The last part of the first paragraph in the above post should read:

"equal treatment" of their [insert cause here].

It got cut-off since I used the < symbol instead of [.

They sound self righteous because they have to be...there are still more places than not you can live in the US and be fired for being gay...no other reason needed. No to mention denied the ability to adopt, find housing, or just live a regular life. So there's still a lot of work to be done and groups like GLAAD are fighting a righteous cause. Its not special treatment.

It's like PETA all over again.

I don't think it's really asking for special treatment if they're just trying to cut down on homophobic remarks. "lol, your so gay" may not be offensive to you or to everyone in the LGBT community, but it is to some. And whether or not it's offensive, it's certainly inappropriate.

I understand that games are a place for people to unwind and let go of the stresses and political correctness of the day. But that's no excuse for letting hate speech run rampant in /2.

Are you serious? Define for me how a gay organization is seeking "special" treatment.

They want to be able to get married, to share in the rights that straight people have. They want it to be a hate crime to have done to them what was done to Matthew Shepard.

Tell me what "special" treatment they're seeking. I'm all ears. Because I see a group that just wants to reduce LGBT issues into a collective "so what if they're gay?" from the community at-large.

Honestly, I don't think there's anything wrong with trying to get rid of offensive statements in online gaming, and really, that's about all this group seems to want to do in WoW. I don't see how GLAAD wants special treatment - it's about respect, which everyone deserves, regardless of their race, gender, or sexual orientation.

I think the person who's looking for special treatment is you Knob - the special treatment of the right to treat people improperly just because you can hide behind an anonymous character.

Yeah, I've found that to be the case too, Knob. Those who claim for various causes that they want "equality" usually (but not always) want something special.

My question is why is someone's decision not to like someone else, for what ever reason, now treated as a fear, a phobia? If someone does't like gays, are they actually homophobes? Or do they just not like them? Should we apply the same to those who don't like idiots? Should we just say they are afraid of idiots and call them idiophobes or something like that? I know there are homophobes out there, but not everybody who doesn't like gay people is scared of them, just like everyone who doesn't like idiots is an idiophobe, so homophobe is a misnomer for many. Just a way to attack those who don't like you, which turns away people like me who want to support you until you start attacking others too.

I never said this particular group is seeking special treatment. I said that most of the time, groups like this create a big hoopla because they seek special treatment.

And as Randy commented a few posts down, I play this game to enjoy the Warcraft universe and to play my character, not to deal with others' real-life issues. If someone has a problem separating their real-life and an in-game universe, contact the administrators of the in-game universe and inform them of the bigotry that's going on. Do not drag the rest of us who are attempting to enjoy the game into it, especially into flammable topics such as this one or politics or war.

To Aykwa:

If you don't like a gay person because they're gay, you're a homophobe. If you don't like a gay person because they're a jerk, you're not a homophobe.

Simple. And this is why people teach "tolerance" and not "acceptance", it's the difference between dealing with the fact that everyone deserves equal rights rather than agreeing with it due to religious dogma, etc.

And this matters why?

Special treatment takes many forms. Hate crimes are special treatment. Seems like a person who is brutalized or traumatized is just as much a victim no matter his/her preferences or the reasons behind the crime. Beating a person is just as bad if you do it because of their sexual orientation, the amount of money they have, the way they looked at you, or the color shirt they are wearing. Having a crime be "extra" bad because the reason behind it may fall into a list of certain "special" things (orientation, race, religion, etc) is exactly that, special treatment for those things. If equality is demanded, then the crime itself is just as bad regardless of the reason. And I know what hate is, I'm half immigrant and English is my second language.

>Unless it's an actual attack on a specific person I don't see the problem in using gay as a way to say something's bad

Do women joking about how men are so stupid and dirty all the time bother you? Do you get routinely forbidden from doing things because you're a man? Do you get legally prohibited from seeing your spouse of 20 years because she's dying from a car accident in a state you were stupid enough to go on a vacation to?

Honestly, if you think refering to some group as a synonym for bad, instead of saying "that's so gay" say "that's so like a black man". See how fast your behind get's banished forever from wow and the rest of your life.

Neither statement is okay. Don't use either when speaking.

This thread of comments proves why something like this is necessary.

"Just because someone hates all gay people doesn't mean they're homophobic; it means they just hate them. Not my fault I hate gays, but I sure as hell aint scared of em!"

The online gaming community, made up, not mostly, but largely of teenage, stupid males is racist, sexist, homophobic, and generally the worst group of human beings imaginable. Any group attempting to correct this issue is a good group in my eyes.

@Mep

First Amendment doesn't apply except in public places. Blizzard's servers are private. Their servers, their rules.

Yeah the self righteous religious groups that think they speak for us straight people! Always trying to impose their morality on others. Whether it's regarding gay people, or drinking, or straight sex. They should keep their opinions to themselves!

That's what you meant, right?

@Treason

"Do women joking about how men are so stupid and dirty all the time bother you? Do you get routinely forbidden from doing things because you're a man? Do you get legally prohibited from seeing your spouse of 20 years because she's dying from a car accident in a state you were stupid enough to go on a vacation to?"

All the jokes about men being stupid don't bother me, it's just something people do and doesn't really effect me. The parts that are actual discrimination, that's wrong. Saying "oh that movie was gay" doesn't mean anything, saying "You shouldn't be able to play this game because you're gay" is wrong.

"Honestly, if you think refering to some group as a synonym for bad, instead of saying "that's so gay" say "that's so like a black man". See how fast your behind get's banished forever from wow and the rest of your life."

If the majority of the people online said it, the majority of people I meet, most of the Black people I talk to as well and only a small section of people actually took offense I would gladly say that. It's just words! Actually discriminating people is wrong, using a word that has gained multiple meanings isn't.

I must say, Knob, you're certainly living up to your handle.

You sound a lot like one of those reverse racists. You know, the people who go through great pains prove they aren't racist, but still make it blatantly obvious they're defining a person by his/her ethnicity alone.

There's nothing self-righteous about this cause. There's no asking for special treatment in this cause. What it is about is assuring lesbians, gays, bisexuals, and transgendered persons receive the same respect as any other federally recognized group.

Why is that so hard to understand? Ever see those patriotic comic books or Warner Bros. cartoons from the WWII era? The kind of racist antics found in them display the same kind of disrespectful treatment in society and misrepresentation in the media LBGT persons face now. Those WWII cartoons and comics are considered grossly inappropriate now. . .And hopefully one day in the future, the treatment of LGBT persons now will no longer remain acceptable by the majority of society.

(I would like to make clear, for historical purposes I don't believe those WWII works should have been essentially removed from public memory/history as they have been. I don't care how ugly a society's history can be; people can not learn from it if it is hidden.)

@Jeff: "The online gaming community, made up, not mostly, but largely of teenage, stupid males is racist, sexist, homophobic, and generally the worst group of human beings imaginable."


Apparently you follow the "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" mentality...

Perhaps you should be branded Masculo-hetero-adolescento-phobic, and we should have groups working to prevent you from spreading hateful comments like "[they're] the worst group of human beings imaginable." So, like, worse than Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, and Mao?

If I said that GLAAD was made up, not mostly, but largely, of privilege-seeking, heterophobic, thin-skinned, whining homosexuals with entitlement complexes, I would be banned from any site that wasn't 4chan. (Please let me be clear: I'm not accusing anyone of these things.) But you can get away with calling the vast majority of the readers here at WoW.com "the worst group of human beings imaginable?"

Someone explain this to me.

@Docp

"If the majority of the people online said it, the majority of people I meet, most of the Black people I talk to as well and only a small section of people actually took offense I would gladly say that. It's just words! Actually discriminating people is wrong, using a word that has gained multiple meanings isn't."

A lot of people engaging in bad behavior does not justify that behavior, it simply means that a lot of people are behaving badly. The whole "everyone else is doing it!" argument has been around long enough to spawn the "if everyone else jumped off a cliff..." cliche. Don't try to base morality on what other people are doing -- it is based upon what is just, not what others are doing.

Also, words are important. Words mean something. You can't simply dismiss a hurtful statement by saying, "It's just words!" Using the word "gay" to mean "bad" demeans an entire group of people. When you use a word that describes a large group of people and equate its meaning with an insult then yes, you are insulting all of them whether you mean to or not. If what you mean is "bad" or "lame" then use those words instead.