World of Warcraft Bans GLBT Guild

According to this article, Sara Andrews has been denied the right to create a GLBT friendly guild within the popular online game World of Warcraft.

They [Blizzard Entertainment] released a statement which said the phrase GLBT was not allowed because it has a "tendency to result in communication that often breaks down into harassment."

So, rather than having a policy against harassment and ejecting abusive players, Blizzard would rather bar GLBT members from creating the same kinds of virtual communities that heterosexuals do. Well, apparently the online game company does have a harassment policy. According to this article, after several exchanges between Sara and the company, they responded:

"While we appreciate and understand your point of view, we do feel that the advertisement of a 'GLBT friendly' guild is very likely to result in harassment for players that may not have existed otherwise. If you will look at our policy, you will notice the suggested penalty for violating the Sexual Orientation Harassment Policy is to 'be temporarily suspended from the game.' However, as there was clearly no malicious intent on your part, this penalty was reduced to a warning."

Hang on... Blizzard is accusing Sara of violating their Sexual Orientation Harassment Policy? How... fucking dumb is that?

Sara Andrews has stated that she will not be renewing her World of Warcraft account due to Blizzards lack of support for a GLBT friendly environment, "It seems to be OK for general chat to be flooded with, 'That's so gay!' and 'I just got ganked! What a fag!' yet advertising for a GLBT friendly environment where we don't have to deal with such language is deemed inappropriate."

You go girl!

Apparently Blizzard would rather pander to their obviously puerile and homophobic fan-base than demonstrate any kind of social conscience. The almighty dollar wins out every time.


tags: World of Warcraft, GLBT, homophobia