I am posting this to warn people that MSN Groups is
discriminating against transsexual and intersex people just like
msn.com did in 2002. My current email is Barbieboy001@... —
Cynthya BrianKate

MSN (MicroSoft Network) is discriminating against transsexual
and intersex people again. If you go to groups.msn.com and search
for email lists under the words "intersex" or "transsexual" you will
be blocked from doing so, with a message stating "Unable to complete:
The group description you entered cannot be used. Please enter an
alternate description."
When I contacted MSN customer service regarding this policy,
a customer representative, "Mae," said, "In order to provide an
environment that is clean and safe for everyone to enjoy, we have
added a very thorough profanity filter, which may have been triggered
by language you were using. We suggest you rephrase your search
question."
When I contacted them again to clarify whether this was
indeed their policy regarding transsexuals and intersex people,
another representative, "Blas," said, "I understand that you are
unable use some adult terms when doing search on MSN Groups and I
apologize for this inconvenience. In order to provide an environment
that is clean and safe for everyone to enjoy, we have added a very
thorough profanity filter which may have been triggered by language
you were using. We suggest you rephrase your search question."
This is not the first time MSN has discriminated against
transsexual and intersex people.
In 2002, MSN.com blocked searches for any information using
the word "transsexual." Users were told, "we cannot search for the
following term because it may return adult content. Click here for
more information" but when they clicked the link were sent to the
commercial porn search site nightsurf.com. Their UK branch,
MSN.co.uk, blocked searches on any information regarding the
word "intersex."
A coalition of transgender and allied groups pressured MSN until the
policies were quietly rescinded.
MSN is up to their old tricks and we need to stop them
again. Transsexual and intersex individuals and groups, and allied
individuals and groups, need to pressure MSN to change this policy.
MSN's customer service email is:
msngroups_us@.... Their mailing address is:
Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way, Redmond, WA 98052-6399.
Their public relations contact information is available on their
website at: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/contactpr.asp. Their
main switchboard number is: (425) 882-8080.