This is the problem. The word lesbian is not derrogatory. I hate when people try to draw comparisons or analogies that are so extreme its ridiculous.

again i say from February of 2009:

"His team now understands, he said, that they need to find a way to at let people express things like sexual orientation in ways that can't be abused. "

from: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1605966/20090226/story.jhtml

Chill.

You asked a question, I answered it. If you can point out anywhere in this or any other thread where I expressed approval for the policy, I'll cheerfully denounce myself right here and now.

Although I'll take the first part of your post as an implicit invitation to address the link you provided. It acknowledges that the current system is imperfect, but it does not offer any solutions. Demonstrably, the terms of use remain relatively unchanged in the past year. Ergo, one can conclude that they're deliberately sticking with their "inelegant" solution for now. In other words, the contract remains in effect.

There may be a few ways you could attack the terms of use, and perhaps now the current subject of our discussion will do just that. This does not affect the fact that her behavior violated the terms of use, and that she was punished accordingly.

in short, it's a sad day for a self-declairing usage of word "Lesbian" to be considered "ban-able"

and even sadder for a company to ban others for calling themselves lesbian.

Microsoft needs to wake up and realize the word "Lesbian" in reference to someone's OWN sexuality is NOT offensive.

Well put.

I guess i should be more consise and the argument needs to switch to "why is MSFT still handing out bans for something they acknowledged as flawed 10 months ago"

I but simply saying "lesbian" isnt sexual in nature, its a preference for ones company in terms of relationships. The terms could be argued that the word Lesbian may incite sexual thoughts but the word married does not for the simple fact of our society assuming the word "lesbian" or "gay" simply means anal sex all the time or oral intercourse.

Why put lesbian in your bio. That's like me putting straight in my bio... who cares?

Putting something you're proud of doesn't mean you should put it there. I don't go on L4D2(pc) and tell everyone that i'm a straight filipino/italian/irish/german/jamaican, that dislikes the 360 but owns one, before we start the game.

what if some kids got to look at your profile "MOMMY WHATS A LESBIANNNNN"

it's a videogame bio, express yourself on myspace/facebook

not hatin, just sayin. I love lesbians :)

see? now that just sounds creepy cuz its mostly used as a sexual word

get over it

Why would you put your sexual orientation in your XBL profile?

I don't put that I'm a straight guy in my profile. Your just asking to receive hate mail from 12 year old boys on live for saying your a lesbian.

It offends me that poeple are offended by other peoples sexuality. I mean give it a break! Who cares what they do in the bedroom?

I think we're in complete agreement.

For what it's worth I share your disgust on the matter. It's clear that someone reviews whatever complaints they receive: you'd think they'd just tell their employees to use their common sense. I'm lead to believe that the higher-ups at Microsoft believe that they actually have a good policy here, and that the interview you linked to is little more than a smokescreen.

From personal experience I can tell you that drafting a contract that cleanly excises only the truly objectionable material, without being vague or overbroad, is surprisingly difficult, but by now I'd think their high-priced legal drafters would have been able to make a solid attempt by now. I find it revealing that they've made zero progress.

 While I'm also confused why people feel the need to proclaim anything about themselves to the world (and for the record, this includes the entire institution that is Livejournal), I fail to see the harm here. At "worst," Little Timmy will find out that a lesbian is a woman who is romantically interested in other women. Considering what's on network television nowadays, I'd say Little Timmy is very unlikely to get scarred for life. He may even finally begin to understand some of the commercials he sees in daddy's magazines.

 Who? And why?