Group Adds To "Hate Groups List"

MONTGOMERY, AL - The Southern Poverty Law Center has added Family Research Council to its Hate Groups List. and issued the following statement:

Even as some well-known anti-gay groups moderate their views, smaller groups, most of them religiously motivated, have continued to pump out demonizing propaganda aimed at LGBT people.

These groups' influence reaches far beyond what their size would suggest, because the "facts" they disseminate about gay and lesbian people are often amplified by certain politicians and even news organizations.

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) will be listing theFamily Research Council and 12 other anti-gay groups as hate groups next year.

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.

The Southern Poverty Law Center is a nonprofit civil rights organization dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry, and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of society. Founded by civil rights lawyers Morris Dees and Joseph Levin Jr. in 1971, the SPLC is internationally known for tracking and exposing the activities of hate groups. Our innovative Teaching Tolerance program produces and distributes – free of charge – documentary films, books, lesson plans and other materials that promote tolerance and respect in our nation’s schools. SPLC is Based in Montgomery, Ala., the birthplace of the modern civil rights movement, and have offices in Atlanta, New Orleans, Miami, Fla., and Jackson, Miss.