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March 14, 2006

Feds' removal of gay Web site prompts questions

Feds' removal of gay Web site prompts questions

The government is claiming it's a coincidence that a federal Web site containing health resources for gay men and lesbians disappeared less than two weeks after the right-wing Family Research Council complained to a top government official, but LGBT advocates, including House member Tammy Baldwin, aren't buying it.

Southern Voice reports that the Family Research Council sent a letter January 11 to Michael Leavitt, secretary of Health and Human Services, complaining that pages on the agency’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Web site contained "biased, politically charged language such as condemnations of so-called homophobia and sexual prejudice." The site was later mysteriously removed.

HHS administrator Mark Weber said the site should have been removed two years ago. But although he claimed the timing of the deletion and the FRC letter were not related, last month Weber told Congressional Quarterly that it was only after being contacted by the FRC that the agency realized the Web site was an "LGBT pride site."

Baldwin, a Democrat who's the only out lesbian member of Congress, is leading a House inquiry into the removal of the site, calling it “outrageous that an organization with a long track record of attacks on the LGBT community can successfully pressure a government agency to stop providing preventative health care information to LGBT Americans."

Baldwin is also circulating a letter among her colleagues condemning the actions of the government agency. (Sirius OutQ News)

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