Fighting harassment in the online world is a tricky problem, as is dealing with a diverse community. Sony found this out firsthand when there was a backlash against Home, its free online service, when it was discovered that the very words "gay" and "Jew" were deemed too offensive to be uttered. Now Xbox Live is in the spotlight, as a woman was banned, and harassed, simply for noting she was a lesbian in her profile.

"I had a similar incident," the woman wrote to the Consumerist, after reading about a man banned for having the word "gay" in his profile. "Only my account was suspended because I had said in my profile that I was a lesbian. I was harassed by several players, 'chased' to different maps/games to get away from their harassment. They followed me into the games and told all the other players to turn me in because they didn't want to see that crap or their kids to see that crap."

Ars Technica contacted Microsoft for comment on this story. The company's response sounded more like a zero tolerance policy than actual thought. "As stated in the Xbox LIVE Terms of Use, a member may not create a gamertag or use text in other profile fields that include comments that look, sound like, stand for, hint at, abbreviate, or insinuate content of a potentially sexual nature," we were told. "Profiles that do are asked to change the language and suspended until changes are made. In regards to sexual orientation, for gamertags or profiles we do not allow expression of any type of orientation, be that hetero or other. Players can, however, self identify in voice communication where context is more easily explained to all players involved."

So you can't say that you're straight or gay, although it sounds like this happened because a large group of people organized to complain about her description, rather than Microsoft's choosing to scour profiles for mention of sexuality.

Apparently, some Xbox Live community members found the sexuality mention to be inappropriate for children, but there's a lot else on Xbox live that's not suitable for young ones. "As if Xbox live is really appropriate for kids anyways!" the victim wrote. "My account was suspended and Xbox live did nothing to solve this, but instead said others found it offensive."

Microsoft is stressing its policy on harassment; after saying that harassment was not tolerated in any form on Xbox Live, we were quickly sent another e-mail to drive the point home. "[We] just wanted to reemphasize that we take any harassment seriously and would encourage the woman mentioned in the Consumerist story to come forward and report the harassment so that we can take action against those individuals," the company representative told Ars.

Online communities like Xbox Live and Home are incredibly hard to police, and while this sort of bigoted behavior may be suppressed in real life for fear of physical reprisals or the disdain of coworkers and friends, the anonymity of the Internet means that people are free to let their hatefulness run wild, with little to no repercussions. The policy that forbids disclosure of sexual identity—a kind of gaming "don't ask, don't tell" policy—is not the optimal solution, but it's going to be hard to come up with an alternative that will make most people happy.