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[This is the fifth and final video in this short series about how to set up and run a videogame blog. This video is about promoting your content and ways to get readers.]
Inspired by a reddit post, I think it would be a fun experiment. Go into your Bio and call yourself “Gay” (or any other LGBTQ related term). Go on! Microsoft have taken the stance that if you think that a large part of your personality, or a part you wish to share with people, is your sexuality then they don’t want you on their services.
I can see why they do this, MS doesn’t really understand who plays the Xbox and assumes them to be dumb, 12 year old boys. And what do dumb 12 year old boys like to do? Call each other gay of course! Now, when somebody actually is gay, the situation gets very complicated. Microsoft don’t like complicated, so just ban any mention of the word.
When these kind of stories originally started to break I was very cynical. I typically took the “why the hell do they need to have that in their bio anyway?” approach. But then, why shouldn’t they? I actually asked a similar question yesterday, and got some interesting responses. The one that I thought most accurate was by duvel who said;
It’s kind of like why people wear gay pride shirts. They don’t HAVE to at all, really, but it’s kind of a spit in the face of every single person who would want them to be in the closet, so how could you resist?
Another comment from lolbacon (best name ever) reads;
Well, your profile describes who you are. Sexuality is part of one’s identity, enough so that someone may choose to include their orientation. I don’t think it’s any more unnecessary than someone who likes turtles writing “I like turtles” in their profile.
I’m still not sure where my opinion falls in all this. It’s a very thorny and complicated issue. One thing I am sure on though is that if MS is actively banning people for calling themselves gay in their own bio, but doesn’t act on all the horrible bile spewed by some of their younger, valued members, something is wrong. Even if they are “working right now in finding a way to safely express relationship preference.”
So, in a psuedo act of not-quite solidarity, be “gay” on Xbox Live!
[This is the fifth and final video in this 
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