Parents' rights orgs labeled 'hate' and 'extremist' groups by Southern Poverty Law Center
WASHINGTON (CITC) — Several parental rights groups, including the nationally recognized Moms for Liberty and Parents Defending Education, have been labeled "hate groups" by a leading advocacy organization.
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a nonprofit focusing on civil rights, announced additions to its "Hate Map" Tuesday.
SPLC's 2022 edition of the map, which is updated annually, includes 1,225 local and national organizations that the nonprofit deems to be "antigovernment extremist groups" promoting "hate."
Hate groups hold beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics, while antigovernment groups see the federal government as an enemy of the people and promote baseless conspiracy theories," SPLC Intelligence Project DirectorSusan Corke said in Tuesday's announcement.
This year, groups whose self-described missions are to advocate for parents with children in U.S. public school systems appear alongside chapters of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK).
In its announcement, SPLC directly names Moms for Liberty (MFL), a Florida-based organization with nearly 200 chapters, as the leader of "an anti-student inclusion movement" targeting "inclusive curriculum."
Name-calling parents who want to be a part of their child's education as 'hate groups' or 'bigoted' just further exposes what this battle is all about," MFL co-founders Tiffany Justice and Tina Descovich said in a statement. "Who fundamentally gets to decide what is taught to our kids in school?"
The sentiments are echoed by Suzanne Gallagher, the executive director of Parents' Rights in Education (PRIE), an organization that saw several of its local chapters added to SPLC's map.
Parents and allies are defending their children," Gallagher told Crisis in the Classroom (CITC). "We are parents and allies standing together, millions of voices speaking as one. Stop messing with our kids."
In Virginia, where a push for parental rights has gained momentum under Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Arlington-based Parents Defending Education (PDE) was labeled as a group believing that "the federal government is tyrannical."
Any thinking person knows that it is neither hateful nor extreme to raise concerns or object to classroom content that is ideological, hyper-sexual and politically driven," Erika Sanzi, Director of Outreach for PDE, told CITC. "The SPLC demands conformity to their preferred orthodoxy; we reject that and instead stand for the free exchange of ideas, viewpoint diversity, safety and fairness in athletics and practices that do not discriminate on the basis of race or sex."
The latest SPLC map is not the first time those advocating for parental rights have faced accusations of encouraging "hate."
In October 2021, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memorandum directing federal law enforcement to address "a disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence against school administrators" at school board meetings nationwide. The directive followed a since-retractedNational School Boards Association (NSBA) letter describing parents' actions at such meetings as "domestic terrorism and hate crimes."
House Republicans determined earlier this year that Garland had "no legitimate basis" to request that parents be investigated.
CITC reached out to SPLC for comment on its latest announcement, as well as to inquire how it determined to add parental rights groups to its "Hate Map," but did not receive a response prior to publication. This story will be updated if a response is received.