Caucus On Gay Video Gaming Tomorrow
- Scribbled on July 17th, 2009 by Jonathon Howard
- Filed in Industry News, Shows and Events
Tomorrow on Saturday, July 18, Electronic Arts in partnership with the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) is holding a discussion panel of our favorite pastime and one of our nations most maligned minorites, the LGBT community. Representatives from the industry and its consumers will be in attendence. Microsoft, Linden Labs, GayGamer.net, the ESA will be on hand to how to treat the LGBT community with respect, protect them on-line and educated gamers about the effects on homophobia on the gaming community.
This panel comes on the heels of 2006 study by the University of Illinois, published recently, that revealed the disturbing trend towards discrimination and hate in the gaming community towards the LGBT community.
Here are some of the stats from the study:
- When asked what forms of homophobia people have seen in the gaming community, here are some of what the surveyed said:
- 87.7% – Players use the phrase, “That’s so gay.”
- 83.4% – Players use the words “gay” or “queer” as derogatory names.
- 52.3% – Stereotypical representations of gay characters in games.
- 42.5% – Refusal of game designers to include well-developed gay characters.
- 49.4% – Invisibility of gaymers and/or the gaymer community.
- When asked how frequently players experience homophobia, those surveyed who responded “Always” or “Frequently” equaled 42%. Add in “Sometimes” and it brings up that total to 74.5%.
- When asked how often those players respond to the homophobia they witness – 50.9% total responded “Never” or “Rarely.”
- 52.7% of those surveyed said the gaming community is “Somewhat Hostile” to gay and lesbian gamers, 14% said “Very Hostile.”
This doesn’t make us look like a very enlightened group. Hopefully the work being done by GLAAD and Developers will help curb the homophobia and educate others about homosexuality, bisexuality, and transgender issues. The less hate on this planet the better.
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