Gays are not welcome
A bizarre move by Blizzard could result in all out scandal. In an age where sexual orientation, colour, or creed are more widely accepted in society, Blizzard seem to have buried their heads firmly up the backsides of a 1970's anti-gay protestor.
According to In Newsweekly, Sara Andrews received an email from Blizzard under the title "Harassment - Sexual Orientation", Sara had wanted to set up a gay friendly guild and had advertised via the chat channels. Blizzard now promises to ban any players actively advertising for such guilds.
Sara emailed Blizzard and received the following response, "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." Just a warning, that's nice of them.
It's hard to understand the reasoning behind such a measure. Are there bands of gay lipstick-wearing male dwarves wandering around with handbags over their shoulders, dressed up to the nines, sexually harassing the poor gnomes of WOW? Just like that statement is wrong to suggest that all gay males adopt a girlie persona , surely it's wrong of Blizzard to suggest that gay guilds will cause sexual harassment to other members.
Other gay guilds are in the process of airing their views to Blizzard, it would be wise for them to lighten up on the whole issue, before a simple solution turns into front page headlines.
The original story was posted on 'In Newsweekly'.
