AMERICAblog has been raising awareness over the past week about a problematic Internet filtering problem at the Pentagon, and rightfully so. Apparently, a preponderance of LGBT news sites have been blocked by the DOD, including AMERICAblog, Towleroad, Good As You, The Bilerico Project, Pam’s House Blend, The Advocate, and the Human Rights Campaign’s blog. (According to our sources, ThinkProgress and our LGBT vertical remain available.)  Though the filtering itself is a problem, the Pentagon’s response has been that much more troubling.

On Friday, the DOD released a statement on its Facebook page completely obfuscating the situation:

We’ve received some questions/comment recently about DOD’s web access policies, and wanted to provide this statement:

The Department of Defense does not block LGBT websites. The pages referenced in several recent articles were denied access based on web filters blocking the “Blog/Personal Pages” category, not the specific sites themselves. While individuals on a DoD system may visit portions of the main websites (i.e., www.towleroad.com, www.AMERICAblog.com), certain additional links/pages – to include personal blogs – are blocked. Personal pages and blogs are blocked in accordance with DoD policy allowing military commanders the option to restrict access to personal pages for operational security reasons.

As AMERICAblog’s John Aravosis points out, this statement does not withstand scrutiny on multiple counts. First of all, the filtration software specifically identifies the sites as “LGBT” as a reason for being blocked. Secondly, this doesn’t explain why plenty of anti-gay conservative blogs and personal pages are not blocked, including RedState, Breitbart, the Family Research Council’s blog, the National Organization for Marriage’s blog, and Ann Coulter’s and Glenn Beck’s personal sites. There is also no explanation how LGBT content could threaten national security, though of course the filters could predate the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell when this question was considered controversial.

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President Obama has signed the National Defense Authorization Act, but he issued several signing statements qualifying his measured support of its various provisions. In particular, he condemned the “conscience clause” included in the conference version of the bill, a watered-down version of the “license to discriminate” proposed by Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO) last year. President Obama made it clear he will not tolerate any attempt to promote anti-gay views in the military:

Section 533 is an unnecessary and ill-advised provision, as the military already appropriately protects the freedom of conscience of chaplains and service members. The Secretary of Defense will ensure that the implementing regulations do not permit or condone discriminatory actions that compromise good order and discipline or otherwise violate military codes of conduct. My Administration remains fully committed to continuing the successful implementation of the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and to protecting the rights of gay and lesbian service members; Section 533 will not alter that.

The final version of the language was so softened from its original proposal so as to simply be a redundant iteration of protections that already exist ensuring servicemembers cannot be penalized for their beliefs. Still, its inclusion represents conservatives’ latest attempt to protect anti-gay discrimination and stigma under the shroud of “religious freedom.”

Our guest bloggers are Crosby Burns, Research Associate, and Katie Miller, Special Assistant for LGBT Progress.

Beyond the so-called “fiscal cliff,” Congress has a number of other important items on its agenda before packing up for the holidays. This includes voting on the National Defense Authorization Act, a critical piece of legislation  that outlines the military budget and approves defense expenditures for Fiscal Year 2014. With respect to this bill, most members of Congress have rightly focused on funding the programs and initiatives that preserve our security and care for our troops. However, instead of working to pass the single most important bill to our military,  anti-gay Republicans  have  spent the year playing politics with our national security by inserting irrelevant amendments in the defense bill that are squarely aimed at rolling back the military’s strides toward LGBT equality following “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” repeal.

Earlier this year, Congressman Todd “Legitimate Rape” Akin (R-MO) succeeded in including a harmful and anti-gay “conscious clause” in the House version of the defense bill. If the Akin Provision were to be included in the NDAA in its entirety, it would give service members the legal right to discriminate, harass, and intimidate LGB troops. And in doing so it would pose a danger to troops’ health and safety, it would undermine unit cohesion, and — as the White House has stated — it would be a threat to the good order and discipline necessary for military effectiveness. Luckily, the Senate version of the bill did not include this harmful provision.

As the House and Senate began to reconcile the differences between the two bills, Congressman Akin and other Republicans, including Rep. Buck McKeon (R-CA) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), have pushed to include Akin’s “license to discriminate” provision in the final version. McCain was, of course, a fierce opponent of DADT repeal. McKeon said that he’d rather see Congress fail to pass a defense bill for the first time in a half century than pass a bill that failed into include anti-gay amendments.

In the reconciled version of the Pentagon bill, Congress has sadly retained the Akin amendment, though not in its entirety. What remains is a watered down version which reaffirms the right of troops and chaplains to hold anti-gay views as long as they are not actively discriminating against LGB service members. In other words, the amended Akin provision simply reiterates existing religious liberty protections that service members and chaplains already enjoy.

While Congressman Akin’s amendment did not survive as originally written, let’s be clear. Congressman Akin’s original “conscious clause” provision was not about protecting the religious liberty of service members or chaplains. It is instead about giving people in the military a legal right to discriminate, harass, and intimidate service members based on their sexual orientation.

We’ve seen this before. In the states, conservative groups are vociferously calling for a weakening of nondiscrimination, relationship recognition, adoption, and other laws all in the name of “religious liberty.” When a restaurant owner refuses to serve a patron because he or she is old, black, or Christian, we would never call that an affront to religious freedom. We would call it discrimination, plain and simple. The same is true for gay individuals as well.

In this way, anti-gay initiatives are increasingly being cloaked in arguments about “religious freedom.” That is because opponents of LGBT equality have seen the polls and know that strong majorities of Americans are now accepting of LGBT people. By working to insert “conscious clauses” into laws, they are hoping to slow down the inevitable march toward fairness for all. Going into 2013, advocates must be on the lookout for these attempts to undermine LGBT equality, and call them out for what they are: discriminatory, unfair, and wrong.

 

The Ft. Bragg Officers’ Spouses group is blatantly discriminating against Ashley Broadway, a lesbian spouse who is seeking to join the group, inventing reasons to keep her out that are not currently part of its by-laws. On Wednesday, the group released a statement championing its own work and announcing that no action would be taken until its next board meeting, presumably after the holidays:

In response to recent interest in the membership requirements of our organization, we will review the issue at our next board meeting. This will be our first opportunity for our board to discuss the issue since it has been brought to our attention. We intend to review the request in a timely manner. As an all-volunteer board during this busy holiday season, we request your patience in allowing us to properly address and review this membership issue while fulfilling our obligations to our current membership as well as to our families.

OutServe-SLDN criticized the group for this stalling tactic, pointing out that “The group doesn’t need a meeting… It simply needs to accept Ashley into its membership, and it should do so immediately.” A Pentagon spokesman told BuzzFeed that the Department of Defense is “conducting a deliberative and comprehensive review” of what benefits can be extended to same-sex couples. That “review” has hypothetically been underway since the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell took effect in 15 months ago and has no foreseeable endpoint. Even still, the spouses group does not fall under the Department’s purview, and thus it bears full responsibility for its discrimination against Broadway.

Ashley Broadway’s wife and partner of 15 years is an officer stationed at Ft. Bragg in North Carolina, and now that the two are legally married, she sought to join the Officers’ Spouse Club on base. Unfortunately, she was told she “does not qualify.” It seems, however, that the group is going to extensive lengths to keep her out of the club, including arbitrary changes to its policy.

The group told Broadway that she could only join if the military issued her an “active ID card,” but the Pentagon has refused to offer this service to same-sex spouses since the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. That rule, however, is not listed in the group’s bylaws and was only added to the website and now-defunct Facebook page this week after Broadway published her open letter about experiencing discrimination. (The website also, incidentally, removed the last names of the group’s board members.) It seems the group is simply manufacturing reasons to prevent her from joining, and simultaneously trying to hide.

Conservatives argue that the Defense of Marriage Act limits the extent that the military can recognize same-sex marriages, but OutServe-SLDN Executive Director Allyson Robinson points out that DOMA is irrelevant in this matter regardless:

ROBINSON: The facts here are simple: there is no legal need or justification for any spouse to be excluded from a group like this, which exists to provide support to the spouses and families of our military men and women and the communities they serve. Though the organization operates on Ft. Bragg with permission from the Commanding General, the group is not formally affiliated with the military and is not required to bar membership to Ashley. In the absence of a reply from the Association, we are left with no option but to reach out to the base’s leadership. General Allyn needs to know if there is discrimination happening against the military families in his community.

Broadway told BuzzFeed that the rejection “pierced our hearts” and made her feel like she was “second-class.”

This post has been updated to correct the spelling of Broadway’s name.

It has been more than a year since the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was implemented, ending a legacy of blatant discrimination in the U.S. military. Unfortunately, it did not mark the end of inequality. As the nation honors Veterans Day, various other policies continue to treat the LGBT community second-class citizens. For example, though gay, lesbian, and bisexual servicemembers can now serve openly, the Defense of Marriage Act still prevents them and their families from receiving the same protections and benefits as their straight military brethren. Servicemembers Legal Defense Network and Freedom To Marry have released a new video, “Second Skin,” that “viscerally captures the cruelty” of treating LGB soldiers differently:

In addition, the military still does not allow transgender individuals to serve openly, deeming them “disordered.” Given the American Psychiatric Association is declassifying trans identities as a disorder in the coming year, this could be an important opportunity to advocate for change within the military. The National Center for Transgender Equality notes that progress has been made in providing benefits to the trans veterans who served in silence, but there is still more to be done:

On this Veterans’ Day, NCTE salutes the contributions and sacrifices of transgender veterans. According to the National Transgender Discrimination Survey, 1 in 5 transgender adults has served in the armed forces. These brave Americans have served in silence, and often been denied the benefits they worked so hard and risked so much to earn. [...]

There is still much to do. Trans people are still forced to serve in silence, as our non-trans gay, lesbian, and bisexual brothers and sisters thankfully no longer have to do. Trans veterans are still denied their hard-earned health benefits when it comes to medically necessary transition-related surgeries. NCTE will keep working to fulfill our promises to trans servicemembers and veterans.

No individual wishing to protect this nation should be disqualified simply because of their identity, nor should they be denied benefits that others are entitled to.

Ohio Republican senate candidate Josh Mandel is one of the few Republicans to still oppose the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, a policy that prohibited gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military. During a debate on Thursday, Mandel said it was not a “good idea” to eliminate the ban and threw his support behind the state’s constitutional amendment outlawing same-sex marriages. Mandel explained that while he opposes equality for LGBT people, he will represent the interests of all Ohioans in Washington:

MANDEL: Well, on the military side, I disagree with [the repeal]. As far as the decision here in state of Ohio, I’m a supporter of marriage between one man and one woman. I believe in traditional marriage. At the same time, I want you to know I will do everything I can to represent every single person in the state of Ohio — all 11 and a half million people. Regardless of their background, regardless of their socioeconomic background, regardless of their race, their religion or any other characteristic…I’m going to be blind to race, religion, any other type of orientation here in the state of Ohio and when I go to Washington.

Watch it:

Since the repeal of DADT, numerous studies have found that the change has had “no negative impact on military readiness, morale, or unit cohesion.”