Human Rights Campaign: Family Research Council is a hate group

By Eric W. Dolan from The Raw Story

republished by Paddy Ryan

The president of the Human Rights Campaign has refused stop labeling the Family Research Council as a hate group, even after a LGBT activist was charged with shooting a security guard at the organization’s Washington headquarters.

Family Research Council still a hate group

“Designating the Family Research Council a hate group has nothing to do with disagreements about marriage equality, nondiscrimination laws or any other policy debate,” HRC President Chad Griffin wrote in an op-ed piece for the Washington Post. “The real issue is the Family Research Council’s well-documented and continuous pattern of hateful rhetoric.”

Following the shooting, the Southern Poverty Law Center and LGBT rights groups faced criticism from conservatives for labeling the FRC as a hate group.

The Southern Poverty Law Center had labeled the organization a hate group since 2010 “because of its dissemination of false and demonizing propaganda about gays and lesbians.”

National Organization for Marriage president Brian Brown called on the Southern Poverty Law Center and LGBT rights groups to withdraw the “harmful and dangerous labels.” The Christian Broadcasting Network wondered “Did ‘hate group’ label stir FRC shooting?” FRC President Tony Perkins accused the Southern Poverty Law Center of giving the shooter a “license” to commit the act.

“The logic that the Southern Poverty Law Center or LGBT organizations are to blame is preposterous, outrageous and irresponsible,” Griffin wrote. “No matter one’s political views, we can all agree that acts of violence are never justified and should always be condemned.”

Griffin noted that Perkins had claimed that pedophilia was a “homosexual problem.” Other people associated with the FRC have called for deporting gay people from the U.S. and making homosexuality a crime, Griffin said.

HRC is the largest LGBT advocacy group in the nation.