Family Research Council added to ‘hate group’ list

The Southern Poverty Law Center is adding the Family Research Council and four other conservative religious organizations to its list of hate groups because of "falsehoods" in their antigay statements.

Mark Potok, director of the center's Intelligence Project, said the groups were not chosen because of their beliefs that homosexual activity is sinful. "The religious nature of these organizations has absolutely nothing to do with our listings," he said in a recent interview. "The listings are based on the propagation of known falsehoods and demonizing propaganda."

The Alabama-based center, known for its monitoring of the Ku Klux Klan and other hate groups, published a November 22 report calling gays the "minority most targeted by hate crimes" and citing "the hard core of the antigay religious right" for their depictions of homosexuals as a global threat.