Thanks for the post Joshua.

From a Female WoW'er
(yes I really am a female)

I'm from Melbourne, Australia.

A couple of things I wanted to respond to you on, though. First of all, you are absolutely right in that this is a complicated endeavor. Many companies do have some sort of policy in place that prohibits threats, advocating violence or death, hate speech, etc, but the ability to report that behavior and/or the enforcement of those policies isn't always consistent. And in most cases, the person doing the reporting never knows whether or not their report was acted upon – very little transparency.

This really is a company-by-company and a case-by-case project. Of course there are specific and general goals – to provide safe spaces for LGBT people in these virtual communities (which includes virtual worlds, online games, social networks, message boards, and on and on), to work with each of the companies to ensure they have policies in place that prevent anti-LGBT defamation (and a mechanism/protocol to enforce them) that makes sense, and what will be the most challenging in my eyes – to educate the user base about the real impact of their virtual homophobia.

For example, when the Old Republic situation arose, I reached out to Bioware about the situation and ended up getting a call back from a VP at Electronic Arts (EA), Bioware's parent company. He issued a statement through GLAAD which we shared on our blog (http://glaadblog.org/2009/05/01/when-old-republic-strikes-new-media/). Through ongoing conversations with EA, they have offered to host our upcoming Panel on Homophobia & Virtual Communities on their private campus in Redwood City, CA (http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=93132189074), have provided a panelist – a senior producer from the Maxis Studio, and we'll be having a sit down meeting to discuss the homophobia, their policies and begin working on a comprehensive plan to address it.

The same goes for Microsoft – I spent two days on their campus in Washington state meeting with executives to review their systems, protocols and policies and provide recommendation on way to address the problem.

These companies are very much committed to providing a safe and fun environment for all their players – they're just not all there yet. And that's why GLAAD has begun actively working to advise and assist them.

It's not going to happen overnight and it's not going to be easy. I, like you, understand the uphill battle we have here. But in my job I've also seen the real impact unchecked homophobia has on people's lives and how it ultimately can lead to violence and death. We need to begin to address it.

Regarding the problem being more than just about homophobia – you're absolutely right, but we have to start somewhere. As GLAAD's mission is focused on advocating for LGBT people, that's where we are starting. And keep in mind, while the work being done here is focused around fighting homophobia its implications will affect all the other groups you mentioned. If we work to help implement better reporting mechanisms, it helps everyone. If we work to provide better policies and safe spaces for LGBT people, those policies and spaces can be replicated for other groups as well.

I hope this helps to address some of your points. I'm definitely interested in hearing more from you – your analysis is thoughtful and helpful in shaping some of the discussions I'm having. Please feel free to keep in touch. I'll be putting together another conference call with gamers to get their insight and thoughts and I'd love it if you could join in.

Drop me a line and thanks again for the post!

- Justin

Interestingly enough a post was started a couple of weeks ago on Codemaster's forums for 'Lord of the Rings Online' from someone asking if there were any LGBT friendly kinships. This in turn was met with a lot of "why" "does anybody care?" to "can we have straight friendly kinships?" It took a number of posts to explain the reasons why and not just from the original poster.

While I'm sure GLAAD's intentions are worthy I just don't see how its going to work in online gaming worlds. Like you say most companies whether it be Bioware, SOE or Codemasters already have in place policies regarding hate, homophobia, sexism. Like you already say whether they are enforced is another matter.