"Uh-huh, uh-huh!" But already, that encumbrance known as a conscience was getting to me. The e-mail, an AFA Action Alert, informed the presumably good, conservative Christians on its list that the popular Internet content filter CyberPatrol had placed its website on their CyberNOT list. CyberNOTs come in 12 categories: Alcohol/Tobacco, Drugs/Drug Culture, Full Nudity, Gross Depictions, Intolerance, Militant/Extremist, Partial Nudity, Questionable/Illegal and Gambling, Satanic/Cult, Sex Education, Sexual Acts, and Violence/Profanity. As Gene Edward Veith wrote in the Christian magazine World, "Christians might be surprised to find themselves in such company." The AFA was filtered by CyberPatrol for "Intolerance" towards sexual minorities.
Not surprisingly, they do not like sexual minorities very much. Their main emphasis is on the media--television, movies, radio. Their favorite tactics for getting what they deem offensive off the air include boycotts and letters to advertisers. The American Family Association, headed by Methodist Donald Wildmon, has strongly backed the boycott of Disney by Christian conservatives. (I am boycotting Disney merchandise for the same reason as the rest of the American Vodoun community--the Haitian workers who produce it are abused and underpaid. The abuse of Haitian, Burmese, and Chinese workers doesn't interest Wildmon, and working with Vodoun practioners certainly doesn't!) They are concerned about violence, anti-Christian attitudes, profanity, and what they see as a promotion of "paganism", but the bulk of their concerns about Disney indicate that this ain't nothin' but a "G" thang: Gay Days at Walt Disney World, domestic-partner benefits, Ellen and other gay-friendly shows on the ABC network, the publishing of gay-oriented books, etcetera. They cite Marilyn Manson's cross-half-dressing and Jerry Springer's sexual-minority guests as reasons to act against them. They have a ministry to help "homosexuals and sex addicts" called AFA OutReach, and are one of the conservative groups backing the controversial series of ex-gay newspaper ads. The part that got them banned by CyberPatrol is a vicious 24-page pamphlet about homosexuality. It is basically the usual hard-line Christian Right opinion--gays are sinners, they can change, they make money, they do sexually weird things, they recruit, and they therefore don't deserve "special rights."
Let me put such a fine point on this, I can split cells in half--I think the AFA's ideas are as mad, bad, dangerous, and stupid as a do-it-yourself surgery kit. For literally half my life, I have loathed them. In fact, when I discovered that they were partially responsible for censoring my favorite hip-hop albums, the twelve-year-old hip-hop head I was blossomed into an anti-censorship warrior. I learned that there were people trying to ban and censor not only hip-hop, but heavy metal and books like Brave New World. I loved Brave New World. I wanted to become a writer myself when I grew up. Clearly, the only way to secure my rights to my music, my books, and my future would be to use my right to free speech, and at that very moment! So I did...years later, I smile as I remember the Greenwood Lakes Middle School Wal-Mart Boycott, letters to the editor, the fire extinguisher I carried to book-burnings, rallies, protests, chats with principals and store managers, class presentations, and my "Censorship Sucks" T-shirt.
The Internet wasn't so commonly used when I was a teenager. But I have firmly believed that freedom of speech applies to all media for a long time. (Twelve years is a long time when one is twenty-four!) The Internet, for all the hype around it, is simply another medium. You can look at dirty pictures or hip-hop lyrics or conservative Christian articles when you log on. You can find all that at any decent newsstand, too. Some people, like the American Family Association, are frightened of this diversity. Some, like me, see this diversity of ideas as a thing of beauty.
"Screw 'em," was my initial eloquent response regarding CyberPatrol's censoring of the AFA site. I felt that the AFA could stand to learn a lesson. Anyway, it wasn't like the government was banning them, right? It was only a private business, right?
I immediately slapped myself for that thought. Did I, the one who still boycotts Wal-Mart for their censorship of hip-hop and Queer images, actually think that private corporate censorship of perfectly legal ideas was irrelevant to the cause of freedom in any case? Did I, the one who has written persuasive e-mails to CYBERSitter and Cyber Patrol for their treatment of feminist, Queer, and Pagan sites, now think that the decision to ban a site just because of its political views was justified? As a hip-hop head, a feminist, a Libertarian, a Bisexual, a Vodouisante, and a Witch, some people may think I have a few "do-it-yourself surgery kits" of my own. I express my ideas in Orlando publications and on my websites.
One of those ideas is the Threefold Law, the Witchcraft belief that everything we do comes back to us three times over. There are other names for this elementary law...karma, "do unto others as you would have done unto you," even the computer programmer's "garbage in, garbage out." What, I asked myself, was I getting out by laughing and not acting in response to CyberPatrol's censorship of the AFA? It would be one thing if it was just a matter of a filter doing its job, but CyberPatrol doesn't list banned sites for the parents' benefit. (To be fair, they do have a search engine.) This may get a little bigger than the private realm. As I write, the Internet School Filtering Act threatens to make censorware mandatory for all federally-funded--and the true meaning of that is taxpaying U.S. citizen-funded--schools and libraries. CyberPatrol is a very popular filter. Should the AFA's members have to pay to "protect" schoolchildren and library patrons from their ideas? I sure don't want to pay to "protect" kids from Bisexuality, Vodoun, and Witchcraft, which is a scarily real possibility.
Furthermore, I do not think it would harm a teenager to see the AFA's site. To be sure, there is some nasty stuff. They do advocate legal discrimination against sexual minorities. However, the site is an invaluable resource for a student who, say, would like to write a term paper on homophobia, censorship, or the Religious Right. It is educational for a young person to see all the sides of a controversial issue. Then, of course, there is the possibility that a given young person and/or her parents may actually agree with the AFA. I support the rights of Pagan teenagers to see sites devoted to their religion at school and in the library. If I did not support that exact same right for a conservative Christian teenager, I would become what I hate most.
So once again, I e-mailed CyberPatrol. In June, the oversight committee reviewed the site. It is still blocked. They may review it yet again, however, as the AFA has exploited this outrage for all it's worth. I cc'd my letter to Ron Shank, webmaster of afa.net. to say the least, this gentleman was...perplexed...by my support. I convinced a few other Queers and Pagans to write their own e-mails to CyberPatrol.
I guess I thought I could help shame the AFA into tolerance. I hoped that they would take a lesson from all this. Oh, yes, they're hopping mad about censorship when it happens to one of their own. But censorship of other viewpoints is still their primary raison d'etre. Frustratingly enough, they even remain partnered with X-Stop, the censorware that banned the right-wing Heritage Foundation. They advocate the Internet School Filtering Act! I wish they could connect the dots!
Thing is, it is their right to refuse to connect the dots, or to do so selectively. I cannot control their thoughts and actions, nor would I want to. I feel a need to help protect freedom of speech, everyone's freedom of speech, and if I can defend no-talent trash culture icons like Marilyn Manson and Jerry Springer, I can certainly extend a hand to Donald Wildmon and his friends when someone's tying a gag around their mouths. I will continue to do so, even if they don't want to take it.
Other Places to Go...
Back home
The Pagan-American Princess Pages
Jayelle's Interfaith Discussion Forum/VodouNet
Bridges Across the Divide, whom I wrote this for.
