The Number of U.S. Hate Groups Is Rising

In yet another example of the poison flowing from the far right and "godly Christians" a new report by the Southern Poverty Law Center ("SPLC") finds that the number of hate groups in America is rising (in some ways one might soon include today's GOP in the hate group category given the party's agenda of denigrating minorities and disseminating known untruths about targeted groups). The SPLC finds that most of these hate groups have a racial, religious, sexual basis for their targeting, and the number of anti-gay hate groups has gone from 17 in 2010 to 27 in 2011. It's a sad testimony on American society when hating and marginalizing others is a prerequisite to feeling good about one's self. Here are highlights from the New York Times on this disturbing report which can be found here):

Fed by antagonism toward President Obama, resentment toward changing racial demographics and the economic rift between rich and poor, the number of so-called hate groups and antigovernment organizations in the nation has continued to grow, according to a report released Wednesday by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The center, which has kept track of such groups for 30 years, recorded 1,018 hate groups operating last year.

The number of groups whose ideology is organized against specific racial, religious, sexual or other characteristics has risen steadily since 2000, when 602 were identified, the center said. Antigay groups, for example, have risen to 27 from 17 in 2010.

The report also described a “stunning” rise in the number of groups it identifies as part of the so-called patriot and militia movements, whose ideologies include deep distrust of the federal government.

The center, based in Montgomery, Ala., records only groups that are active, meaning that the groups are registering members, passing out fliers, protesting or showing other signs of activity beyond maintaining a Web site.

One of the groups that was moved from the “patriot” list to the hate group list this year is the Georgia Militia, some of whose members were indicted last year in a failed plot to blow up government buildings and spread poison along Atlanta freeways. They were reclassified because their speech includes anti-Semitism.

The Justice Department does not comment on the center’s annual report, but a spokeswoman said the agency had increased prosecution of hate crimes by 35 percent during the first three years of Mr. Obama’s presidency.

Information on the anti-gay hate groups can be found here. As noted before, both the American Family Association and Family Research Council are registered anti-gay hate groups. One has to wonder at what point The Family Foundation - which is the puppet master for the Virginia GOP - will move into this classification.