The Southern Poverty Law Center is in the news because a grand jury indicted it last week on federal charges. What it looks like to a lot of people is a witch hunt against a prominent organization with a long history of fighting the Klan, Neo-Nazis, the anti-LGBTQ industry, and others who push bigotry.
To hear the Trump Administration - and its ecosystem on Twitter, etc - SPLC was actually funding the racism it claimed to be fighting. But the SPLC and others are pushing back on this claim.
The Nation called the case "bogus" and a "dog whistle to white nationalists." Senator Chuck Schumer accused the Trump Administration of turning the Department of Justice into a "Department of Vengeance." Others have pointed out the specious nature of the charges and called the case "absurd." SPLC has publicly accused acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche of lying and has brought "receipts," so to speak.
But for the purpose of this blog post, I want to focus on certain organizations - particularly one organization - which are no doubt looking forward to how much they can drag SPLC before this drama is over.
In 2010, the Southern Poverty Law Center designated certain religious right organizations (such as The Family Research Council, the American Family Association) as hate groups. Other groups such as the Alliance Defending Freedom and Moms for Liberty were added in later years. This was due to how these groups spread slander against LGBTQ people via junk science, cherry-picked science, and out-and-out lies with the goal of eliminating LGBTQ equality, health and safety. SPLC pointed out that while these groups claimed to oppose the LGBTQ community based on Christian principles, their tactics were anything but Christian.
Fast forward to 2026 and these groups hold a lot of power within the Trump Administration. My personal opinion is that some of them played a part in pushing for these indictments. And that they will exploit said indictments to have some "payback" against SPLC and reframe the arguments lodged against them.
To be honest, I am looking forward it to. While I completely support SPLC, I am looking forward to reminding the new generation of folks just how dishonest these so-called Christian groups are.
In 2011, I published a column pointing past incidents in which the Family Research Council and its director, Tony Perkins, used distorted work and lies to cast LGBTQ people as disease-ridden, oversexed, unhappy pedophiles out to destroy American society and cause general mayhem.
Below are the incidents, plus a general update:
August 15, 2011 - GLSEN (the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network) issues a cease-and-desist letter against the Family Research Council demanding that the organization remove video falsely accusing GLSEN of distributing an explicit safe-sex guide to children. FRC subsequently changed the video, tacitly admitting that it was pushing a falsehood against GLSEN.
June 13, 2011 - Two years after claiming to remove "studies" from its website because they contained "outdated material," FRC sneaks the studies back on its website. One of the studies includes citations to the work of Paul Cameron, a highly discredited researcher who once accused gays of stuffing gerbils up their rectums.
February 28, 2011 - In order to defend the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), FRC distorts research in order to compare gay men to pedophiles.
February 16, 2011 - FRC spokesman Peter Sprigg makes the claim that same-sex households are inferior to two-parent heterosexual households by using studies which have nothing to do with same-sex households. Sprigg, by the way, has earlier voiced opinions that gays should be exported out of the United States:
August 13, 2010 - Sprigg claims that openly gay Obama appointee David Hansell will cut funds from states that don't allow gay adoption. Sprigg claims that "private sources" told him so. Strangely enough, original article where Sprigg made this claim, the right-wing CNSNews.com was pulled.
July 29, 2010 - The Family Research Council distorts the words of AIDS researcher Ronald Stall to make the case against the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell and ENDA (Employment Non-Discrimination Act.)
July 6, 2010 - Sprigg pushes a pamphlet, The Top Ten Myths About Homosexuality, which not only repeats discredited anti-lgbt accuracies but exposes a bit of trickery on Sprigg's part. He cites only part of pro-lgbt information which talks about diseases and negative behaviors but omits the information which talks about how homophobia plays a part in these diseases and negative behaviors.
May 10, 2010 - The Family Research Council distorts the words of President Obama's director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management John Berry.
April 16, 2010 - Tony Perkins makes a false accusation that homosexuality and pedophilia are connected by using a Netherlands study which doesn't even prove his point.
January 7, 2010 - The Family Research Council exploits the presidential appointment of transgender woman Amanda Simpson to call ENDA (Employment Non-Discrimination Act) a "Crossdresser Protection Bill."
November 23, 2009 - The Family Research Council was caught distorting Congresswoman Diana DeGette's words to make her seem like she was espousing religious bigotry.
October 27, 2009 - In an attack on lgbt seniors, the Family Research Council echoes the phony belief of Paul Cameron that lgbts don't live long enough to become elderly.
October 01, 2009 - In Congressional testimony, Perkins practices the "sin of omission" in his testimony against ENDA (Employment Non-Discrimination Act).
May 20, 2009 - The Family Research Council pushes a fraudulent study, Comparing the Lifestyles of Homosexual Couples to Married Couples. It's a bad study specifically because it uses outdated work and compares married United States couples to unmarried gay couples in casual relationships from other parts of the world.
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