If you’ve ever ridden one of Amtrak’s government subsidized cattle cars, you know your main goal is arriving on time, followed in close second by leaving on time, or maybe it’s not have obnoxious bratty kids running up and down the aisle while you’re nursing a hangover. But to be fair, it’s also nice to be able to use Amtrak’s wifi service to read about The Gays without being told you’re trying to access porn.
When the editor of a gay blog called The New Gay was blocked on Amtrak’s wifi service because it was supposedly an “adult” site, he complained on the interwebs! (He had to wait until after the New York-D.C. train ride ended, however.) Amtrak’s resident brand monitor (sorry, that’s “Marketing Communications Specialist”) noticed Mark Mastro and immediately unblocked the site.
Was that because Mastro was also responsible for setting up and maintaining Amtrak’s wifi network? Or because he’s a big ‘mo too? Both likely! But also, Amtrak has shown — with money! — that it loves its gay passengers, so keeping them happy is a priority.
So The New Gay is now accessible to train passengers traveling at 45mph, but true adult sites are not. The terrorists didn’t win! For the rest of you traveling at 450mph at 35,000 feet, Virgin America still lets you get on a certain handful of adult streaming video sites. Just don’t let that brisk flight attendant see.
Oh, wait. This problem actually isn’t new? Nope. As Faublis pointed out earlier this year, its website — along with Queerty and Gay.com — are also blocked. I haven’t been on an Amtrak train since they installed wifi (or rather, since my eighth grade field trip), so let me know if things have changed.
Michael
Yes. It certainly makes sense that you should be able to nurse your hangover on a train and watch gay porn without being bothered by bratty kids or attendants passing out warm wet washcloths and such.
me
“if you’ve ever RIDDEN”, not “rode”.
EdWoody
Queerty isn’t banned because it’s adult material. It’s banned because it’s brain-meltingly stupid.
Scott
Couple of points, as a fequent traveller between the important east coast cities, the Acela service is superior to any airline’s first class in those markets.
@No. 3 – you are so right.
gregger
I really love that Wifi is only available on Accela. I ride in the Northeast corridor on lines without Accela service. There is bupkes and the services suck for the dollars spent. I wish Metro-North ran to Albany.
TommyOC
A couple of notes:
I’m a West Coaster that routinely takes Amtrak for quick little getaways and last-minute affairs and I take offense to Queerty’s witty (ha!) writers calling the service “government-subsidized cattle cars.” While the former may be true, the latter most definitely is not.
Last I checked, the true cattle cars are the ones at 35,000 feet… unless you’ve got thousands to spend on your ticket. Which I don’t.
B
queerty: “So The New Gay is now accessible to train passengers traveling at 45mph, but true adult sites are not.”
Naturally, the picture shows a train capable of reaching 150 mph (which it actually does for a short stretch, but it mostly hobbles along on archaic tracks at closer to 100 mph.)
stan James
As long as they arent porn sites and str8 as well as gay sites are blocked thats ok
If they are blocked just to keep other passengers from maybe realizing that gay people are sitting next to them, and that these gay people are just ordinary decent people, that is illegal censorship.
And smacks to some extent of how gays are forced into a closet of shame and fear. Which helps perpetuate the hatred of gay people by some religious people and our to some extent poisoned society.
I don’t always agree with the ACLU, but its time for them to step up into this mess.
If people don’t want to see the guy next to them reading gay web sites, they should stop being so nosey.
which rings with the old statement – what do you call people who are so interested in who you bed with in private?
he answer a word that begins with P, ends with T, and has a V in the middle
PERVERTS
TNG Zack
Hey Queerty, thanks for getting the word out! But any chance of linking one of the mentions of The New Gay to the site itself in addition to Bilerico? Thanks!