While the US military does its own thing with the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, Microsoft has their own agenda for the issue of sexual orientation and discrimination. In the past, homosexual gamers have been disappointed to find that the revealing of their sexual orientation, let alone putting it in their own gamertag, was considered sexually explicit and therefore against the Live code of conduct.

The Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation met with Microsoft officials last year to discuss the incorporation of a label for the gay gaming community to reveal their preference without being subject to punishment. Today, Stephen Toulouse of Xbox Live policy and enforcement posted on Twitter that he was proud to announce that a solution was found and that it would be integrated immediately. Gamers are now able to reveal their sexual preference on their profile. The new policy allows the posting of Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Transgender, or Straight on a gamer’s bio page.

This is a very smart move on Microsoft’s part, considering the fact that the gay community has grown quite a bit in the past decade and with gay marriage and tolerance being such a hot topic as of late. It will be interesting to see how other industry giants will react to this decision and if they will incorporate similar rules of their own.