GLBT Rooms on Pogo.com

To:  Electronic Arts Inc.

Steve Bené, Esq.
VP, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary
Electronic Arts Inc.
209 Redwood Shores Parkway
Redwood City, CA 94065
phone: 650-628-1500
fax: 650-628-1422

To Whom It May Concern:

We are a community of over 20,000 Pogo.com members and growing. We the undersigned fail to find any other way to view the actions listed below as anything less than discrimination based upon sexual preference and request that Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) take the necessary actions to not only eliminate this form of discrimination on the Pogo.com website but also incorporate age verification and protect those under the age of consent for each state/province/region of the country of origin.

Pogo.com currently offers rooms named that include preference by gender, marital status, age, spirituality & political views and includes rooms named that infer illicit and illegal behavior. Sample room names from various games on Pogo.com include but are not limited to: Women only, Spiritual, Gutter Guys, Gutter Gals, Teens/20s/30s/40s/50+, Forbidden Things, The High Street, Chick Flicks, Internet Angels, Astrology, and Conspiracy Theories. The only reference to the Gay, Lesbian, Bi-Sexual, and Trans-gender Community (GLBT) are rooms names that include the word “Rainbow” which is not only a stereotype similar to the pink triangle reference but may be confused with established organizations such as the Rainbow Push Coalition. The failure of Pogo.com and its parent company Electronic Arts Inc. to include rooms that reflect sexual orientation must be construed by the undersigned as a form of discrimination.

Therefore, we the undersigned request that Pogo.com create rooms specific to the GLBT community in every game you offer online at pogo.com. We the undersigned request that they be “Uncensored” chat rooms which are age-verified. Furthermore, we the undersigned request that Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) take action to verify a members age beyond simply choosing a date on a registration page and that EA take the necessary actions to restrict access to those under the legal age on consent. We the undersigned request that Electronic Arts Inc. take action to restrict the actions of registered sex offenders and provide parental control over memberships for those individuals under the age of consent for each state/province/region based on country of origin.

Although we are a GLBT community, we have no intention of preventing anyone from using a room who is not an open member of the GLBT community providing there is no harassment based upon sexual orientation or violates the “Terms of Service” as specified for rooms that are labeled as “UNCENSORED CHAT”. We the undersigned realize not every game listed has a chat area of the game, but for those games that do have chat areas, we want a GLBT room that provides an outlet for uncensored, age-verified chat.

As members of Pogo.com, we respectfully demand that Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) follow the guidelines listed in the EA "Privacy Policy" and in no way disseminate nor release any names of individuals nor information obtained from this petition to any third parties.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The GLBT Rooms on Pogo.com Petition to Electronic Arts Inc. was created by Gay, Lesbian, Bi-Sexual, Transgender and written by Joe Doedtman (jdoedtman@gmail.com).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.