News
GLAAD to host panel on online homophobia by Roger Brigham
EDGE San Francisco EditorWednesday Jul 15, 2009The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation will hold a panel discussion on homophobia and virtual communities this Saturday from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the campus of Electronic Arts in Redwood City as part of its recently launched initiative to tackle virtual homophobia.
Justin Cole, director of digital media at GLAAD, will moderate the panel. Panelists include Flynn DeMarco, founder of GayGamer.net, Stephen Toulouse, program manager for policy and Eenforcement on Microsoft’s XBox LIVE Dan Hewitt, senior director of communications and industry affairs for the Entertainment Software Association Caryl Shaw, senior producer in the Maxis Studio at Electronic Arts and Cyn Skyberg, vice president of customer relations at Linden Lab.
Homophobia in the virtual world "is pretty widespread," DeMarco, alias "Fruite Brute," told EDGE. "It reaches a lot of corners. You’ve got such a large influx of people from different backgrounds. Within that, you are going to get a lot of people who want to use their anonymity to say things they wouldn’t in the real world."
Efforts to filter and block offensive terms have in many cases prevented LGBT individuals from forming communities. They have also enabled hate speech.
"It actually makes it safer for people to use hate speech," DeMarco said. "They’ll spell ’fag’ with an "@" symbol -- f@g.";
Cole has been meeting with gaming suppliers for more than half a year to address what he describes as their often misguided efforts to curb hate messaging.
"The gaming companies are all willing to talk," he said. "We have to handle this on a case by case basis."
Part of the problem is that filters search for terms -- not for meaning or malice. Thus a filter meant to exclude someone from using "gay" as derogatory term will also block individuals or groups from identifying as gay, or even people registering their names if they happen to include the word gay, as in Gaylord Perry or Tyson Gay.
Microsoft, which had a policy of not allowing anyone to identify sexual orientation, booted a lesbian user who complained about online harassment. Those who seek to curb homophobia in virtual communities contend these policies simply force people back into the closet.
"I understand why they did it in the first place," DeMarco said. "I don’t think in anyway the companies are being homophobic. I understand where they are coming from. But I think by accidentally repressing these terms, they set us back."
"We need the safe spaces for people." Incidents of online anti-LGBT harassment increase whenever news of a gay rights advance or setback hits the Web, irregardless of whether it is on a mainstream news or on a niche audience blog.
"I don’t feel like the homophobia is necessarily coming from the companies or the writers of the blogs," DeMarco said. "I think most of it seems to come from the users posting comments."
Cole and DeMarco both said they feel it is easy for many people to remain unaware of the homophobia in the gaming world.
"Then they sign on for an hour," Cole said. "They listen and they hear things."
Cole further argued he thinks homophobic messaging in the virtual world increased homophobic acting out in the real world.
"It normalizes the idea is that that is acceptable,’ he said. "After you bash someone online, when you walk out of the house it becomes a little bit easier to do that in real life."
He added more needs to be done to address this trend.
"We need to make this manageable in a way that makes it safe for everyone," Cole said. "I’d like to think nothing is beyond our control. In the future, we could have a virtual Congress or a virtual White House. For now, we need to make this safe. There’s a lot of education for us to work on. We need the safe spaces for people. The more people become aware of it, the more they can help fight it."
DeMarco added he feels said blocking orientation terminology damaged acceptance of gays.
"I think that by repressing it, it gives out the signal that these are bad words and shouldn’t be used," he said. "I would hope this panel discussion would create more awareness of the issue.
Log onto GLAAD. for more information.
Roger Brigham, a freelance writer and communications consultant, is the San Francisco Editor of EDGE. He lives in Oakland with his husband, Eduardo.
|
|
|
Email
Print
Share