This is a topic I have dealt with several times before and one I hope to continue to explore in more detail. It’s certainly more than I can explore in one or even five posts so I am going to dedicate several articles to the topic in the coming weeks. To begin, last month the Southern Poverty Law Center designated five Christian Right, anti-gay groups as official hate groups. The SPLC has had a long history of identifying hate groups in the United States. The list, especially the anti-gay part of it, is relatively short. They have very strict criteria and a high (or low) bar for inclusion. In addition to the five new inductees, the SPLC also listed several anti-gay groups to watch.
In listing these new hate groups, the SPLC made it clear that moral/religious/theological opposition to homosexuality alone is not enough to qualify as a hate group. Saying, for example, that homosexuality is sinful according to one’s religion does not qualify as hate. What does get a group listed as a hate group are things like relying on bogus “studies” and manufactured “research” to negatively depict a subset of the population. In their Intelligence Report, the SPLC describes its criteria as:
“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.”
In that report, 18 Anti-Gay Groups and Their Propaganda, they cover why each group fits all or part of those criteria. The report also links to 10 Myths about Homosexuality that are promulgated and repeated, groundlessly, over and over again on Christian Right websites. Again, only five groups have the designation of being anti-gay hate groups. The two groups that have garnered the most attention are the Family Research Counsel (FRC) and a “group” I have spent a lot of time covering called Americans For Truth About Homosexuality (AFTAH). Note: I put group in quotes because it’s more or less one guy, Peter LaBarbera, with a nasty website.
Immediately after being declared a hate group for perpetuating the myth that gay men are pedophiles, AFTAH threw up a post suggesting that gay men are pedophiles. Of course, that myth has already been discredited about a million times. The FRC is notable because they are a large, powerful group that holds an annual “Values Voters” summit in DC with a long list of GOP luminaries. Equally of note is the fact that Focus on the Family is not on the list because they have moderated their anti-gay rhetoric and essentially pushed James Dobson out the door last year.
Predictably, these groups have played the victim. Almost uniformly Christian Right groups on and off the list have claimed that the SPLC is really a hate group and that they are being targeted because they oppose the so-called “homosexual agenda.” None of these groups, however, address the real reasons they were put on the list, including using the research of discredited “psychologist” Paul Cameron (hilariously featured in Borat) or inaccurately linking homosexuality to childhood abuse. The use of these stereotypes and fake “research” is well documented and all over their websites so it’s not like they can claim they don’t spread falsehoods. So, all they can really do is claim that they are somehow the victims of persecution at the hands of the SPLC.
The FRC launched a site “Stop Hating/Start Debating” with a long list of big wigs within the Christian Right movement as well as some notable politicians signing on. Their claim, of course, is that they are just arguing their moral viewpoint and that there deserves to be a dialogue. Of course, the Stop Hating site includes no place for comments or feedback. In fact, most anti-gay sites, including AFTAH, offer no place for comments while gay rights organizations always have space for comments.
In the Family Research Council Statement on Attack by Southern Poverty Law Center they claims,
“This is a deliberately timed smear campaign by the SPLC. The Left is losing the debate over ideas and the direction of public policy so all that is left for them is character assassination. It's a sad day in America when we can not, with integrity, have a legitimate discussion over policy issues that are being considered by Congress, legislatures, and the courts without resorting to juvenile tactics of name calling. The Left's smear campaigns of conservatives is also being driven by the clear evidence that the American public is losing patience with their radical policy agenda.”
Never mind for the moment that all signs point to greater acceptance of gay people across the board in the United States, note how the FRC says they are being smeared and attacked by leftists. They do not answer the charges or construct a counter argument to the SLPC’s claims. Other Christian Right groups have followed suit.
Concerned Women for America (CWFA) in their response claimed,
“A recent report by the Southern Poverty Law Center demonizes mainstream pro-family groups as "hate groups," simply because of their stand against the pro-LGBT agenda and same-sex "marriage”."
[Note how marriage is always put in quotes.] They give a deliberate mischaracterization of the SLPC report that specifically says those are not the reasons given for being added to the list. Again, there is no defense of using faulty research or perpetuating stereotypes. Instead, they assume a posture of victimhood and lie about the criteria used by the SLPC.
AFTAH’s response was particularly… odd.
“Below is a useful article by Laurie Higgins of the Illinois Family Institute — on the leftist Southern Poverty Law Center’s (SPLC) preposterous smear-job against mainstream pro-family groups (including AFTAH, IFI, Family Research Council, and AFA) as “hate groups” because we oppose homosexuality and LGBT (“gay”) activism.”
It’s hard to reproduce his quotes because they are so convoluted. The games AFTAH plays with language are astounding. To Peter LaBarbera no one is gay. Gay people are not fighting for legitimate rights. Unions between gay people are not marriages. What AFTAH does is not hate. Etc. Etc. So “gay” “rights” same-sex “marriage” and anti-gay “hate” are all put in quotes, making LaBarbera sometimes very difficult to read. The article he references is worth reading if for no other reason than providing a case study in Christian Right self-delusion. They claim they are the ones under attack. (Note: no one has ever suggested any Christian, no matter how conservative, be fired from their jobs, denied medical care, denied a civil marriage, kicked out of the military, on and on. That doesn’t stop these groups from claiming that gay groups are actually the ones victimizing them.)
These groups, like AFTAH, the FRC, American Family Association, and the Illinois Family Institute, have advocated that gay people be deported from the United States, quarantined, jailed, fired – especially gay teachers, and purged from political office. That’s not some liberal smear. That’s not a hyperbolic interpretation of their reasonable, more civil arguments. That’s documented, over and over again, as their official positions.
And yes, that is hate. That’s what hate is. Depicting an entire group as somehow “less than,” going to extreme measures to produce phony “research” to perpetuate stereotypes, and calling for draconian legal persecution in basic areas of life including the ability to have a home, earn a living, receive medical care, get married, adopt kids, and serve in the military… all of these things are hate. And if you do them as an official group you are a hate group. Pointing these things out – as the SPLC and other groups have done in great detail – is NOT some parallel expression of hate. The FRC is right, there should be a dialogue about policy matters and no one is saying these groups should not advocate for laws or candidates they support. The hope, however, is that these groups will participate in politics without using known falsehoods. I have doubts that they’ll actually be able to.
The case of Perry v. Schwarzenegger provides another angle on how hate groups operate. Perry is the Prop 8 case out of California currently in federal appeals court in the 9th Circuit. The original district court decision noted the anemic defense of Prop 8 by anti-gay “pro-marriage” groups. At one point, the judge in that case actually expressed his concern while the case was being argued asking why the anti-gay side didn’t have more witnesses.
Maggie Gallagher and Brian Brown of the National Organization for Marriage, a leading group in the campaign for Prop 8 and producer of the now infamous “coming storm” ad, refused to get on the stand and testify. Why? Because when you are in a courtroom being cross-examined under oath you can’t just make stuff up or you’ll face perjury charges. The other side’s attorneys will reveal you. It’s one thing to go on Hardball and lie or produce political campaign ads that contain nebulous, nefarious claims of a “coming storm.” But these same groups will NOT testify ever in a court of law. They refuse to because they know they can neither specify harm nor validate their claims.
Several times, while following the various struggles for gay rights, I have muttered to myself, “When will we fight back?” It’s a reflexive mental exasperation after viewing some of the things these groups do. And, I’ve pondered what I really mean by that sentiment. Certainly there have been groups and civil rights activists for a long time fighting hard for equality. But it’s not enough to just say gay people deserve equal treatment under the law. It’s not enough to stress the separation of church and state or, more accurately, the freedom of conscience. We as a movement and a people need to start pointing out the lies used against us including the fake research. When a news shows cites this false research or treats the FRC as a legitimate group making legitimate points, we need to call them out on it. The SLPC’s careful documentation of what counts as anti-gay hate is a huge step in the direction of really fighting back.
I was pleased when I finally saw evidence of this on Hardball with Chris Matthews. Matthews had on Mark Potok from the SPLC and Tony Perkins from the FRC to debate the new anti-gay hate groups list. Not surprisingly, Perkins loosely cited research from the American College of Pediatricians as if it was real research and Matthews did nothing to call him out on it. The American College of Pediatricians is a sham organization that produces fake “research” to support Christian Right claims. Their name and website are deliberately designed to mimic the legitimate American Academy of Pediatrics. It’s astounding the lengths the College goes to to look like the real organization. I pointed out this distinction in my paper Dominionism and Epistemology years ago. One of the founders of the “College”, the notoriously anti-gay George Rekers, was involved in a scandal last year when it was discovered that he went on vacation with a young male prostitute from rentboy.com.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has thousands of professional pediatricians and child psychologists as members and represents the breadth and consensus of those fields. The American College of Pediatricians is a sham group started by hard right activists specifically to pretend to be medical professionals while churning out bogus, biased “research” to support Christian Right claims.
After a few days, and a lot of emails from pro-gay viewers, Matthews provided a follow-up statement on Hardball essentially apologizing for allowing Perkins to use a fake group and fake research – the very act that got FRC on the hate groups lists. In that moment, I felt like that was substantive push back. Headlines covering the correction said things like, “Chris Matthews BUSTS Tony Perkins' Lies About Fake Pediatricians Group” and “MSNBC’s Chris Matthews Clears Up Anti-Gay Misinformation”
If more journalists and politicians call groups like the FRC out for their crap or refuse to have groups on air that use such dishonest tactics, it will largely exclude the Christian Right from the debate. Chris Matthews could very easily tell the FRC that he will not allow anyone to come on his show if they do something dishonest like referencing a fake group to back up their claims.
That is why these CR groups claim victimhood, as if someone is trying to silence them. But, it’s not silencing if the standard is honesty. What the FRC groups and others fear is a changing political and cultural landscape as well as the basic expectation that they tell the truth or rely on sound research from real academics published in peer-reviewed journals. The problem is, there is no sound research showing gays harm kids, spread disease, are mentally ill, poison blood supplies, etc. So, if forced to be honest in their discourse their arguments are reduced to sectarian animus.
