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From: Tom.Jennings@f111.n125.z1.FIDONET.ORG (Tom Jennings)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: prodigy
Message-ID: <14193.281F5781@fidogate.FIDONET.ORG>
Date: 1 May 91 17:47:50 GMT
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Remember the Prodigy trouble of about a year ago, a conference or 
discussion removed by Prodigy, and eventually some participants kicked off?

The original "problem" was the discussion of gay & lesbian rights and issues. 
The discussion was removed by Prodigy, and when participants complained, and 
continued the discussion via point-to-point mail, that got yanked too, and so 
did some of the participants.

It *is* signifigant that it was gay/lesbian stuff, in that it is an *unpopular* 
subject. If it were "blacks' rights" why, there would have been an outrage. (I 
reduce to 'issues' only for clarity in this paragraph.) It was a good test of 
speech, and reaction was mixed -- no one wanted to mention the subject matter, 
so it became rather hypothetical. 

It's easy to support free-speech issues on "safe" subjects -- the real test is 
when it is an unpopular one, or even one you don't agree with.
 


--  
Tom Jennings - via FidoNet node 1:125/777
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