people," says Moore. "I'm not even gay, and it makes me feel like they were discriminating." (Sterling) What kills me about this is that there is homophobia stamped all over this from Moore. That is, Microsoft's objection was quite clearly the idea that "Fort Gay" was a homophobic slur. From the Destructoid source: Instead, they suspended his gaming privileges for a few days until Moore could convince them the location in his profile, "fort gay WV," wasn't a joke or a slur: It's an actual community of about 800 in Wayne County, along West Virginia's western border with Kentucky. "At first I thought, 'Wow, somebody's thinking I live in the gayest town in West Virginia or something.' I was mad. ... It makes me feel like they hate gay people," said Moore, an unemployed factory worker who plays shooters like Medal of Honor, Call of Duty and Ghost Recon under the gamertag Joshanboo. "I'm not even gay, and it makes me feel like they were discriminating," said Moore, who missed a key Search and Destroy competition because of last week's brief suspension. His team lost .... .... Mayor David Thompson also tried to intervene, but with little success. Thompson did not immediately return messages from The Associated Press but told television station WSAZ, which first reported the dispute, that he was informed the city's name didn't matter. The word "gay," he was told, was inappropriate in any context. Stephen Toulouse, director of policy and enforcement for Xbox Live said that was a miscommunication. "That is absolutely incorrect" and is not Xbox Live policy, he told the AP late Tuesday. Xbox Live received a complaint, which was directed to an agent for review. "Someone took the phrase 'fort gay WV' and believed that the individual who had that was trying to offend, or trying to use it in a pejorative manner," Toulouse said. "Unfortunately, one of my people agreed with that. ... When it was brought to my attention, we did revoke the suspension." .... .... The Xbox Live player's contract says users cannot "create a gamertag, avatar or use text in other profile fields that may offend other members," and lists potentially dangerous topics such as drug use, hate speech and racial, ethnic or religious slurs. The Code of Conduct, however, says players may use words including lesbian, gay, bi and transgender to express relationship orientation in their profile or gamertag. Toulouse contends his team rarely makes mistakes but acknowledged, "Absolutely, a mistake was made here, and we've updated our training to account for that." (Smith) But what is Moore's concern? That Microsoft might have thought he was gay? Look, Microsoft made an idiotic mistake here, but Mr. Moore just cracks me up. ____________________ Notes: Sterling, Jim. "Microsoft bans Xbox Live user for living in Fort Gay". Destructoid. September 8, 2010. Destructoid.com. September 8, 2010. http://www.destructoid.com/microsoft-bans-xbox-live-user-for-living-in-fort-gay-183390.phtml Smith, Vicki. "Gamer suspended over name of W.Va. town: Fort Gay". Yahoo! News. September 8, 2010. News.Yahoo.com. September 8, 2010. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100908/ap_on_hi_te/us_fort_gay_gamer
