DoD says it does not block LGBT websites, just personal blogs

The Department of Defense (DOD) announced on its Facebook page on Friday that it does not block service member access to LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) websites. The statement was in response to accusations from bloggers from such sites that the DoD has censored such sites in the past.

Here is the exact transcript of DoD’s response from Facebook.

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.