UPDATE: Even more gay news sites have been found to have been banned by the Pentagon, while an officially-designated hate group is not. Good as You, Bilerico – banned. AFA, NOM, Red State, Breitbart, Glenn Beck – not banned.
UPDATE: The filter category used by the Pentagon, “LGBT,” also bans gay anti-bullying and suicide prevention sites.
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It’s bad enough the United States Department of Defense censors Towleroad and AMERICAblog – banning the gay civil rights Web sites from being accessed on DOD computers – and it’s even worse that the Pentagon has no problem permitting their computers to access Ann Coulter’s and Rush Limbaugh’s hate-filled Web sites.
But what’s really offensive is that at least one of the Pentagon’s safe-surfing Internet filters has a censorship category called “LGBT.” And if you’re deemed “LGBT” by the Pentagon, they ban you.
I wonder if the Pentagon has a censorship category titled “Jewish,” “African-American,” or “Latino.”
The LGBT filter existed before the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, but still has not been fixed. And the Pentagon was notified of the problem as early as last summer, 2012. Yet no one’s gotten around to doing anything about it. I’m also told that the censorship varies depending on service and geographical region – it’s not entirely clear why the Pentagon doesn’t use the same bans/filters nationwide and agency-wide, if it’s going to censor the Internet at all. This problem has to be fixed Pentagon-wide.
Our site, AMERICAblog, was previously banned for being “LGBT,” but now we’re only banned at least by the Air Force, for being “political” and “activist.” The Air Force is banning my Web site for being “political” while permitting other Republican “political” Web sites. Daily Kos is banned as well. Anyone else smelling a Big Brother constitutional problem with that?
I had a few different contacts try accessing a variety of sites on DOD computers, in order to confirm this, including Zeke Stokes, communications director for OutServe-SLDN, who confirmed via one of their military members. Note what they found.
Towleroad – Banned for being “LGBT”
Towleroad, a popular gay news Web site is banned by DOD for being gay.
AMERICAblog – Banned for being “political” and “activist.” Previously banned for being “LGBT.”
AMERICAblog, a popular gay and straight news and politics Web site, is banned by DOD for being gay.
Josh Seefried, founder of OutServe (a DADT repeal group), banned for being “LGBT”
Josh Seefried’s, OutServe founder, Web site is banned by DOD for being gay.
Now look at who is not banned by the Pentagon:
Rush Limbaugh, not banned
Rush Limbaugh’s Web site is not banned by the Pentagon
Ann Coulter, not banned
Ann Coulter’s Web site is not banned by the Pentagon
Again, I wonder how long the Pentagon computers would ban all things Jewish or Catholic. This should have been fixed a very long time ago, and in fact, it should never have happened. The filter actually says that Towleroad and Josh Seefried were banned for being “LGBT.”
Unbelievable.
