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-LGBTQ 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.
The SPLC classifies organizations that propagate "known falsehoods—claims about LGBTQ people that have been thoroughly discredited by scientific authorities—and repeated, groundless name-calling" as anti-LGBTQ hate groups. The SPLC states that "viewing homosexuality as unbiblical does not qualify organizations to be listed as hate groups." 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."
Types of hate groups
The SPLC reported that 926 hate groups were active in the United States in 2008, up from 888 in 2007. These included: 186 separate Ku Klux Klan (KKK) groups (race hate) 196 neo-Nazi groups 111 white nationalist groups 98 white power skinhead groups 39 Christian Identity groups 93 neo-Confederate groups 113 black separatist groups 159 patriot movement groups 90 general hate groups subdivided into anti-LGBTQ, anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant, Holocaust denial, white power music, radical traditionalist Catholic groups, and other groups espousing a variety of hateful doctrines.
Tracking of hate groups: commendation and criticism The Southern Poverty Law Center has provided the FBI with information on hate groups. 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.Intelligence Report Get Informed web page Retrieved December 18, 2010, It has been cited by scholars as a reliable source on right-wing extremism and hate groups.Citations include:
The SPLC also publishes a newsletter, the HateWatch Weekly, and maintains a blog, HateWatch, which monitor the extreme right. 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."Rory McVeigh. Structured Ignorance and Organized Racism in the United States. Social Forces, Vol. 82, No. 3, (Mar. 2004), p. 913 JSTOR
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. 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.
History of the LGBTQ list In November 2010, thirteen groups were added: American Family Association, Family Research Council, Illinois Family Institute, Americans for Truth about Homosexuality, Heterosexuals Organized for a Moral Environment, Family Research Institute, Abiding Truth Ministries, American Vision, Chalcedon Foundation, Dove World Outreach Center, Faithful Word Baptist Church, Traditional Values Coalition, and MassResistance. With these new groups SPLC stated that homosexuals remain the minority most targeted by hate crimes.
In March 2012, the SPLC added eleven groups to the listing: United Families International, SaveCalifornia.com, Sons of Thundr (a.k.a. Faith Baptist Church), You Can Run But You Cannot Hide International, Parents Action League, Jewish Political Action Committee, Mission: America, Windsor Hills Baptist Church, True Light Pentecost Church, Tom Brown Ministries, and Public Advocate of the United States.
In early 2014, the SPLC added seven groups: World Congress of Families/Howard Center For Family, Religion and Society, based in Rockford, Illinois, the Catholic Family and Human Rights institute (C-FAM), the Ruth Institute, the Pray in Jesus Name Project, Pacific Justice Institute, Mission: America and the Liberty Counsel.
In 2024, the SPLC added two anti-transgender organizations to the list: Genspect and Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine (SEGM).
Notable groups listed 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 fundamentalists Save 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 use 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."
Abiding Truth Ministries Abiding Truth Ministries is a conservative Christian organization located in Temecula, California. Their president, Scott Lively, is an American author, attorney and activist, noted for his opposition to LGBT rights and his involvement in the ex-gay movement. Lively has called for the criminalization of "the public advocacy of homosexuality" as far back as 2007. He is also directly linked to pending anti-gay legislation in Uganda, which would, if passed, make homosexual conduct punishable by a lengthy prison sentence or death.
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."The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party: Preface to the Fourth Edition , retrieved April 17, 2010, 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. 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. 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."
The SPLC regards Abiding Truth Ministries as a hate group. Lively has responded with his blog.HatewatchWatch . Blogspot.
Alamo Christian Foundation 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.Extremist Files: Alliance Defending Freedom . Southern Poverty Law Center. 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."For the Intelligence Report articles, see: and Active Hate Groups 2016 , Intelligence Report (February 15, 2017). For the criticism see: ADF has responded to some media use of SPLC's "hate group" designation against them as defamatory and a discredit to the media profession.
American Family Association The American Family Association (AFA) is a United States non-profit organization that promotes conservative fundamentalist Christian values."Put On The Virtual Armor." AFA Journal. May 2001. Retrieved on September 15, 2007,."CyberPatrol Blocks Conservative Christian Site over Anti-Gay Content ." American Library Association. June 1998. Retrieved on September 15, 2007,.Still Cranky After All These Years ." Media Transparency. April 19, 2007. Retrieved on June 15, 2007"Conservative Christian group calls boycott of automaker, charging it has pro-homosexual agenda ." CNN. June 1, 2006. Retrieved on November 15, 2007. They oppose same-sex marriage, pornography, and abortion.Who is AFA? . American Family Association. Retrieved on June 17, 2007. It was founded in 1977 by Donald Wildmon as the National Federation for Decency and is headquartered in Tupelo, Mississippi.
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". It engages in activism efforts, including buycotts, action alert emails, publications on the AFA's web sites or in the AFA Journal, broadcasts on American Family Radio, and lobbying. The organization has an annual budget of US$14 million and owns 180 American Family Radio stations in 28 states.Peter H Stone, Bara Vaida, "Christian Soldiers" National Journal. Washington, December 4, 2004. Volume 36, Issue 49, pg. 3596
, 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. AFA countered with the claim that the SPLC is not a reliable source.
American Vision American Vision is a United States nonprofit organization founded in 1978 by Steve Schiffman. It operates as a Christian ministry, and calls for "equipping and empowering Christians to restore America's biblical foundation." Gary DeMar has been the organization's president since 1984. Their website promotes Christian Reconstructionism and Postmillennialism, and opposes dispensationalism.
The Southern Poverty Law Center labels American Vision an anti-gay hate group due to its support of the "death penalty for practicing homosexuals".
Americans for Truth About Homosexuality