The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) took two Tennessee public school districts to court for using an online filter to block information about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues, on behalf of a few students and a high school librarian.

The websites belong to a category simply labeled “LGBT” by a statewide computer network, part of Educational Networks of America (ENA). According to ENA, the sites that fall into this category, and the ones that as many as 80 percent of Tennessee school districts chose to block, are those that "provide information regarding, support, promote, or cater to one's sexual orientation or gender identity including but not limited to lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, and transgender sites,” reported eSchool News. The filter does not include pornographic sites, which appear under their own “Pornography” category.

Sites that don’t appear in the “LGBT” filter, and sites that the same school districts allow students to access, are those that condemn homosexuality and promote “ex-gay” ministries and “reparative therapy” – messages which American Psychological Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Medical Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics condemn as harmful to young people.

The ACLU website posted a list of LGBT organizations whose pages are included in the ENA’s filter:

• Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays
• The Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network
• Human Rights Campaign
• Marriage Equality USA
• Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry
• The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation
• Dignity USA (an organization for LGBT Catholics)

"Allowing access to web sites that present one side of an issue while blocking sites that present the other side is illegal viewpoint discrimination," said Catherine Crump, a staff attorney with the ACLU First Amendment Working Group and lead attorney on the case.

According to Karyn Storts-Brinks, a librarian at Fulton High School in Knoxville (and one of the plaintiffs in the suit), the restrictions also hinder students’ school work, since those who are doing research on current events can only hear from one side of the argument.   

Tricia Herzfeld, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Tennessee, says the filter violates both the First Amendment and the Tennessee state constitution, which only requires schools to restrict information that is obscene or harmful to minors.

“When I found out about this web filtering software, I wasn’t looking for anything sexual or inappropriate,” said Andrew Emitt, a 17-year-old senior at Central High School in Knoxville. “I was looking for information about scholarships for LGBT students, and I couldn’t get to it because of this software. Our schools shouldn’t be keeping students in the dark about LGBT organizations and resources."

The ALCU sent a letter dated April 15 to Tennessee public school officials giving them until April 29 to come up with a plan to restore access to the sites by the beginning of the 2009-2010 school year and threatening to file a lawsuit if their deadline wasn’t met. The plaintiff didn’t hear back until May 6, when it received a letter from Mary E. Johnston of the legal department of Nashville saying that they were still examining the “ramifications of the request,” many of which revolved around extra costs to the school districts.

To the plaintiff, extra costs to the school district are not nearly as important as protecting the rights and resources of the students – especially since, as OhMyGov! reported earlier this week, granting certain rights such as gay marriage might actually bring new money into the states.