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Queer Identities and discrimination online

Kaliya Young · February 7, 2006 · Leave a Comment

So there is a big hubub going on around World of Warcraft

[the new “golf” in case you haven’t heard yet – I can’t wait until we have WoW day pre DIDW instead of real golf…what do you think Vince ;)].

around discrimination towards the queer community. Dana Boyd’s latest post was brought my attention to this issue and in an update highlighted why this relates to identity in particular.

As has been noted over and over again, queerness is an identity not just a set of sexual practices. By silencing people’s identities and not allowing people to have bigot-free spaces, Blizzard is upholding a level of discrimination that far outweighs the _potential_ sexual harassment that might occur if people’s sexualities were known.

More about the situation from Dana…

I’ve already heard on numerous occasions that there is intense homophobia within the chatrooms on WoW and this had already made me quite uncomfortable. But Blizzard’s response is just disgusting. How can they call a queer-friendly guild sexual harassment given that this is an attempt by the queer community to create space? Furthermore, there’s so much sexism in the chats (aside from the creatures) that no one from Blizzard can actually argue that they are preventing sexual harassment. I can’t help but wonder about the state of other forms of discrimination and prejudice within the system (particularly since “race” is critical to the narrative of WoW). That said, i don’t care enough to find out – i can’t justify spending personal money on a company with these values.

Digital Identity, Digital Rights, Identitification, Identity Layer, Identity Rights, Identity Systems, Virtual World Blizzard, Dana Boyd's, DIDW, Queer Identities, sexual harassment

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