ACLU told Tennessee Schools a thing or Two

Not so long ago, two Tennessee public school districts, Knox County Schools and Metro Nashville Public Schools blocked students from accessing LGBT organizations and other LGBT-positive websites, but allowed full access to any anti-gay sites.

The ACLU got involved, quickly turned that mess around and now, they have access!

Dozens of Tennessee schools have restored access to online information about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues, just over two weeks after the American Civil Liberties Union filed suit against two Tennessee school districts for unconstitutionally blocking student access to such sites. The company that provides Internet filtering software to as many as 107 Tennessee schools has adjusted the software to allow access to a variety of educational and political LGBT Web sites that were blocked before the lawsuit was filed.

"All we ever wanted was to be able to get information out about LGBT issues, like what our legal rights are or what scholarships are available for LGBT students, so I'm really happy that the schools are finally making our Web access fair and balanced," said Bryanna Shelton, a 16-year-old student at Fulton High School in Knoxville and a plaintiff in the case. "These Web sites were never something dirty or inappropriate in any way and shouldn't ever have been treated like they were."

It was a shame that this was happening, but sadly, it's Tennessee. It's my home state and I know they're not the most LGBT friendly place. With that said, I'm proud to hear this news. I wish for more changes like.

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ACLU demandins Tennessee schools unblock access to Gay Websites

Mess in my home state, as usual.

The ACLU LGBT Project, ACLU First Amendment Working Group, and the ACLU of Tennessee have joined together to stop foolishness in the Rocky Mountain state.

Knox County Schools and Metro Nashville Public School do not allow their students to access any LGBT information from the web. The school districts are illegally blocking any and every LGBT thing you can think of, including GLSEN and HRC websites(I guess they think it's porn). But here's the funny thing, the students can access all the anti-gay info they can; there's no limit there.

This is a violation of the First Amendment and the state constitution as well. ACLU has demanded the school districts to restore all access to the LGBT sites by the start of the 2009-2010 school year. I wish them good luck.

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