26 year old Josh Moore woke up one morning to discover that his Xbox Live account was suspended. When looking into the incident, he discovered that his hometown name of Fort Gay, WV was thought to be offensive. This may sound fake, we thought so too, but it turns out it’s a real town with a population of around 800 residences. In an interview with the Associated Press, Moore had this to say.
“At first I thought, ‘Wow, somebody’s thinking I live in the gayest town in West Virginia or something.’ I was mad. … It makes me feel like they hate gay people, I’m not even gay, and it makes me feel like they were discriminating.”
When Xbox Live’s Director of Policy and Enforcement Stephen Toulouse was asked about the ban, he stated that, “someone took the phrase ‘Fort Gay WV’ and believed that the individual who had that was trying to offend, or trying to use it in a pejorative manner. Unfortunately, one of my people agreed with that. When it was brought to my attention, we did revoke the suspension.” Toulouse also cited the incident as a “miscommunication problem.”
Comment Discussion: What would you say if this happened to you?
If you’re gonna own a large social networking like Xbox Live, ya got to atleast have google maps handy for crying out loud >_>
i live in 69 town
millions of people on XBL say the word “fag” or “gay” i dont see how having the word in someones profile would be such a bad thing
I hope they gave him some free xbl points or something for screwing up that badly.
There are two towns around me which would probably get the same reaction….Blue Ball PA, and Intercourse PA.
Good thing he didn’t stay banned but what news lol
stupid microsoft idiots
if that happened to me, i’d call microsoft and tell them to buy a fucking map and locate that town or city…if not, there would be a lawsuit up their candy ass
Makes me think if i should try a Name of The Gay Leprechaun
Well, at least they unbanned him
XBL needs to get over their fear over the word gay.
I’d go to the net to tell people about this BS.