Via Washington Secrets:
The liberal Southern Poverty Law Center, a leader in outing “hate groups,” equates anti-gay policy organizations like the Family Research Council, site of a politically-motivated shooting Wednesday, to neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan, drawing anger from conservatives.
The Center lists 18 “anti-gay” groups on a hate list, and puts three, including the Family Research Council, on a more prominent list of groups they say promotes hate, charges FRC and others on the list reject.
What’s more, the Center’s list of individuals they say promote hate include prominent Washington conservative figures like foreign policy analyst Frank Gaffney and Accuracy in Media’s Cliff Kincaid. They are equated to white nationalist David Duke and aggressive anti-gay activist Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church.
Some conservatives said Thursday that the Center’s lists and the pro-gay group Human Rights Campaign’s criticism on the Family Research Council played a role in motivating the shooter in Wednesday’s attack at FRC. A security guard was shot in the arm by an attacker who complained about FRC’s support for traditional marriage.