Questions for a female gamer

[Sol]

I don't see why I should have to hide my relative discomfort just because someone on the internet might not like me discussing it.

Well how do you think I feel? It's not that I'm uncomfortable with what you have to say, it's about how uncomfortable people will be with what I have to say.

See, I've been told to hide my opinions because people on the internet might not like me discussing them. I agreed because I'm conscerned about the community.

But if I am to agree to this notion so should the community as a whole. What do you call it when some people are allowed to express their opinions while others aren't?

If you're trying to say that the pain of worrying about offending someone, and the pain of actually having something offensive said to you are equivalent, they are not.

When someone says "Don't say those things, you're being insensitive" and your rebuttal is "Don't criticize me, you're being insensitive to my insensitivity," the root of the problem is still Your Insensitivity, which is your issue to deal with, not anyone else's.

On top of this, not all opinions are equal. If someone has an uninformed opinion about a subject, obviously they are allowed to have that opinion. However, throwing it into what is supposed to be a serious discussion by people with firsthand experience (in this case: women in the video game community) who are knowledgeable about the topic, and expecting it to be treated with the same respect as those peoples' opinions just detracts from the discourse. (And because the person's opinion is uninformed, they will likely offend one or more of these people with it, because they do not have a firm grasp of the subject. Especially when the subject involves the very identities of the people participating in the discussion.)

Edit: Devicho's right on the money, it's a matter of tact, not censorship.