LGBT Educational Sites: REJECTED

The heads of the Tennessee school districts seem to have taken a stance (though stealthily) on same-sex relationships. Although they were covert about it, people still noticed. A librarian (Karyn Storts-Brinks) and 2 Tennessee high school students are asking the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) for help when they discovered that their Tennessee school internet filters access to online information on LGBT issues. The filtering software (Educational Networks of America) makes it so students cannot view political and educational information about LGBT issues and well-known nationals organizations such as the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), and the Human Rights Campaign.

Oddly enough (meant to be read in the most sarcastic tone you can muster), the filter seems to keep sites that talk about "reparative therapy" for changing your sexual orientation. Side Note: How can you "repair" what was never broken to begin with? Side Side Note: The practice of "reparative therapy" has been deemed harmful and dangerous by the American Medical & Psychiatric Associations.

The blocking of this information "not only violates the law but does a disservice to the education of your students," said the ACLU. The ACLU is also asking for this ban to be remedied or they will be forced to take legal action against their illegal censorship. Karyn Storts-Brinks, the librarian from Fulton High School in Knoxville tried to unblock LGBT sites for her students in August 2007 by contacting the filtering company and individuals in her district to no avail. Storts-Brinks said:

"One of the problems with this software is that it only allows students access to one side of information about topics that are part of the public debate right now. Students who need to do research for assignments on current events can only get one viewpoint, keeping them from being able to cover both sides of the issue."

The whole point of going to school is to get a well-rounded education to prepare you for the future. To make a well-informed decision (like the kinds you are going to make for the rest of your life), you need to have all the facts at hand first. Showing only one side of an issue to the person does not leave them adequately prepared to make a decision on the issue. So shame on you Tennessee school districts for filtering out political and educational information on the LGBT community! You're not turning your students into well-rounded spheres, but more like incomplete dodecahedrons (yes, I did bust out some geometric shapes on you).