NEW YORK ---The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), the nation's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) media advocacy organization, today announced a new project to address homophobia in virtual communities and educate users on LGBT issues.
“As more and more people turn to virtual communities to connect with each other and for entertainment, we need to ensure these spaces are LGBT-inclusive and safe for our community – right now that’s not always the case,” said Rashad Robinson, Senior Director of Media Programs at GLAAD. “Our new project and work with leading tech companies aims to both educate users on the impact of homophobic remarks and put sustainable policies in place that make the experience fun and inclusive for everyone.”
As part of this project, GLAAD will focus on a range of virtual communities including networked PC games, social networks, online gaming and virtual worlds. The project will also address policies related to commenting features on blogs, Web sites and message boards.
GLAAD will work to ensure such communities remain committed to:
-- Providing safe spaces for LGBT people to connect
-- Enact the best policies to prevent anti-LGBT defamation
-- Educate users of these communities about the effects of homophobia.
GLAAD’s Director of Digital Media, Justin Cole, will head the project:
“In most cases, the policies devised by these companies were done so to stop defamation from happening – to protect LGBT people. For instance, by banning the use of the word ‘gay,’ the companies were preventing people from using it as a slur. Unfortunately, the unintended consequence of this is the creation of a virtual closet, where LGBT people cannot live, game, or interact openly.
“Our aim here is to work with all the players – including companies, gamers, journalists, and community moderators – to develop sustainable policy solutions that address the rampant homophobia, provide safe spaces for LGBT people, and make the experience fun for all.”
GLAAD will also be convening a groundbreaking panel discussion in Silicon Valley on July 18, 2009, that will spotlight the issue of homophobia in virtual communities and include the perspectives of both gaming companies and LGBT gamers. Confirmed panelists include representatives from XBox Live, Electronic Arts, Inc., Linden Labs, the Electronic Software Association, and GayGamer.net. For more information on the panel event and to RSVP, please visit: www.glaad.org/digitalevent.
The project is the culmination of work already in progress:
-- Earlier this year, Cole traveled to the Microsoft corporate headquarters to meet with XBox Live and discuss their policies after GLAAD supporters noted that XBox Live suspends user accounts if they make reference to their sexual orientations or self-identify as LGBT in their profiles.
-- GLAAD contacted Electronic Arts, Inc. after a message board for players of “Star Wars: The Old Republic” locked message threads about LGBT issues. EA corrected the problem and posted an apology.
-- GLAAD has placed calls to action and reported Facebook groups and YouTube users that openly advocate for the harming and killing of LGBT people. In all cases, the user accounts were rightly suspended.
GLAAD began its Digital Media Program in June 2008, creating the foremost program dedicated to new media advocacy in the LGBT movement. The program includes monitoring online media for defamation and ensuring fair, accurate and inclusive online coverage of the LGBT community. The highly trafficked glaadBLOG began as part of the program to increase visibility of LGBT issues, disseminate information and call supporters to action.
GLAAD selected Justin Cole to lead the program as its Director. Previously, Cole served as Deputy Director of Online Communications at the influential media watchdog group Media Matters for America.
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ARTICLE: GLAAD Battles Homophobia in Virtual World
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If only they would do what they say
If all they did was educate people on the fact they have the right to choose to sleep with the same sex and that they too should not be afraid to walk down the street and should have the right to live their lives without fear of retaliation but sadly thats not the case instead they do this:
1. Attack a Christian family for giving money to traditional marriage by sitting in their car in front of this families house with a sign on the car that read, BIGOTS LIVE HERE.
2. The push little old ladies with crosses who disagree with them at rallies.
3. They kick and yell at people praying on the street cornor in San. Francisco.
4. They go into churches ie sisters of perpetual indulgence and knowingly bring a curse upon themselves for taking communion unworthily.
5. They go into churches and throw flyers in the air and yell and rant yelling out JESUS WAS GAY.
6. They teach children how to shove a fist inside another persons anus. Tell me how that is not pornography and child sexualization with money designated for tolerant teaching and respect for others?
7. The attack me and my family because I exercised my right to write letters to my congressman not supporting added protections for homosexual teachers, why would they need EXTRA protection if they arent doing something wrong?
8.When Bart was struggling with unwanted homosexual feelings, he sought out a counselor for help. The counselor, however, told him he was born gay. According to Joe and Marion, "When Bart came out of her office, he looked like he had been given a death sentence. I know this lady did not realize what she was doing ... but she had told him he was born gay. She told him we were doing him an injustice by telling him this was wrong and he needed to go back [to the homosexual lifestyle].
Bart Allen did go back to homosexuality , but he couldn't accept it. His lover, however, refused to accept the fact that Bart wanted to leave homosexuality behind. While Bart was asleep, his partner strangled him to death with a dog leash.
9. Aids is killing our kids in record numbers and only an idiot would not recognize the correlation between homosexual agendas in school and the rise of teenagers dying of aids.
I could go on and on. Gary my friend died of aids but you know they know they just choose to continue to ignore facts and reality. We are not the ones who are intolerant we are the ones who have had enough BS.
- Hope7
July 2, 2009 3:54PM
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clarification
Pretty much everything you outlined can either be proven wrong or can be likened analogously to extreme behavior of heterosexuals. No matter what a person's sexuality is, there will always be extremists who take it upon themselves to slander their opposition. This is not a trait only exclusive to homosexuals, no matter how much you would like to believe it.
And AIDs deaths are absolutely not killing in record numbers these days. The record number deaths occurred more than 10 years ago. You are blatantly spreading lies (which is likely against your religious views, no?) because your information is inaccurate.
- learnlogic
July 2, 2009 5:13PM
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rlly?
#1 is attacking homosexuals, so why cant they attack back?
#2 one old lady who was defaming a whole society of people who arent "sinners", also it was only three people who did the attacking... are they a good representation of homos?
#3 no they dont, you are lieing... isnt that a sin?
#4 that is a very hateful thing to say to someone who might be looking for redemption... how very christian you are to defame people who want to practice your faith *shrug*
#5 no they dont, there might be people outside of churches but by law if the church doesnt want them there they cant be there... IE private property, DUH -lieing again, this doesnt look good for you -
#6 WTF, seriously if you are going to get your info from a scandal that took a conversation out of bounds and put it into the wrong context then you should go to school and learn how to actually read and find good recources. -unless you are ok with brainwashing people with idiotic propaganda, which i bet you are-
#7 probably because you want to destroy lives by taking away jobs ... *shrug* what comes around goes around, and homosexual teachers need protection from people like you who call homos pedophiles who want to teach fisting you nin-con-put
#8 No counselor would tell someone they are born gay, they could loose their license that way, you are spreading lies again... please stop
#9 since the heterosexual population has more woman and men with full blown aids than the homo population, i really dont see how you can corrilate the homo population for spreading it... just saying*shrug* -its called logic-
- zman676
July 2, 2009 6:39PM
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Hey, it's hope again.
I'm going to tell you a story, Hope. The story's about Christians and my grandparents and great grandparents. Now, my grandparents, their siblings, and my great grandparents were from a town called Czechstowa in Poland. They weren't political, they weren't particularly well off, they were just your average Jewish family living in Poland. One day, they were rounded up and forced into a 16-block ghetto in Prague. Later on, they were put into a forced-labor camp, until one day they were gassed to death and incinerated. So who organized this? Christians--Christians have a history and a scriptural and theological basis in killing a whole lot of people that aren't Christian. They organized it, they carried it out, they were glad it happened. It wasn't the first purging. It won't be the last. But I know who was behind it, and I know why. So when you talk about hate, when you talk about violence, when you talk about groups that oppress and disseminate and lie and rape and hurt and kill--I know what you're talking about. I know what that looks like. My grandparents tell me stories. This isn't it. I'll let you know when the time comes.
- quantummechanik
July 2, 2009 8:47PM
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thank you so very much!
-sorry for your ancestors-
Thank you though for giveing a well rounded and true example of one of the many billions of hateful and stupid actions caused by christians... Thus if we were to use Hope7's logic we would then be liable to judge the whole christian population without fault... I wonder if Hope is able to understand that *shrug*
- zman676
July 5, 2009 9:20PM
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Im not sorry for my ancestors and I have some doozies
I can be a jerk. I can admit it. I can also read facts and have insightful opinions and here is one. GLADD should know that homophobia isnt killing its members in record numbers;Aids is though. And you would think with the numbers they are having that they would be educating their members about safe sex and responsible living instead of sharing this lifestyle with our children in school and calling anyone who challenges them homophobic, whether true or not, homophobia is not killing homosexuals, they are killing themselves. This is a tragedy and for some reason they refuse to listen. Maybe its because they jump to the conclusion that because someone opposes them that it automatically means that they hate them or that they want to hurt them, you would think with all the facts they have including these below they would listen to good sound advice and educate their own first and when they make positive changes, then teach the rest of the world. Live by your own standards and give our kids a break! Thats all Im asking.
Aids has risen, according the CDC, 15% in the group ages 13-24. That school age kids and we are not helping them when the homosexual role models have, according to the CDC their highest increase of aids since reporting began with 26% increase of aids in males having sex with males.
The odds that a young person living that lifestyle iwth contract aids by the time their 20 is 25% and by the time their 55 is 50%. Now are you teaching them those stats or just that people who oppose homosexuality must have hangups and be homophobic. That hundreds and hundreds of thousands of wonderful people are dying of aids becuase they choose to live a reckless and unsafe life. If GLADD really cared about our kids they would do the following:
1. Educate their own communities for the next ten years exclusively on how to save their own lives.
2. They would tell the above stats to everyone considering living this lifestyle.
3. They would stop making homosexuality ONLY ABOUT SEX when that does the biggest injustice to themselves and lastly start respecting those who have the you-know-whats to endure severe social pain to tell you that you are wrong in what your doing and you condemn yourself, not anyone else. Have a good day, Repectfully as I can be, HOPE7
- Hope7
July 6, 2009 9:32AM
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I get that you're not sorry
about your forebears. Killing Jews is not really a big deal to you guys.
Cite your sources.
- quantummechanik
July 6, 2009 11:19AM
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False
Stop providing blatantly wrong "information". AIDs is not killing in record numbers anymore. That was over 10 years ago in the 90s.
- learnlogic
July 6, 2009 11:50AM
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AIDS...
Hope i think you need to actually have a dose of what the real world is like...
Alot of gay people might have AIDS , but it isnt a majority of our population. Also AIDS is now in a higher percentage of heterosexuals than homosexuals... so you are really just contradicting yourself...
Next, you fail to understand that in this country alone there are way to many hate crimes , for example the hate crime rate for transgenders is far higher than the hate crime rate of jews, blacks, latinos, gays, fats, and muslims combined. Another example is that in every hour a hate crime is occuring against a lbgt member in the US, -not sure for the world though, im guessing much much smaller since in alot of countries they kill LBGT members-.
Look i see your concern with the past AIDs epidemic but it isnt for just gays, it is also for heterosexuals.
You also fail to understand that people who just have safe sex usually dont get STDs, in other words it isnt the life style chioce that gives out the STDs... its the actions and stupidity of that lifestyle chioce.
You also are probably blaintly un aware that a huge majority of the youth on the streets averaging in the ages of 7 through 18 are LBGT. Why is this?
#1 parents who kick LBGT children out of their homes
#2 Christian youth organizations -foster homes/ adoption agencies- dont usually extend their help to LBGT children.
#3 there is still not enouph safe environments for LBGT kids and teens .
#4 Last Some people refuse to extend their families to LBGT kids and teens.
So i ask you, what do you think happens when kids are left on the street with no home? -just something for you to think about-
Another thing, your statistics, where did you get them...?
My statistics came from Google, i typed in hate crimes against LBGT.
Also alot of times people contract AIDS from not knowing how to have "safe" sex... so arent you contradicting your efforts when you say people shouldnt teach about sex?
CDC is a little sketchy since their info seems to contradict most of the other websites out there for example, psi.org says "
Global
33.2 million people now live with HIV or AIDS.
In 2007, approximately 2.5 million people were infected with HIV.
Every day, over 6800 people become infected with HIV - almost five people per minute.
5700 people die from AIDS every day.
One child dies every minute.
15 million children around the world have been orphaned by AIDS, losing one or both parents to the disease.
Every fifteen seconds, another person age 15-24 becomes infected with HIV/AIDS.
US
Roughly one million people living with HIV/AIDS in the United States.
Since the start of the AIDS epidemic, 1.5 million Americans have been infected with HIV and more than 524,000 have died of AIDS.
At least 40,000 people are infected each year.
African Americans account for 48% of new HIV infections.
AIDS is the leading cause of death for African American women aged 25 to 34 and HIV rates among Hispanic women are increasing.
The number of women living with HIV has tripled in the last two decades.
At least half of all new infections are among people under the age of 25.
Washington, DC has the highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in the United States - one in 20 people are living with HIV or AIDS.
"
No where in there is there the leading cause of aids is MSM.
What also gets me is that, the CDC fails to understand that gay and bisexual men are often left out of many censuses. They also dont get that to many men who have promiscuious sex with other men are sometimes in the closet, they may even have families.
ALL i did was type in AIDs Statistics and i got tons of info that easily counters the CDC *shrug*
- zman676
July 6, 2009 3:20PM
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Right who wants to trust a nonbiased organization
I read your reply and I found it quite unlearned of facts and mostly just a lot of emotionally packed filler stuff. I would request proof of your statements below:
You also fail to understand that people who just have safe sex usually dont get STDs, in other words it isnt the life style chioce that gives out the STDs... its the actions and stupidity of that lifestyle chioce.
You also are probably blaintly un aware that a huge majority of the youth on the streets averaging in the ages of 7 through 18 are LBGT. Why is this?
#1 parents who kick LBGT children out of their homes
#2 Christian youth organizations -foster homes/ adoption agencies- dont usually extend their help to LBGT children.
#3 there is still not enouph safe environments for LBGT kids and teens .
#4 Last Some people refuse to extend their families to LBGT kids and teens.
1. Please show were it is not the lifestyle choice that contributes to STD's. Show me stats or proof that heterosexuals have more stds than those living a homosexual lifestyle, per capita, and Ill refute it with medical data.
2. Prove that their are kids on the street from ages 7-18 who are homosexual and homeless.
3. Show me one of those organizations that have refused to help a child for the sole reason they were homosexual. PS Who gives you this, does your brainwashing give this stuff to you?
4. You say there is still not enough safe places for homosexual children are you assuming that there are special places for children who are homosexual vs not helping a heterosexual child? Why is that?
5. Some families...who.....thats not what I see. I see Christian families, even those who disagree with the lifestyle, willing to do all they can to help with aids victims and any child in distress. I think your projecting what the homosexual community does to those who are not of their persuasion and not the other way around. Christian organizations are why you have aids foundations and safe havens in the first place. The charity of those with faith have far outweighed any accusations thrown out so that you can victimized yoursleves and get bid daddy government to come and help beat up someone you dont like.
http://www.worldvision.org/content.nsf /pages/search-for-a-child?open&campaign=1193518&cmp=KNC-1193518&ttcode=000003
http://gateway.nlm.nih.gov/MeetingAbstracts/ma?f=102218885 .html
http://home.messiah.edu /~chase/h/
And I could go on and on with shelters proved by Christians, who at the same time preach deliverance from homosexuality , that are available out there.
I sense some real pain issues and I can tell you a few things from my own personal pain:
1. No one can make you feel good or bad about
yourself but you.Eleanor Roosevelt, quote, " No one can make you fell inferior without your consent".
2. No one can hurt you unless you let them. WE CAN ONLY FEEL GOOD ABOUT OURSELVES WHEN OUR BEHAVIOUR IS POSITIVE AND WE CAN BE FULLY ACCOUNTABLE FOR IT".
3.Huring someone else never takes away your own pain.
4. No matter how much you think you know what others think about you the fact is you dont know because you dont have somekind of special ability or gift to read minds or gaydar. These are lies told to you by your leaders or peers.Have a good day. Try reading the Bible, it is powerful, truely. Know the the purpose of the Bible is to point out our flaws so we come to God for mercy and forgiveness. All of us.
- Hope7
July 7, 2009 4:05PM
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More sites that offer help to aids victims
One of the web sites didnt work when I went back to it so here are more:
The gateway one worked when I went the first time so I must have missed spelled something
http://crs.org/worldaidsday /
http://www.thebody.com/content/living/art33782.html
http://gbgm-umc.org/health/hivfocus/focus003.stm
and there are many other facilites that are willing to help. I would go to any church , if they are a good one, and they could direct you.
- Hope7
July 7, 2009 5:08PM
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i would like to include
you didnt scource anything either, and since your are the one with the burden of the proof then you should at least give me where you quoted " Aids has risen, according the CDC, 15% in the group ages 13-24. That school age kids and we are not helping them when the homosexual role models have, according to the CDC their highest increase of aids since reporting began with 26% increase of aids in males having sex with males."
Because i went to the MSM page and i couldnt find a 26 percent increase... *shrug*
- zman676
July 7, 2009 10:53PM
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O.o wow
wow, i cant beleive that you are not sorry... wow, people like you, -who are ok with millions being slaughtered-, should be locked up...
- zman676
July 8, 2009 10:14PM
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one of my comments
Wow ok so i like wrote at least a page and a half and it was posted on here like yesterday, now i wake up and its gone?!? wtf, someone deleted my post!
- zman676
July 9, 2009 11:30AM
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hmmm
several comments are not showing now... Like three replies to my comments and two comments of mine are not showing up... IS there a reason why they are hidden? I tried several computers and it think it is the website...
- zman676
July 10, 2009 2:12PM
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moderation
I know OV does do comment moderation - perhaps some of the missing comments were red flagged. *shrug* That's all I can tell you beyond the possibility of a bizarre technical problem.
- UrsulaMinor
July 14, 2009 3:54PM
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o.o
oh i figured out what happened to my comments, they were red flagged by someone -most lickely hope-... The withering stuper was probably suprised that someone is willing to prover her wrong and not listen to all her bs, so she red flagged me... heck i wont be suprised if and when this comment gets flagged
- zman676
July 16, 2009 3:05PM
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Whose afraid of the big bad homosexual?
No one. But the lifestyle itself is down right scarey! And that should make us all afraid! Afraid enough to try and do what can be done to show this community that they are the ones in need of more education !
[url= http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3JzbcMs3Yk ]YouTube - People We've Lost to AIDS [/url]
Now that should scare you!
- childrencryingout
August 5, 2009 9:54AM
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