New Study: Astonishing 59% Increase In Number Of Anti-Gay Hate Groups
The number of anti-gay hate groups last year jumped an astonishing 59%, according to a new study just released by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). The SPLC points to the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, the “growing acceptance of same-sex marriage by Americans” and states like New York that legalized marriage equality as factors spurring the increase in anti-gay hate groups.
In the SPLC’s new report, “The ‘Patriot’ Movement Explodes,” part of the larger “The Year in Hate and Extremism 2011,” Mark Potok notes that overall, “[t]he number of hate groups counted by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) last year reached a total of 1,018, up slightly from the year before,” but the number of anti-gay groups jumped from 17 to 27, an overall number that includes SPLC dropping several organizations from their “active” listing. The list of newly-designated anti-gay hate groups has 11 organizations.
The LGBT community made significant advances in 2011, with the repeal of the “Don’t Act, Don’t Tell†policy on gay men and lesbians in the military, the growing acceptance of same-sex marriage by Americans and the legalization of such bonds in New York state. But it was precisely these advances that seemed to set off a furious rage on the religious right, with renewed efforts to ban or repeal marriage equality and what seemed to be an intensification of anti-gay propaganda in certain quarters. American Family Association official Bryan Fischer, for instance, said that “gays are Nazis,†claimed that HIV does not cause AIDS but gay men do, and, for good measure, criticized black welfare recipients who “rut like animals.†In another development, most of the religious right groups that started out opposing abortion but moved on to attacking LGBT people have recently begun to adopt anti-Muslim propaganda en masse. The gay-bashing Traditional Values Coalition, for instance, last year redesigned its website to emphasize a new section entitled “Islam vs. the Constitution,†published a report on Shariah law, and joined anti-Shariah conferences. Overall, the number of anti-gay hate groups in the United States rose markedly, going from 17 in 2010 to 27 last year.
Which groups did the SPLC award the “hate group” designation to? Here’s the complete list of active anti-gay hate groups. The ones in bold are newly-designated.
United Families International
Faithful Word Baptist Church
Traditional Values Coalition
Save California
Chalcedon Foundation
Family Research Institute
Family Research Council
Traditional Values Coalition
Sons of Thundr (Faith Baptist Church)
American Vision
Illinois Family Institute
H.O.M.E. Heterosexuals Organized for a Moral Environment
Americans for Truth About Homosexuality
Westboro Baptist Church
Abiding Truth Ministries
Mass Resistance
You Can Run But You Cannot Hide
Parents Action League
American Family Association
Jewish Political Action Committee
Mission: America
Windsor Hills Baptist Church
True Light Pentecost Church
Tom Brown Ministries
Bethesda Christian Institute
Public Advocate of the United States