Southern Poverty Law Center Adds Anti-Gay Organizations with GOP Ties to Hate Groups List
Apologists Demand Govt Stop Funding SPLC – But Quick Check Confirms SPLC Accepts No Govt Funding
You may have missed it in the pre-holiday buzz last week but the Southern Poverty Law Center has added some of the Republican Party’s most prominent interest groups — all of which promote anti-gay agendas — to its official list of hate groups operating in the United States:
Generally, the SPLC’s listings of these groups is based on their propagation of known falsehoods — claims about LGBT people that have been thoroughly discredited by scientific authorities — and repeated, groundless name-calling. Viewing homosexuality as unbiblical does not qualify organizations for listing as hate groups.
One thing that ties together the newly named hate groups is their connection to the evangelical base of the Republican Party. While it’s true that long-standing groups on the hate list — organizations that promote racial and ethnic hatred like the KKK and Aryan Nation, for example — are part and parcel of the conservative movement, the GOP has largely shunned interaction with these groups, at least publicly.
But many of the newly named hate groups are openly affiliated with the GOP. Unlike, say, the KKK, representatives of these hate groups openly lobby Republican members of Congress. They produce voter guides on which all the candidates listed are Republicans. Through their political action committees, some of them endorse and contribute to GOP candidates. One of them, the Family Research Council, even hosts a candidates forum that exclusively includes Republicans.
Five of the newly named hate groups that have particularly strong ties to the Republican Party include:
