LGBTQ Nation

One of the nation’s biggest banks went into damage control overdrive today after it reportedly froze the bank account of the startup gay social networking site, Fabulis.com, for what it described as “objectionable content” on the company’s blog.

According to Fabulis founder Jason Goldberg, he was told by three different Citibank employees that his site was “not in compliance with Citibank’s standard policies.”

We reported the story earlier today, as did hundreds of news organizations, gay-oriented sites and bloggers, and banking industry sites, setting off widespread speculation that the bank’s action was a homophobic response to a gay-themed website.

Upon reflection, Goldberg could not understand what the bank deemed “objectionable?” But more important he questioned, “when did Citibank start reviewing blogs to decide who could bank with them?”

News comes late today that Citibank has relented, reports Goldberg, who received this email from William E. Brown of Citibank: (more…)

According to a post Wednesday by Fabulis, a new social networking site aimed at gay men, Citibank has suspended their account due to “objectionable content” on their blog.

Fabulis founder Jason Goldberg said he learned that the company’s account had been blocked only a few days after the fact, having received no notification from the bank.

In a bit of strange and disturbing news, fabulis discovered today that someone(s) at Citibank had decided arbitrarily to block fabulis’ bank account due to what was described to us on the phone as “objectionable content” on our blog. In fact, the account — it turns out — was blocked a few days ago without anyone letting us know about it by phone or email.

Huh?

Mind you, fabulis is a serious business, backed by some serious players, and for the life of us we can’t find anything “objectionable” on our blog besides some good humor, some business insights, and some touching coming out stories from some great and fabulis gay people.

So, what gives?

And wtf. When did Citibank start reviewing blogs to decide who can bank with them?

Since the story of the incident broke yesterday, Citibank has lifted the hold on the account, while a compliance officer reviews the company.