Pentagon bans gay sites

Only recently has the Pentagon been willing to let lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans openly serve in the military, but it seems the Defense Department still isn’t too keen on the LGBT community.
AmericaBlog, a self-described progressive journal of news and opinion, has published an article discussing how the US Department of Defense has blocked internal computers from accessing a number of websites that are categorizes as “LGBT.”
John Aravosis of AmericaBlog writes this week that a handful of gay-friendly websites, including one for an association of actively-serving LGBT military personnel, has been blocked from Pentagon computers.
“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,” Aravosis writes.
Indeed, the blogger includes a screen shot alleged to have been made from a computer connected to the US Air Force’s computer network that shows Towelroad, a website that specializes in politics and gay culture news, has been blocked. On the “Access Denied” screen he includes in his blog post, he highlights the line that shows towelroad.com has been blocked because it has been categorized as being “LGBT.”
 “I wonder if the Pentagon has a censorship category titled Jewish, African-American, or ‘Latino,’” Aravosis asks. Although all Americans are now open to serve in the military, the Defense Department seems to be rather selective with what kind of content — even content geared towards its own personnel — can peruse.
The fact that the Pentagon wound censor servicemen from accessing content categorized as LGBT contradicts a statement from Defense Secretary Leon Panetta last year in which he said, “Going forward, I remain committed to removing as many barriers as possible to make America’s military a model of equal opportunity, to ensure all who are qualified can serve in America’s military, and to give every man and woman in uniform the opportunity to rise to their highest potential.”
  The fact that the Pentagon wound censor servicemen from accessing content categorized as LGBT contradicts a statement from Defense Secretary Leon Panetta last year in which he said, “Going forward, I remain committed to removing as many barriers as possible to make America’s military a model of equal opportunity, to ensure all who are qualified can serve in America’s military, and to give every man and woman in uniform the opportunity to rise to their highest potential.”