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BTL Editorial: Net Neutrality Is A Queer Issue

Last week, the FCC voted to approve a new set of rules which would allow the agency to regulate the internet as many other essential utilities are regulated. That's good news for Americans, and particularly LGBT Americans.
Without the ability to regulate the internet, major internet service provider organizations were poised to begin implementing strategies to throttle back speeds for high traffic, high bandwidth websites like Netflix. Under those proposals, unless Netflix — or consumers — paid for more access to the fast lanes of the internet, the service would be shut down for those consumers.
Those proposals carried the terrifying whiff of censorship as well. If an ISP decided it didn't like the content being offered by a high traffic website, the ISP could throttle back or slow down access to the site.
We know that queer content has often been the target of censorship. It is not a stretch of the imagination that an ISP might slow down or even block access to a website because it was gay related. And with the ever growing "religious freedom" legislative movements, those organizations could easily claim a religious right to do so.
Net Neutrality will not, as many opponents claim, slow down innovations. In fact, the opposite is true. Net Neutrality will keep the internet flowing, the ideas developing and, yes, the diversity of opinion — from factual to fanciful to downright paranoid — accessible to everyone and anyone with access.
That's a win for everyone. We live in an economy based on information technology. We live in a world where access to information is vital to life. We live at a time where the internet, even when overwhelmed with social posts about the color of ugly dresses or posts of cats, is a vital resource to informing the citizenry of local, state, national and international activities.
We know that the internet has revolutionized the LGBT equality movement. We know it has revolutionized the way we meet, socialize and connect with each other. It has served as a platform to empower the transgender community, served as a connection to drive HIV testing and information and it has been used as a tool to lobby lawmakers to support LGBT-inclusive legislative actions.
Without the FCC's actions last week, all of that was in jeopardy. All of that was at the point of being controlled by a few major corporations focused on their bottom line, rather than the reality of the importance of the internet. The FCC's actions have protected the internet, free speech and most importantly the ability to innovate.

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