New controversy prompts Microsoft to reexamine Xbox Live policies affecting gay gamers

Frustrations for gays who game on Microsoft's Xbox Live were renewed this week when a lesbian player publicly complained that her account was suspended because she was openly gay in her profile.

This isn't the first time gays have felt unwelcome as Xbox Live members. The video of xxxGayBoyxxx made a public display of blatant homophobia from Xbox Live members and another gay gamer was forced to change his gamertag (TheGayerGamer) because it included "gay" in it.

Xbox Live team member Stephen Toulouse defended the action against TheGayerGamer in his personal blog, saying that "TheGayerGamer" included sexual innuendo that violated the Terms of Service, and added that references to heterosexuality would also be found in violation. I guess that puts everyone on equal footing since heterosexual gamers also have to work at finding safe spaces where they can hope to avoid casual straight-bashing and where they don't have to think twice before referencing their opposite-sex partner.

Right?

If that really is Microsoft's policy, however, it doesn't look like they're doing a good job of enforcing it...

Since I'm not a part of the Xbox Live community, I checked out what the knowledgeable writers at Lesbian Gamers had to say on the matter. It turns out they did a little bit of investigating and found a few gamertags that seem to be declaring their heterosexuality to the whole Xbox Live community:

Additionally, they found some gamertags that seem to include hate speech:

But the real news is that controversies just may have prompted Microsoft to reconsider their policy towards gay Xbox Live users. Toulouse weighed in on the newest controversy, saying this:

"A few months ago when this first cropped up as something that displeased people, my team saw that although the policy was objective, it’s inelegant ... the problem is when reviewing the complaint data historical record, we found that 95+% of the uses of the word 'Gay' were pejorative. LGBT phrases and words were far more being used as insults than self identification... It’s a tough problem, but for the past few months we’ve been engaged with internal and external community representatives to help solve it."

What I find interesting in Toulouse's response is that there's no talk about the "sexual innuendo" previously attached to being openly gay. Does this indicate a change in how in how Microsoft looks at LGBT gamers? At the least, it's good to hear that Microsoft is taking another look at the policy (and, I hope, the tools used to enforce the terms of service).

GLAAD has stepped into the discussion by announcing that they're addressing these issues with companies like Microsoft and Sony. GLAAD is hoping to hold a panel this summer on the topic. I'm very curious to hear about that, when it happens.

What do you think? Are there any Xbox Live members who can add their personal experience with the community? Has it been largely positive or negative and, more importantly, how hard is it to find a gaming group where you'd feel free to be yourself?