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Fort Gay, West Virginia gamer blocked on Xbox 360

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DVDBack23 @ Sep 09, 2010 02:37 | 25 comments

Microsoft and its chief rules enforcer for Xbox Live have issued an apology today after they blocked a Fort Gay, West Virginia resident from XBL, claiming "fort gay" was offensive and against the service's code of conduct.

Josh Moore was suspended from XBL for a few days until he could prove to the enforcement team that "fort gay WV" (as posted in the 'Location' box of his profile) wasn't a slur.

A quick Google search for the term "Fort Gay" brings up its coordinates, population and other facts about the legitimate town, which begs the question of how the enforcement team made such an error.

Fort Gay is right on the border of WV and Kentucky, and has a population under 1000.

Says Moore of the situation: "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. I'm not even gay, and it makes me feel like they were discriminating.

Continuing his story, Moore adds: "I figured, I'll explain to them, 'Look in my account. Fort Gay is a real place. I told him, Google it — 25514! (the zip code)...He said, 'I can't help you.'"

The mayor of the small town, David Thompson, tried to help Moore, but to no avail: "It was so inappropriate for them (the word 'gay'), they wouldn't even say the word. They said, 'that word.' It's beyond me. That's the name of our town! It's appalling. It's a slap in our face."

Stephen Toulouse, director of policy and enforcement for Xbox Live was quick to apologize, while also noting that the suspension had been revoked: "Someone took the phrase 'fort gay WV' and believed that the individual who had that was trying to offend, or trying to use it in a pejorative manner. Unfortunately, one of my people agreed with that. ... When it was brought to my attention, we did revoke the suspension."

"In this very, very specific case, a mistake was made," he added "and we're going to make it right."

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Comments

Comment by: ROMaster2 (Sep 09, 2010 03:20)

Microsoft does not care about gay people.

Comment by: bam431 (Sep 09, 2010 05:33)

"In this very, very specific case, a mistake was made," he added "and we're going to make it right." If it where me, Making it right would be Micro$oft giving me free Xbox Live for a few years.

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Comment by: Hyasuma (Sep 09, 2010 05:34)

Originally posted by ROMaster2:
Microsoft does not care about gay people.

i second that

Comment by: biglo30 (Sep 09, 2010 05:34)

Seems like an honest error to me.

Comment by: KillerBug (Sep 09, 2010 06:24)

Microsoft sounds like a dirty word to me; there is nothing wrong with being gay...there is something wrong with being fascists.

Comment by: Matt898 (Sep 09, 2010 10:53)

I don't think there were saying it was anything wrong with being gay, there making sure he was not tring to be offensive and throwing the word around with out reguard for the offensive nature of that word. Sounds like the customer service rep he spoke was an idiot. I would royally pissed especially after the customer service rep threatened to ban him and keep the money he pre-paid live for.

Matt898

Comment by: Mr-Movies (Sep 09, 2010 13:51)

Gay means happy basically and has been missed used as a more subtle meaning for queer now, sad that the fort happy, properly termed, is slandered by a miss use of proper English. I’m not for any censorship but these days most sites, forums, and game shares’ censor. Where is freedom of speech anymore?

Comment by: Zeveroth (Sep 09, 2010 14:34)

Ya know, if I was that kid, I would have told that dip$hit rep to use google and not B!ch BING. I know he said "google it" but yea, he should have add the Bing part lol. I HATE YOU MICROSOFT!

Ok not Microsoft but more the dumba$$'s that work for you! LOL

Comment by: six60six (Sep 09, 2010 15:09)

Originally posted by Mr-Movies:
Gay means happy basically and has been missed used as a more subtle meaning for queer now, sad that the fort happy, properly termed, is slandered by a miss use of proper English.

yeah, because language isn't a living creature whose words can only define one thing, forever. who is miss use(d), by the way? she seems like a nice girl.

Comment by: babelfish (Sep 09, 2010 15:49)

i hate to be pedantic but do you yanks realise that the whole world hasnt learned your state abbreviations?

if i said LINCS would you know what county im from? pls remember this is an international site... :)

for such an insular nation you sure do expect people to know a lot about the USA. yet seem to grasp so little about anywhere other than the USA ;)

:: If you were a woman i'd sock you - Peter Griffin ::

Comment by: Mysttic (Sep 09, 2010 17:51)

Quote:

Originally posted by babelfish:
i hate to be pedantic but do you yanks realise that the whole world hasnt learned your state abbreviations?

if i said LINCS would you know what county im from? pls remember this is an international site... :)

for such an insular nation you sure do expect people to know a lot about the USA. yet seem to grasp so little about anywhere other than the USA ;)

and sometimes they know even less about their own country, but being biased isn't what these boards are about, so lets all try to keep on topic.

Comment by: juventini (Sep 09, 2010 20:07)

Maybe MicroSoft should have google it....LMAO!

Forza Juve!!

Comment by: ThePastor (Sep 09, 2010 20:22)

If you are from America then you know what WV means and if you're not from America you shouldn't care. It's in America.

Just like if you say some place in England... all I hear is "England". It's just normal.

Also, in the US we have elevated the two digit abbreviations in importance. It was shoved down our throats to the point that nearly everyone uses them in ALL instances without even thinking about it.

I live in California. I almost never write out California. It's CULTURAL to just use the abbreviations. There's no malice behind it. It's just a natural thing. An excusable oversight.

So, on behalf of the entire United States of America... (USA) and especially those of us in California... (CA) I apologize.

;)

Comment by: Mysttic (Sep 09, 2010 22:06)

Quote:
So, on behalf of the entire United States of America... (USA) and especially those of us in California... (CA) I apologize.

There is no need to apologize over something like that; there are still American adults out there that don't even know all of the abbreviations mean. *Just watch the show are you smarter than a 5th grader*. But it's as you said then, who the hell in the end cares either way? Or rather who should care? No one.

I Canadian and I probably know more about the states than I do my own country. And although sad and unpatriotic, we should all have areas of knowledge that is more important, especially on a site that talks about technology from around the globe.

Comment by: ThePastor (Sep 09, 2010 23:58)

:D ... I've been trying to learn the Canadian territories!

Unfortunately for them, all Blu-ray protections have been broken and BD rips can be found around the Internet, usually before the retail even hits shelves.

Comment by: crunk15 (Sep 10, 2010 00:39)

Originally posted by babelfish:
i hate to be pedantic but do you yanks realise that the whole world hasnt learned your state abbreviations?

if i said LINCS would you know what county im from? pls remember this is an international site... :)

for such an insular nation you sure do expect people to know a lot about the USA. yet seem to grasp so little about anywhere other than the USA ;)

completely off topic

Comment by: cleverick (Sep 10, 2010 00:50)

Originally posted by biglo30:
Seems like an honest error to me.

Why would this be an honest error? MS does not like gay people like George Bush doesn't like black people.

Comment by: DXR88 (Sep 10, 2010 01:23)

i still abbreviate (Florida) Fla.

on the topic of Gay's or as proper English would have it Homosexuality.

What do i care, the way i see it. more women for me. Just don't come trying to appease you sexual Desire's on me, i will knock the homosexuality right out of your skull.

Comment by: borhan9 (Sep 10, 2010 03:29)

Feel sorry for this guy wouldn't Microsoft have to check this stuff before denying access to this poor guy. What a shame bade customer support and relations.

Comment by: SomeBozo (Sep 10, 2010 04:37)

Originally posted by ROMaster2:
Microsoft does not care about gay people.

Wake up dude, microsoft was on of the first companies to support health care for same sex domestic partners, and lobbied legislatively for gay rights. Also while working there continually getting bombarded was reminded be nice and respectful to everyone, support deviancy (ooops i meant diversity) to the point it was rather annoying.

Comment by: ajennice (Sep 10, 2010 05:33)

Funny.. they can revoke the suspension BUT when you go to their site for suspensions and bans.. they say they CAN NOT overturn a suspension or ban.

So... Are they now admittinghtey can overturn suspensions/bans and have been able to but not willing to hear a case.
They always hide behind the fact that what they say is solid with no recourse, evidence, explanation, or appeal.

Honestly the kid has a legal spot on this. He did nothing to get him suspended hence MS is guilty of... Breach of contract, failure to forfil legal contract obligations, negligence ( they should of looked into this from a US lace instead of new delhi) and internet fraud.
I, for one, would want a writen and signed appology and i would frame that SOB!!! Id also MOD the hell out of my console now and hope they ban me. bringing up this to a newspaper would look as if MS has a vendetta against this kid.

Comment by: xboxdvl2 (Sep 10, 2010 06:02)

i will try to keep this on topic.was watching top gear a few weeks ago and they pulled into a town called twatt.If they can discriminate against someone for using the word gay imagine someone from twatt trying to log on.

PS2 with 12 games.
pc-windows 7,intel core quad Q8400,4 Gb ddr2,WD 500 GB hdd,ATI Radeon HD 4550 graphics,AOC 22inch LCD moniter.

Comment by: Mysttic (Sep 10, 2010 23:24)

Quote:
i will try to keep this on topic.was watching top gear a few weeks ago and they pulled into a town called twatt.If they can discriminate against someone for using the word gay imagine someone from twatt trying to log on.

Worse, imagine if the guys real first name was Cum. Cum from Twatt. lol wow.. I am sad.

Comment by: ajennice (Sep 10, 2010 23:45)

I posted this story (not the above one from after dawn) on the xbox site...
It was up for about 10 minutes has over 120 views and some repiles.. refreshed the screen.. GONE!

Comment by: KillerBug (Sep 11, 2010 04:48)

Quick question...how does this base fit into that whole, "Don't ask, don't tell" rule?