Anti Gay comments with in Star Trek Online

Hey everyone,

I've been noticing a lot more of anti gay comments flooding star trek online. I know that people get caught up in a game and sometimes say stupid things, but I for one am getting tired of words like fag, faggot, dyke, and many more comments being made to disparage those of us who are gay.

It seems like STO management doesn't take this serious. If someone was going around calling someone the N word, and doing it in another language so that the filters didn't pick it up, I have to believe someone would get a warning, but the hateful comments to those who are gay, bi, and transgender seem to go unnoticed.

Has anyone else noticed this?

I'm sorry to hear you're experiencing such ugliness first-hand. I personally don't may much attention to general chat in most zones and often just turn it off. If I come across something like like in the general channel I'll usually do my best to report it. Any game will inevitably have Trolls and those Trolls tend to equate homosexuality or anything related to as some sort of weakness in the gaming world which is completely illogical. I can only conclude that these people have deficient cognitive processes stemming from some sort of emotional imbalance or deep-seeded personal issues. I learned a while back not to try and argue with people who are stupid or crazy, it's just a waste of energy. That's not to say ou can't challenge them to a PvP match and wipe the floor with them though. ;)

If I say any homophobic or otherwise offensive comments in chat I just hit report and go about my business as before. They soon shut up as the Ban hammer hits them rather quickly.

Quote by LesleyA

If I say any homophobic or otherwise offensive comments in chat I just hit report and go about my business as before. They soon shut up as the Ban hammer hits them rather quickly.

See, not say, eh?

It is sad to see, that in a gaming world based off of a great show that celebrates diversity in its own way, has people like that in the general community. I've never understood how those individuals are able to call themselves a Star Trek fan :unsure:

With that said however, the best thing is to ignore them and to not take it personally. I've also seen this in the general STO community and usually acknowledging and/or challenging their comments only exacerbates the situation. We've come a long way since the old days and will continue to move forward with or without their support.

I feel that those at PWE do take discrimination seriously, however. In June, Stonewall was featured in the STO Guest Blog to celebrate diversity. It was written by our very own fearless (and handsome!) leader, Nick. By allowing us to have this guest blog spot is something I view as a show of support. We also have a fleet member here who works as their community manager, so we do have people on their staff who are truly able to understand our struggles, which is always good! :) Granted, not every instance of discrimination can be caught in-game, but we can do our part by making them known with reporting any issues we may have.

Yes I do mean See not say :/

no kidding about comments about trans people going unnoticed, even in the fleet chat. a lot of the time im just like, really? "its a trap" and jokes about "ladyboys"? come on. its like you can't even avoid that kind of awfulness even in lgbt spaces.

to be honest, the best thing you can do is just to disable zone chat. if you feel like keeping it up just in case you need to talk to someone near you, you can keep it in a separate tab (mine is labeled "shit talk" for obvious reasons). if you feel strong enough to tell people to stop and possibly face the overwhelm of dumb comments directed at you, or even just to report them, that's a brave thing to do, but there is a lot of people like that and you might get tired after a while.

i dont honestly know how good sto management is about reprimanding people. i figure that if they are busy enough to forget to put a ceiling on the side room of the fleet spire they're probably too busy to hand out mutes or bans to every dudebro who thinks this stuff is the height of comedy.

As soon as I log on I click on my chat tab that has only Fleet, Stonewall, Tells, Pride and Team in it. If I'm in a 20 man alert or something I'll click back to the tab that has zone chat. Cuts down on the stupidity you hear in general chat.

I play this to have fun and be around others like that and don't feel like dealing with those that have the maturity level of a 2yr old.

I applaud you for reporting/informing those people that it is not acceptable behavior but you will find yourself exhausted if you do it all the time.

I don't know about STO, but the more insidious comments ("so gay" / "ghey" / etc.) do piss me off. The more ummm colorful terms don't much bother me. I guess folks who use such language know it's wrong but they think they can get away with being somewhat less profane as if it's somehow less hateful/offensive. Or is it just me?

As far as transphobic etc language in fleet chat, that is inexcusable. Send the person a polite PM explaining why their language is problematic, and if they persist, then go to a fleet captain or other of our personnel. I would also call up on our fleet captains etc to more closely monitor this type of language. Together we can fight oppression.

don't forget we also have people from a wide variety of cultures here and what is an offensive term in one might be a term of endearment in another, so if someone says something in fleet chat that offends you it's usually useful to PM them and discuss what they said and why they said it.

Well everyone is an "Internet Badass" when they can hide behind a username and not their real name and location. We have to use Mods and Admins to track them down and punish them in game. It would be nice if we could just use our real names in game, it would cut down a lot of this crap language and nastiness. If they knew that they could be found out easier due to their real names being used in game, they would behave a bit more. But that is just my opinion on this, not sure how practical it would be to implement something like this.

Winslow