List of organizations designated by the Southern Poverty Law Center as anti-LGBT hate groups
The following is a list of notable U.S.-based organizations classified by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), an American civil rights organization, as anti-LGBT hate groups. The SPLC defines hate groups as those that "... have beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics." The SPLC states that hate group activities may include speeches, marches, rallies, meetings, publishing, leafleting, and criminal acts such as violence.[1]
The SPLC classifies organizations that propagate "known falsehoods – claims about LGBT people that have been thoroughly discredited by scientific authorities – and repeated, groundless name-calling" as anti-LGBT hate groups. The SPLC states that "viewing homosexuality as unbiblical does not qualify organizations to be listed as hate groups."[2] SPLC President J. Richard Cohen clarified "[B]y 'known falsehoods,' we mean such things as asserting that gays and lesbians are more disposed to molesting children than heterosexuals – which the overwhelming weight of credible scientific research has determined is patently untrue. Nowhere in our report do we equate taking a position against same-sex marriage with hate speech."[3]
Tracking of hate groups: commendation and criticism
The Southern Poverty Law Center has provided the FBI with information on hate groups.[5] Since 1981, the SPLC has published a quarterly Intelligence Report that provides updates on its monitoring of what it describes as radical right hate groups and extremists in the United States, providing information on the organizational efforts and tactics of these groups.[6] It has been cited by scholars as a reliable source on right-wing extremism and hate groups.[7] The SPLC also publishes a newsletter, the HateWatch Weekly, and maintains a blog, HateWatch, which monitor the extreme right.[8] Rory McVeigh, Chair of the University of Notre Dame Sociology Department, described the SPLC as "an excellent source of information for social scientists who study hate groups."[9]
The SPLC's data on hate groups was questioned by journalist Ken Silverstein who argues that the organization sometimes exaggerates the threats posed by certain groups.[10] In the wake of an August 2012 shooting at the headquarters of the Family Research Council, Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank criticized the SPLC's listing of the Family Research Council as an anti-gay hate group while others, including Americablog's former editor John Aravosis, defended the categorization.[11][12]
Anti-LGBT, against lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) people, or anti-gay can refer to activities in certain categories (or combination of categories): attitudes against or discrimination against LGBTQ people, violence against LGBT people, LGBTQ rights opposition and religious opposition to LGBTQ people. In its Winter 2010 Intelligence Report the SPLC noted that for thirty years going back to Anita Bryant's Christian fundamentalistsSave Our Children campaign, the first organized opposition to the gay rights movement defeating an ordinance banning discrimination in areas of housing, employment, and public accommodation based on sexual orientation, "hard-line elements of the religious right have been searching for ways to demonize gay people – or, at a minimum, to find arguments that will prevent their normalization in society." These groups utilize anti-gay myths to "form the basis of its claim that homosexuality is a social evil that must be suppressed – an opinion rejected by virtually all relevant medical and scientific authorities." The SPLC notes these anti-gay myths "almost certainly contribute to hate crime violence directed at the LGBT community, which is more targeted for such attacks than any other minority group in America."[17]
Along with Kevin E. Abrams, he co-authored the book The Pink Swastika, which states in the preface that "homosexuals [are] the true inventors of Nazism and the guiding force behind many Nazi atrocities."[22] In fact, under Nazi Germany, gays and lesbians were sent to concentration camps and several historians have questioned the book's claims and selective use of research.[23][24][25][26][27] Lively is the former state director for the California branch of the American Family Association and formed Watchmen on the Walls based in Riga, Latvia.[28] According to a January 2011 profile, Lively "has not changed his view that gays are 'agents of America's moral decline' but has refocused his approach to fit his flock in Springfield, Massachusetts" and "is toning down his antigay rhetoric and shifting his focus to helping the downtrodden."[29]
The SPLC regards Abiding Truth Ministries as a hate group.[30] Lively has responded with his blog.[31]
The Alamo Christian Foundation was a cult founded by Tony Alamo and one of his wives, Susan Alamo in 1969 in Hollywood, California and later relocated to Dyer, Arkansas. The cult was plagued with legal troubles stemming from allegations of member abuse and tax troubles with the IRS. The cult dissolved when Tony Alamo was arrested and convicted on ten counts of child sexual abuse in 2009.
Alliance Defending Freedom
In 2013, the SPLC described the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) as a "virulently anti-gay" organization. According to the SPLC, the ADF advocates in favor of the criminalization of homosexuality, opposes equal rights for LGBT people, including marriage equality, and makes false claims about the lives of LGBT people. In 2003, the ADF filed an unsuccessful amicus brief in Lawrence v. Texas asking the Supreme Court to uphold Texas' criminal prohibition of sodomy. It has also published documents intended for school distribution stating that "there are moral, social, and medical reasons why homosexual behavior should not be affirmed," and citing medical studies and crime statistics indicating that homosexuals frequently engage in promiscuous behavior, and have a high rate of violent crime and mental illness.[32] Conservative columnist and professor Mike Adams criticized the SPLC for the designation because "Their reason for the characterization was simply that the ADF opposes efforts of the LGBT community to impose its agenda on those who disagree with them for religious reasons."[33] ADF has responded to some media use of SPLC's "hate group" designation against them as defamatory and a discredit to the media profession.[34]
The AFA defined itself as "a Christian organization promoting the Biblical ethic of decency in American society with primary emphasis on television and other media," later switching their stated emphasis to "moral issues that impact the family".[43][44][45] It engages in activism efforts, including boycotts, buycotts, action alert emails, publications on the AFA's web sites or in the AFA Journal, broadcasts on American Family Radio, and lobbying.[46] The organization has an annual budget of US$14 million and owns 180 American Family Radio stations in 28 states.[47]
As of November 2010[update], AFA has been listed as a hate group by the SPLC for the "propagation of known falsehoods" and the use of "demonizing propaganda" against LGBT people.[48] AFA countered with the claim that the SPLC is not a reliable source.[49]
The Southern Poverty Law Center labels American Vision an anti-gay hate group due to its support of the "death penalty for practicing homosexuals".[50][51][52]
Americans for Truth About Homosexuality
Americans for Truth about Homosexuality (AFTAH) is an organization founded by Peter LaBarbera, which describes itself as "dedicated to exposing the homosexual activist agenda".[53] In 2010, AFTAH was designated an anti-gay hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), which said "AFTAH is notable for its posting of the utterly discredited work of Paul Cameron (of the Family Research Institute), who has claimed that gays and lesbians live vastly shorter lives than heterosexuals".[48][54]
The SPLC has characterized the institute as being "heavily focused on global anti-LGBT work", citing its opposition to United Nations efforts to protect LGBT rights and to study and prevent anti-LGBT violence, and praise of American anti-gay activist Scott Lively.[57]
The Chalcedon Foundation has been listed by the SPLC in 2012.[30] The SPLC notes that The Institutes of Biblical Law, written by Rushdoony in 1973, called for strict biblical law that would "mean the death penalty for 'practicing homosexuals,' among many other 'abominators.'"[59]
Church Militant
Church Militant, also known as Saint Michael's Media, was founded by ex-gay traditionalist Catholic Michael Voris, is an "Ultra-orthodox Catholic propaganda outlet" which pushes an "anti-LGBT agenda"[60] according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.[61]
Church Militant has also advocated for so-called reparative therapy, better known as gay conversion therapy, which seeks to "cure" homosexuals of their gayness. After the Southern Poverty Law Center sued a New Jersey-based conversion therapy organization and won, the court ruling that Jews Offering New Alternatives to Healing (JONAH) must cease its operations, Church Militant decried the ruling, calling the plaintiffs guilty of dishonesty.
The group has been repudiated by the Catholic Church and has no official affiliation with them and is not an approved Catholic ministry or apostolate.[63]
In 2012, after President Obama's endorsement of gay marriage, the church hanged an Obama effigy with a rainbow flag on its lawn.[64] In January 2013 effigies of President Obama and President Clinton were burned to protest their abortion and pro-LGBT policies.[65][66] The Gainesville Sun reported that Terry Jones was fined by the city for the unauthorized fire.[67]
The SPLC has listed the church as an anti-gay hate group,[52][70][71][72] noting that Pastor Anderson described gays as "sodomites" who "recruit through rape", and "recruit through molestation".[52] In explaining the hate group designation, the SPLC said that Anderson suggests that homosexuals should be killed, and in a sermon he stated, "The biggest hypocrite in the world is the person who believes in the death penalty for murderers but not for homosexuals."[52][73] A few days after the listing, Pastor Anderson stated "I do hate homosexuals, and if hating homosexuals makes our church a hate group, then that's what we are."[70]
Family Research Council
The Family Research Council (FRC) is an American conservative Christian group and lobbying organization formed in the United States in 1981 by James Dobson. It was incorporated in 1983.[74] In the late 1980s, the FRC officially became a division of Dobson's main organization, Focus on the Family, but after an administrative separation, the FRC became an independent entity in 1992. Tony Perkins is the current president.
In May 2010, Sprigg publicly suggested that repealing Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy would encourage molestation of heterosexual service members.[76] In November FRC President Perkins was asked about Sprigg's comments regarding the criminalization of same-sex behavior: he responded that criminalizing homosexuality is not a goal of the Family Research Council.[77][78] Perkins repeated the FRC's association of gay men with pedophilia, saying that "If you look at the American College of Pediatricians, they say the research is overwhelming that homosexuality poses a danger to children."[77][78] The American College of Pediatricians is an advocacy group, not a medical association.
Southern Poverty Law Center first designated the FRC as a hate group in 2010.[79] Thereafter the FRC disputed the designation, with President Tony Perkins posting a comment on FRC's website.[80]
Family Research Institute
The Family Research Institute (FRI), originally known as the Institute for the Scientific Investigation of Sexuality (ISIS), is an American non-profit organization based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, which states that it has "...one overriding mission: to generate empirical research on issues that threaten the traditional family, particularly homosexuality, AIDS, sexual social policy, and drug abuse".[81] The FRI is part of a movement of small, often faith-based organizations (sometimes called the Christian right) which seek to influence the political debate in the United States. They seek "...to restore a world where marriage is upheld and honored, where children are nurtured and protected, and where homosexuality is not taught and accepted, but instead is discouraged and rejected at every level."[81] The Boston Globe reported that the FRI's 2005 budget was less than $200,000.[82]
The FRI is run by Paul Cameron, who earned a doctorate in psychology at the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1966. Cameron founded the Institute for the Scientific Investigation of Sexuality in 1982, and this institute later became the FRI.[82]
The Family Research Institute is designated a hate group by the SPLC for propagating falsehoods about LGBT people.[83][84] Paul Cameron's studies about homosexuals have been "utterly discredited".[48][52][85] Cameron has been removed from professional and scholarly organizations and his studies have been met with formal resolutions passed against him.[52] LaBarbera has endorsed Cameron's research and has said that ways should be found "to bring back shame" for homosexual behavior.[52]
Heterosexuals Organized for a Moral Environment
Heterosexuals Organized for a Moral Environment (HOME or H.O.M.E.) is an anti-homosexuality organization founded by Wayne Lela and based in Downers Grove, Illinois, United States. The organization's aim is "to use science, logic, and natural law to expose all the flaws in the arguments homosexuals (and bisexuals) use to try to justify homosexual activity."[86] On November 22, 2010,[87] the SPLC designated the organization an anti-gay hate group[88][89] "based on their propagation of known falsehoods".[48][90] According to the SPLC, Heterosexuals Organized for a Moral Environment "is entirely focused on the alleged evils of homosexuality [and] attacks gay people on a wide variety of levels."[48]
The Illinois Family Institute was designated an anti-gay hate group in 2009 by the SPLC, on the grounds that it is "heavily focused on attacking gay people and homosexuality in general."[52]
In its Intelligence Report, the SPLC states the designation was based on the association with Paul Cameron, a researcher whose studies about the lives of homosexuals have been "utterly discredited", and on the association with LaBarbera who repeats the disproved link between gay men and pedophilia.[48][52][85] Cameron has been removed from professional and scholarly organizations and his studies have been met with formal resolutions passed against him.[52] LaBarbera has endorsed Cameron's research and has said that ways should be found "to bring back shame" for homosexual behavior.[52] As well, Higgins' words were linked to the hate group designation, including her comparison of homosexuality to Nazism.[52]
Liberty Counsel is a Christian conservative legal advocacy group. Liberty Counsel filed a federal lawsuit against charity rating company GuideStar for marking Liberty Counsel's profile page with the words "This organization was flagged as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center". The court dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that GuideStar's adding of the labels was not commercial speech prohibited by the Lanham Act.[95][96]
Since March 2008, the SPLC has listed MassResistance as an anti-gay "Active U.S. Hate Group" based on "their propagation of known falsehoods – claims about LGBT people that have been thoroughly discredited by scientific authorities."[97][98][104][52][105]
Mission: America
Mission: America is an organization started in 1995 by Linda Harvey which the group's mission states is "cover[ing] the latest cultural and social trends in our country and what they might mean for Christians."[106] A particular focus of the organization's articles is on the issue of homosexuality.[107] The SPLC designated Mission: America as a hate group in March 2012 based on its particular anti-LGBT rights stances.[48][108]
Pacific Justice Institute is a conservative legal advocacy organization based in Sacramento, California, active in anti-LGBT and anti-vaccination issues. PJI was declared an anti-LGBT hate group in 2014 by the Southern Poverty Law Center due to the group's long history of anti-LGBT rhetoric through its founder.[109]
As of 2012[update], the Public Advocate of the United States has been designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center for its anti-gay activism.[108][113]
SaveCalifornia.com
SaveCalifornia.com is a United States nonprofit organization founded by Randy Thomasson in 1999, with a stated goal of "defending and representing the values of parents, grandparents and concerned citizens who want what's best for this generation and future generations."[114] Thomasson has been involved in influencing social policies in government since 1994, through various media outlets.[115]
SaveCalifornia.com opposed California's FAIR Education Act. In 2011, Thomasson described the bill as "Sexual brainwashing" and called for "parents to remove their children from the government school system, and get them into the safe havens of church schooling and home schooling."[116] In March 2012, the SPLC added SaveCalifornia.com to its list of anti-gay hate groups.[117][48]
Stedfast Baptist Church
The Stedfast Baptist Church is an American church based in Fort Worth, Texas, with a satellite church in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The church promotes extremist positions on issues surrounding feminism, homosexuality, same-sex marriage, and alcohol and drug use. The SPLC has designated the church an anti-LGBT hate group.[118] Its founder and pastor, Donnie Romero, garnered national attention in 2016 for celebrating the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, a location popular with LGBT people, stating that God should finish the job, and referring to the murdered patrons as "sodomites", "perverts" and "pedophiles".[119]
In January 2019, pastor Romero resigned from his position after an internal investigation revealed that he had broken church doctrine by hiring prostitutes, cheating on his wife, engaging in gambling, and consuming alcohol and drugs.[120][121] He was replaced by pastor Jonathan Shelley.
In June 2022, pastor Dillon Awes conducted a hate sermon where he openly stated all gay people should be executed immediately by a gun shot to the back of the head.[122]
Traditional Values Coalition
The Traditional Values Coalition (TVC) is an American conservative Christian organization that represents, by its estimate, over 43,000 Christian churches throughout the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., its belief is in Bible-based traditional values as "[a] moral code and behavior based upon the Old and New Testaments." The group considers traditional values to include a belief "that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that the Lord has given us a rule book to live by: The Bible" and a commitment to "living, as far as it is possible, by the moral precepts taught by Jesus Christ and by the whole counsel of God as revealed in the Bible." The organization was founded by the Reverend Louis P. Sheldon who is the current chairman. His daughter Andrea Sheldon Lafferty is the executive director.[123]
The Traditional Values Coalition has been labeled an anti-gay hate group for spreading "known falsehoods – claims about LGBT people that have been thoroughly discredited by scientific authorities – and repeated, groundless name-calling".[30] The Family Research Council organized a petition against the designation.[124]
United Families International
United Families International (UFI) is a United States nonprofit organization founded in 1978 by Susan Roylance[125][126] UFI works on an international scale to influence public policy toward "maintaining and strengthening the family". The organization is not affiliated with any religious organizations, governments or political parties. UFI has NGO status with ECOSOC and works to educate United Nations (UN) ambassadors and delegates on family related issues.[127] UFI also operates a website, DefendMarriage.org.[clarification needed][128]
UFI under Roylance was actively involved in promoting "traditional family values" at the Beijing Conference in the mid-1990s. Roylance characterized the conference as a "wakeup call for those who believe the traditional family unit to be an important basic unit of society".[129]
The SPLC designated United Families International as an anti-gay hate group in March 2012.[why?][130][131][132]
In their Guide to Family Issues, UFI, considered by some to be part of the Christian right and a Mormon organization,[129][133] makes a number of claims about homosexuality, including:[134]
"Discrimination on the basis of gender or race is vastly different from discrimination on the basis of sexual practice."
"Pedophilia is widespread among the homosexual community."
"Reputable studies and decades of successful treatment show that homosexual behavior can be changed."
"It is not marriage, but women in marriage, that help to contain and channel the male sexual appetite."
"In fact it is more compassionate to discourage homosexuality than to tolerate it."
Westboro Baptist Church
The Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) is an American church based in Topeka, Kansas, founded by Fred Phelps. The Westboro Baptist Church is known for its extreme ideologies, especially for those which are against homosexuality.[135][136] The church is widely described as a hate group[137] and it is monitored as such by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the Southern Poverty Law Center. It primarily consists of members of the large family of its founder, the late Fred Phelps;[138] in 2011, the church stated that it had about 40 members.[139] The church is headquartered in a residential neighborhood on the west side of Topeka about three miles west of the Kansas State Capitol. Its first public service was held on the afternoon of Sunday, November 27, 1955.[140]
The church has been actively involved in the anti-gay movement since at least 1991 when it sought a crackdown on homosexual activity in Gage Park six blocks northwest of the church.[141] In addition to anti-gay protests at military funerals, the organization pickets other celebrity funerals and public events that are likely to give it media attention.[142]
The church runs numerous Web sites including GodHatesFags.com and GodHatesAmerica.com, which all condemn homosexuality. The group bases its work around its belief which is expressed in its best known slogan and the address of its primary Web site, God Hates Fags, which asserts that every tragedy in the world is linked to homosexuality – specifically society's increasing tolerance and acceptance of the so-called homosexual agenda. The group believes that God hates gays above all other kinds of "sinners"[145] and it also believes that homosexuality should be a capital crime.[146] Its views on homosexuality are partially based on teachings which are found in the Old Testament, specifically in Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13, which they interpret to mean that homosexual behavior is detestable.
You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International (YCRBYCHI) is a United States-based organization which identifies itself as a Christian youth ministry that holds assemblies, including music concerts and discussions with students, in public schools. Founded by Bradlee Dean, the organization is based in Annandale, Minnesota. YCRBYCHI's mission statement is: "To reshape America by re-directing the current and future generations both morally and spiritually through education, media, and the Judeo-Christian values found in our U.S. Constitution."[163]
The organization has garnered letters of support from school personnel, as well as some religious and political figures. It has also drawn controversy for using assemblies for religious purposes, misleading school administrators about the nature of the program, and proselytizing its views on abortion and homosexuality.[164][165][166]
The SPLC designated the organization as an anti-gay hate group in March 2012.[167] In addition to "rhetoric about executing gays and lesbians", You Can Run But You Cannot Hide's president and CEO, Bradlee Dean, has stated that homosexuals "on average, they molest 117 people before they're found out. How many kids have been destroyed, how many adults have been destroyed because of crimes against nature?"[168] In response to media coverage, Dean has written an editorial alleging that his statements were taken out of context, and produced a video[169] which sought to rebut the media's reporting on his statements. The SPLC linked Dean, among other anti-gay hate group leaders, to nativist movements that made an increase in numbers on their hate groups list.[170]
^"Hate Map". Archived from the original on March 5, 2011. Retrieved September 3, 2014.
^ abLouwagie, Pam (August 12, 2012). "Trying to track hate, in Minnesota and around the country". Star Tribune. Minneapolis, MN. Retrieved September 8, 2012. In the case of groups the center considers anti-gay ... the center says listings are based on '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.'
^Cohen, Richard (December 23, 2010). "SPLC's Anti-Gay Hate List Compiled With Diligence and Clear Standards". SPLC Newsletter. Archived from the original on September 1, 2017. Retrieved September 1, 2017. We do, however, feel it is important to point out when claims being made are demonstrably false, and when disparaging, emotion-provoking stereotypes are used in place of facts and logic. When we designate an organization as a hate group, it isn't to suppress debate; it is to sound a warning alarm: 'This debater isn't being honest about the facts – and we can prove it.'
^Erik N. Jensen (January–April 2002). "The Pink Triangle and Political Consciousness: Gays, Lesbians, and the Memory of Nazi Persecution". Journal of the History of Sexuality. 11 (1/2): 319–349, pp. 322–323 and n. 19. doi:10.1353/sex.2002.0008. S2CID142580540.
^Dorthe Seifert (Fall 2003). "Between Silence and License: The Representation of the National Socialist Persecution of Homosexuality in Anglo-American Fiction and Film". History and Memory. 15 (2): 94–129, p. 94. doi:10.2979/HIS.2003.15.2.94.
^James, Susan Donaldson (September 7, 2009). "Protesters Rally Against Pastor's 'Why I Hate Obama' Sermon". ABC News. Retrieved August 25, 2012. a Faithful Word congregation member who showed up outside of the Phoenix Convention Center toting an assault rifle in August, when Obama spoke there.
^Sturges, Jenette (March 28, 2010). "Web site called hateful by civil rights group". The Sun. Naoerville, IL.
^Konecky, Gary (December 14, 2010). "2010: A year of religious hate". Newark Examiner. Newark, NJ.
^Wertheimer, Aaron (December 24, 2010). "Crimes target gays". Chicago Jewish Star. Intelligence Report compiled data in the same issue on 18 anti-gay groups, two of which are located in Illinois: Heterosexuals Organized for a Moral Environment (HOME, in Downers Grove) and Illinois Family Institute (IFI, in Carol Stream). Both groups are classified by the SPLC as hate groups, "based on their propagation of known falsehoods."
^Illinois Family Institute. "About". Retrieved July 8, 2012.
^Illinois Family Action (February 6, 2010). "About". Retrieved July 8, 2012.
^ abTétreault, Mary Ann; Denemark, Robert A. (2004). Gods, Guns, and Globalization: Religious Radicalism and International Political Economy. Lynne Rienner Pub. p. 63. ISBN978-1-58826-253-0.
^"Hate Map". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved October 3, 2012.
^Doris Buss; Didi Herman (2003). Globalizing Family Values: The Christian Right in International Politics. University of Minnesota Press. ISBN978-1-4529-0644-7. As quoted in "About World Congress of Families 9". World Congress of Families. Archived from the original on November 10, 2016. Retrieved September 1, 2014. Feminist law professors Doris Buss and Didi Herman wrote, "In terms of international activism, it is through deployment of 'natural family' discourse that the [Christian Right] has had the most success in forging global alliances with other religious movements."
^*"American Conservatives Organize Social-Issues Conference in Poland". Fox News/Associated Press. May 10, 2007. Archived from the original on September 3, 2014. Retrieved August 31, 2014. The chief organizer is a Rockford, Illinois-based conservative think tank, the Howard Center. Co-sponsors include more than 20 other U.S. groups allied in opposition to abortion, gay marriage and other policies they blame for weakening traditional families in Western Europe. See also DAVID CRARY (March 25, 2014). "US Conservatives Suspend Plans for Moscow Meeting". Associated Press. A U.S.-based conservative group that supports Russia's efforts to curtail gay rights and abortion is suspending its plans for an international conference in Moscow