Who's "Protecting" Tennessee Kids From The Big Gay Internet?

Computers in Tennessee public schools are blocking websites that discuss LGBT issues, and everybody's arguing about whose fault it is.

Blocked sites include the Human Rights Campaign, Marriage Equality USA, the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network, the Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and Dignity USA. Some sites not blocked: National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality, People Can Change, The Americans For Truth Against Homosexuality and the Traditional Values Coalition. The schools claim their filtering service, Education Networks of America, is responsible for the block. An attorney for ENA counters: "The decisions on whether to block certain websites are made solely by the school districts. ENA does not participate in these decisions in any way and is instead simply told which websites to block."

The fact that no one's willing to take responsibility here seems pretty cowardly. On the other hand, it does show that blocking gay-rights websites is now a source of public embarrassment, rather than applause, which is a step in the right direction. As we saw from the Internet furor about Amazon's de-ranking of gay and lesbian books, people who try to gay-wash the Internet now get shit for it — if they get caught, and if it makes the news. If Amazon and the Tennessee schools get enough bad press, maybe people will think before they try to "protect" kids by limiting their access to sites about human rights.

Pro-Gay Sites Filtered From Tennessee Students [Wired]

Send an email to Anna North, the author of this post, at annanorth@jezebel.com.

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