GLAAD Battles Homophobia in Virtual World
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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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!
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...
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.
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
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!
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.
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.
-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*
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
wow, i cant beleive that you are not sorry... wow, people like you, -who are ok with millions being slaughtered-, should be locked up...