Xbox Live Now Gay-Friendly

Xbox Live is the online world in which Microsoft gamers meet to compete, trash-talk, and frag the hell out of each other. It's also, as of very recently, no longer a "don't ask, don't tell" community.

Jeremy Eaton

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More About

• Microsoft Xbox Live
• Richard Gaywood
• Don't Ask, Don't Tell
• Video Games
• LGBT Issues

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Initially, Microsoft didn't allow references to sexuality for fear they'd be used as slurs. But that policy had unintended consequences. Like in 2008, when an Englishman named Richard Gaywood was banned by Microsoft. Or last year, when a lesbian gamer suffered the same fate for self-identifying.

Thanks to a little pressure from GLAAD, Microsoft reversed its policy this week, and has promised to crack down on homophobic comments in Xbox Live. Which, given the nature of online discourse and the demographics of people who play video games online, is kind of like herding cats. Blindfolded. And instead of normal cats, these cats are extremely fast. And they have night vision. And wheels for legs. Yeah, cats like that.