Fort Gay. Do not laugh or smile. Resist the urge to roll on the floor giggling. Because it is a real place in West Virginia, USA.
Cassville was small town in West Virginia that lies on the banks of the Tug Fork and Big Sandy rivers. In 1932, for reasons that are apparently now entirely forgotten, the town changed its name to Fort Gay. I had never heard of the place--and neither, apparently, had Microsoft. After all, as of the 2000 census, the town only boasted 800 residents.
XBOX Live administrators did not believe such a place exists and suspended a gamer who listed Fort Gay as his location. Microsoft has since apologized for the mix-up. However, wouldn't it have been easier to just look up Google Maps first? Oh wait, their Microsoft; they can't use competitors' products.
"At first I thought, 'Wow, somebody's thinking I live in the gayest town in West Virginia or something,'" the gamer, Josh Moore said, "I was mad. ... It makes me feel like they hate gay people."
Moore, a 26-year-old unemployed factory worker contacted Microsoft customer service to complain about the suspension. He told the incredulous Microsoft employee to Google the city's ZIP code--25514. The employee refused (Now we know what he did wrong, he committed blasphemy by mentioning a competitors name. After all, they probably only use Bing over there, right?).
The mayor of the town attempted to intervene in the conflict, only to be told that, the word 'gay' "was inappropriate in any context,"
At least now it's all good.
