Vineland School District In N.J. Lifts LGBT Website Filter

After New Jersey students and staff complained to the American Civil Liberties Union that LGBT sites were being blocked at school, the district removed the filter.

Vineland District middle and high school students won't be able to access adult content, but they will now be able to visit sites such as the Human Rights Campaign, the Associated Press reports.

The filter restrictions were such that one student wasn't able to research Harvey Milk, one of the country's first openly gay elected officials, according to the Courier Post.

Besides being a research impediment, the ACLU tells the Courier Post the blockage was marginalizing.

"Frankly we feel filtering based on LGBT content is discriminatory and against the law," said Jeanne LoCicero, deputy legal director for the state's ACLU chapter. "Hopefully other districts will look at this situation and follow Vineland's lead."

The ACLU sent letters Monday to schools in Michigan, Texas, Pennsylvania and Virginia demanding they stop LGBT website censorship. The letters are part of the "Don't Filter Me" campaign, a partnership between the ACLU and Yale Law School.

Joshua Block, staff attorney at the ACLU Lesbian Gay Bisexual & Transgender Project, tells the organization:

"This is not a case where overbroad filters are accidentally filtering out LGBT websites. These filters are designed to discriminate and are programmed specifically to target LGBT-related content that would not otherwise be blocked as sexually explicit or inappropriate."

Comments

[ajbiggs]

06:54 PM on 04/14/2011

Sad situation....but nice victory 4 the LGBT community; long ways to go though!

They r just like us u intolerant folk out there, human. I could b gay, u could b bi, our children, grand children, cousin, mother, father.....& the list goes on. But I expect no less from a country who still had major race issues & still won't allow me to rise above the 'glass ceiling'.

[EmmaDarian]

02:12 PM on 04/13/2011

I've been reading more about this. The students complained for years about the block, and each time, the most that would happen is that maybe an individual site they wanted to access would be cleared. They actually would get a message that said the site was blocked under category "LGBT." How damaging! Officials say they don't know when or how the block was added, but are looking into it. And the ACLU is following up.

The problem of blocking such sites is so widespread that the ACLU has a whole campaign on its website where people can report incidents.

I've read a few stories, but here's one: http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011110412002

[RainbowTeacher]

05:50 PM on 04/13/2011

I am late to the game on this one, but I just wanted to thank you for all of your excellent posts on this thread today - just got home, saw your comments and have been reading back - you and Loan do an excellent job representing the LGBT community here.

[EmmaDarian]

02:22 PM on 04/14/2011

You are so kind. I honestly teared up when I read that. It means so much coming from you (and to be mentioned in the same breath as Ioan, who I so admire).

I did a lot of reading and I posted only a little of what I learned. But that's because I was looking into what I can actually do about this. I think mostly, I can continue to support the ACLU and spread the work about their Don't Filter Me program, which is how this was incident was brought to light.

http://www.aclu.org/lgbt-rights/dont-filter-me

[watamess]

01:13 PM on 04/13/2011

My son is a senior and has never had to search gay websites. What possible crap could they be teaching kids in public schools that would require them to do this?

[JohnJames]

01:23 PM on 04/13/2011

Who said any kids are REQUIRED to visit gay-rights websites? Extremely unlikely. More likely the assignment is something like "Research a group of your choice that experiences or has experienced prejudice in this country". Could be Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanics, Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Mormons, etc. etc. etc. and, needless to say, Gay Americans easily meet that criterion.

[cinemaven]

01:25 PM on 04/13/2011

Had you taken the 30 seconds it takes to read the article, you would see that the filters effected the ability to search historical figures like Harvey Milk. The sites being blocked were not inappropriate in any way (unless to bigoted people).

My heterosexual son did a very good paper on Matthew Shepard and a lot of his research was done on the wonderfully informative sites for LGBT's. Contrary to some people's beliefs, they don't try to turn ya... and much to the disappointment of others, they contain no salacious material.

[ANuttyReader]

10:38 AM on 04/13/2011

Cool!

[13champlain]

10:36 AM on 04/13/2011

small steps matter...and this is a small one. Unfortuantely for our LGBT friends, societal attitudes change slowly...as one generation fades and new ones replace them. But attitudes are changing for the better, slowly...but they are changing.

[joelb5000]

10:31 AM on 04/13/2011

Conservatives and the 1st Amendment generally don't agree.

[JohnJames]

10:30 AM on 04/13/2011

What is this based on other than the idiocy that gay people and their organizations advocating for dignity, respect and equal treatment under the law can cause kids to develop a same-sex orientation? Messages don't change anyone's innate sexual orientation. If they did, gay people wouldn't exist in the first place, because all of us (children definitely included) get the message from every direction in this society that being gay is not OK. Will Americans ever grow up and face facts about human sexuality - one of those facts being that same-sex orientation is a natural part of the spectrum of human sexuality? No amount of condemning it will ever make it go away. It's the refusal to face facts in the form of homophobia that mangles and destroys lives and tears families apart, not being gay.

[ClarkOHrepub]

10:16 AM on 04/13/2011

Why even have teachers then?  We can just turn our schools into internet cafes!
Fill out on-line tests and have instant scores....have bio-security computers to confirm identities.
I bet the NEA might want to reconsider this!

[EmmaDarian]

10:25 AM on 04/13/2011

Yeah, I remember the good old days of outdated information in textbooks and encyclopedias. Having to lug home a half-dozen books to write a report, wishing the other books I'd wanted hadn't been checked out.

Do you really see no benefit to the addition of online information? Sure, kids might surf, just as in my day, some kids in study hall stuck comics into their textboooks. But there is a lot of good information from credible sources on the Internet.

[ClarkOHrepub]

12:45 PM on 04/13/2011

I remember the good ole days when grades meant something and the kids could actually DO the math!   Today we have kids that bypass the learning process and just go straight to the database for answers.  Anyone can do that

[enhancedvibes]

03:32 PM on 04/13/2011

Obviously you have no idea how much easier it is to write a research paper these days, especially in college with online library access to 100s if not 1000s of peer reviewed journals from all over the world.

logic fail

[John Crane]

09:54 AM on 04/13/2011

I'll bet my workplace filters out LGBT websites along with Twitter and Facebook. If you want to go to these websites, use your own Internet connection.

[JohnJames]

10:03 AM on 04/13/2011

Guess you haven't heard about the desperation that some gay kids in our homophobic society feel when trying to come to terms with their sexual orientation., being surrounded by the message, often from their own family as well, that they shouldn't be what they are. Guess you haven't heard about the suicide rate among gay youth. So, yeah, let's have schools censor gay-rights websites and compound the message for these kids that they're not OK. Let's increase their sense of isolation. That'll help.

[cinemaven]

01:33 PM on 04/13/2011

Now that was serendipitous... I had just favorited my second of your posts and was shocked that I wasn't a fan... scrolled up and you'd fanned me *lol*. I'm really enjoying your comments on this thread.

[Ldcook]

10:31 AM on 04/13/2011

Becuase there is simply no educational value to being able to research current events, or historical events and people like Harvey Milk. Nope none at all.

Please. This is not about Tweeting your latest lunchtime revelation, it is about students being able to access information that is important for their education.

[Ioan Lightoller]

12:47 PM on 04/13/2011

The problem with the haters is that they want GLBT kids marginalised and isolated as long as they don't have to see anything GLBT in the schools. It's ridiculous, of courtse. But the sad fact is that GLBT history is superfluous and not necessary.

The haters will use any handy excuse to marginalise and isolate us.

[roblabrousse]

09:57 AM on 04/13/2011

What is wrong with you???

[Joel Mendez]

10:10 AM on 04/13/2011

projection?

[marind]

10:11 AM on 04/13/2011

Note: Tom Mix has 1 Fan, i.e. a newbie mole?

[UserNameJane]

02:09 PM on 04/13/2011

Huh? Do you even know what the smell you are talking about.

[KnoxScott]

09:43 AM on 04/13/2011

i am confused..shouldn't they be learning while they are at school instead of surfing the web...??? no wonder we are falling behind everyone else in the world...

[roblabrousse]

10:00 AM on 04/13/2011

Shouldn't they have access to current social maters that pertain to them? And might they be using the web during their own time? And shouldn't they be learning about free speech? I doubt students spend their entire school day on the computers researching these sites.. Stop over generalizing.

[EmmaDarian]

10:03 AM on 04/13/2011

You can do actual research on the Internet. I am sure that students have to use credible online sources, but as long as they do, what's the problem?

[Joel Mendez]

10:11 AM on 04/13/2011

problem is, many neocons are xtian-and the fear that the gays are comin' for 'em is everywhere.

[AGooglyMinotaur]

09:32 AM on 04/13/2011

Christians = lame, useless, and an unnecessary burden on this country. Well, not the moderate ones, but certainly the ones who want to impose their so-called "morals" of condemnation and exclusion. How very un-Christlike. Kick 'em out. Deport 'em to Antarctica.

[Georgious Bushus]

10:09 AM on 04/13/2011

We do t want to exclude U, U are also Gods child, to be gay is not sin, to conduct gay sex, that act is sin, sin is even heterosexual sexual act out of marriage

[HRH]

10:23 AM on 04/13/2011

Still spouting those Bronze Age superstitions? Pity.

[AGooglyMinotaur]

10:23 AM on 04/13/2011

It's also a sin for you to eat bacon or shrimp, or to go to church on Sunday instead of Saturday. Also, the same part of the bible that says homosexuality is wrong also gives some other good advice on sexual conduct:

"If a man happens to meet a virgin who is not pledged to be married and rapes her and they are discovered, he shall pay her father fifty shekels of silver. He must marry the young woman, for he has violated her. He can never divorce her as long as he lives."
Deuteronomy 22:28

So yeah. I have no interest in what YOU think sexual morals should be.

[Joel Mendez]

10:11 AM on 04/13/2011

sure. make the polar bears pay for it. like they don't have enough to worry about.

[SpiceCowboy]

11:16 AM on 04/13/2011

Penguins. Polar bears live only in the Arctic (and zoos). Penguins live only in the southern hemisphere (and in zoos). Sorry -- just a bit of a pet peeve. It really gets me when I see the Coca Cola ads with penguins and polar bears hanging out together.

[Texan POd]

09:30 AM on 04/13/2011

So much for the Parental Controls I have setup for my Middle School daughter at home.
They should at least give the parents an option to acquire THEIR child's surfing history.

[Jason N]

10:54 AM on 04/13/2011

They should at least give the parents an option to acquire THEIR child's surfing history."

Yeah, so when terrified gay kids with abusive homophobic fathers find them searching for "I think I'm gay" that will go over REAL well right?

[Texan POd]

11:41 AM on 04/13/2011

I don't recall that being a research question for a school project.
This is where we're hurting our kids by doing everything online as opposed to using a Library.

This is part of a systematic process to remove ALL parental Rights while leaving us saddled with the responsibility of the Results.

The public Library would be the correct place if they wanted some anonymous information, NOT in Public Schools.

[Texan POd]

07:01 PM on 04/13/2011

Here's the kind of government help Parents don't need.
Try to get over the fact this particular link is from FOX and concentrate on the story.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/04/13/philadelphia-condom-campaign-targets-kids-young-11/

[UserNameJane]

02:28 PM on 04/13/2011

No need to worry, Im sure your daughter is just as f up in the head as you are.

[Texan POd]

06:45 PM on 04/13/2011

From such a sensitive loving individual.
A true testament of the tolerance you have.
You sound like a really fun person to have a beer with.

[jerry23]

09:27 AM on 04/13/2011

What is odd is that you can't take the "Sexual" out of "Homosexual". You can't dance around the really that sexuality is part of the stigmata. We are not talking about "left handedness" then complaining about photos of hands. It reminds me of the days of old, when I looked up the word "homosexual" in the dictionary in 6th grade and found the definition titillating . At that age, a bumpy school ride is arousing.

[JohnJames]

09:37 AM on 04/13/2011

You can take the "sexual" out of "homosexual" just as easily as you can take the "sexual" out of "heterosexual". That gay people are discriminated against on the basis of their sexuality doesn't make us nothing but what we do sexually. It's antigay bigotry itself that refuses to see us as full-fledged human beings who happen to be homosexual (just as other people are human beings who happen to be heterosexual).

[jerry23]

09:56 AM on 04/13/2011

I agree. What is also interesting is that many parents were confronted by their children, a few years back ,asking them "what is oral sex" created by the Clinton scandal which was everywhere on the Network News. They could not filter the reality that sexuality is part of reality. However, the fact is that homosexuality is still taboo to many. Once we get over the "out of sight, out of mind" approach to understanding Homosexuality and recognize that we have a right to suppress our feelings but don't have a right to suppress mine.

[Joel Mendez]

10:19 AM on 04/13/2011

you mean, **gasp** you're a person? and you're not out to make all kids gay? and you don't have an agenda? you mean to tell me that I shouldn't be afraid of you showing up at my house in the middle of the night to molest the cat? (i hope the sarcasm translated well)

but....but....hannity is afraid of you....if you can't trust hannity, who can you trust? a hispanic? pfft.

taking the 'sexual' out of homosexual or heterosexual is asking a bit much from fundies...isn't it? they are obsessed with sex--i've always wondered why, since the bibble is so against it, though it's all over the d@m thing. nevertheless, their world revolves around their fear-and they fear sex...quite scary, really.

I keep trying to explain that i'm not Mexican just 'cuz my surname is 'mendez'...they don't seem to get that either.

i'm sure you're a human being. i'm sure i'm a human being....neocons...let's just say i have my doubts on that last one.

[Michele Allison]

09:21 AM on 04/13/2011

Why not censor TV, movies and music in general? It is time to get off of this subject and move on.

[Joel Mendez]

10:20 AM on 04/13/2011

you said '...get off of this...' he he he he....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RrWfNonLDQ- don't mind the farting....

[Ioan Lightoller]

12:58 PM on 04/13/2011

Why? So you don't have to hear about it or see it. Too bad. We are not going back in the closet. So I fear you will be hearing more from us whether you like it or not.

[Michele Allison]

06:24 PM on 04/13/2011

Apparently, I did not elaborate enough and hit a nerve. Sorry. Let me make another attempt at my meaning. Certainly, there is no going back into the closet. How absurd would that be. People must be educated and the only way to do that is to put information in front of them. Therefore, information on the LGBT community should be as readily available to anyone as any other information. Saying that, "it is time to move on" meaning it is time to accept the community at large and move on to some other subject matter. Have I made myself a bit clearer.