Gay gamers targets for homophobia

By Christopher Hayes • February 26, 2007 - 11:22

Gay people are slightly more likely to buy games that include sexually attractive avatars.

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Online gamers face a homophobic culture, a survey has found.

The "Gaymer Survey," conducted at the University of Illinois and involving over 10,000 respondents, found that gay gamers experienced a high level of homophobic attitudes and language.

As reported by Next Generation, 88% of respondents said that they had heard the phrase "that's so gay."

84% said that the word 'gay' had been used in a derogatory way.

Over half of the respondents felt that gays were stereotyped, 52% found gaming worlds to be hostile to gay and lesbian gamers, while 42% felt that gays were under-represented.

Only a minority of participants (9%) claimed that they had never encountered anti-gay remarks.

Jason Rockwood, who conducted the survey, said: "Gay gamers experience a double-edged sword of prejudice.

"The mainstream gay culture and media is not supportive of video games. Then you have the video game culture that is not supportive of gay culture," he told innewsweekly.com.

"So you have these people stuck in the middle who have this double-edged prejudice.

"I'm hoping this survey would shed some light on how or why people go through such a process."

The survey also produced an insight into the use of gaming avatars.

Gay people are slightly more likely to buy games that include sexually attractive avatars.

And bisexuals tend to show a preference for playing with an avatar that is a different gender from their own.

30% of survey participants were heterosexuals.

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