WoW Says Character Same-Sex Marraiges Violate Harassment Polices, Lambada Legal Investigates

Via Acidforblood.net, a transcript of an in-game chat between a player and an official World of Warcraft Game Master confirming that same-sex character "marraiges", even if the two characters are played by real-life couples whom are members of the opposite sex, would violate the company's harassment guidlines. Character marraige is a previously accepted part of in-game content.

Now this virtual-world controversey is spilling into the real world, as Lambda Legal, the oldest and largest legal network of advocates for the GLBT community in the USA.

Via Kotaku, Brian Chase, an attorney for Lambada Legal had this to say:

“You can’t tell gay and lesbian people that they have to be quiet so other folk won’t harass them,” Chase said. “If you want to stop harassment you have to stop the harassers not the victims.”

Chase added that under California law a place of business cannot be discriminatory.

While I did call that development on on Jan. 30, it remains to be seen what effect this possible action will have on in-game policies.

(cross-posted to my 1UP.com blog)

(Edit- Update: For a game that doesn't want people to espouse orientation for fear of inciting harassment, why, then, are silly audio in-game quotes like this okay:

• Male Taureen /silly audio: "Homogenized? No way, I like the ladies."


• Female Dwarf /silly audio: "I like my ale like I like my men, dark and rich."


• Male Dwarf /silly audio: "I like my beer like I like my women, stout and bitter."

Doesn't this present a bit of a double standard?)