Frankly, we don't blame the unidentified Microsoft Corp. employee who banned a West Virginia man from playing in online Xbox Live events managed by the company. The worker was just living up to what he thought society expects of him - political correctness to a fault.
He was at fault, obviously, in suspending 26-year-old Josh Moore's gaming privileges.
It seems Moore, in setting up his gaming profile, noted he lives in Fort Gay, W.Va. A Microsoft online gaming monitor decided that might be offensive to homosexuals. Never mind that Moore's hometown is Fort Gay (no one seems to know with certainty how it got the name).
It took Moore days to straighten out the mess. He talked to a customer service representative, who didn't even try to verify Moore's claim. Finally, a Microsoft executive found out. He promises to apologize.
"Gay" does not have to be a reference to homosexuals, of course. Lots of people have the name. Lots of places, including at least three in West Virginia, include the word in their names (Fort Gay in Wayne County, Gay in Jackson County and Mount Gay in Logan County). And the word's primary meaning is "joyous and lively."
But many Americans have become so sensitive to political correctness that their knee-jerk reaction is to assume some words and phrases should be offensive to others. Tolerating that attitude is both absurd and, possibly, dangerous.