Last week, Justin Cole, our Director of Digital and Online Media, was in San Francisco preparing for our groundbreaking Panel on Homophobia & Virtual Communities and was made aware by a supporter of an internet game called Watch Out Behind You, Hunter!, in which the goal is to shoot gay men before they can rape you. Recognizing the panel would be a good opportunity to bring some visibility to the rampant homophobia online, sometimes manifesting in games like this, Cole brought up the issue during his moderation of the panel.
The panelists made it clear that their companies would never tolerate games like this, which is user generated content.
The problem in this case is how to address anti-gay defamatory gaming content when it is made by an individual and then goes viral. A simple Google search brings up a staggering number of sites where it is available to play and/or download.
The popular gaming website Kotaku did a write up Monday on the panel which included a mention of Cole raising the issues with the game. The game originated on a French website called Uzinagaz in 2002 and was subsequently yanked and banned in France after an outcry from French LGBT rights groups. The group Gay Armenia has been pressuring a Georgian gaming site, which markets their games to children, to remove it.
GLAAD will be looking into the online game and providing more information soon. To see the discussion that GLAAD initiated on the game, please check back next week for footage of the panel.