The number of groups opposed to gay
rights increased dramatically last year, The
New York Times reported.
According to a new study released
Wednesday by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), at least 1,018
hate groups were operating in the United States last year.
The SPLC in 2000 identified 602 groups
whose “ideology is organized against specific radical, religious,
sexual or other characteristics.”
Groups distrustful of the federal
government, the so-called patriot or militia movement, have risen
dramatically, from 824 in 2010 to 1,274 last year.
“They represent both a kind of
right-wing populist rage and left-wing populist rage that has gotten
all mixed up in anger toward the government,” Mark Potok of the
SPLC told the paper.
Groups designated as anti-gay increased
from 17 in 2010 to 27.
The report cited advances in gay rights
for the increase, in particular the growing acceptance of gay
marriage and the repeal of “Don't Ask, Don't Tell.”
“[I]t was precisely these advances
that seemed to set off a furious rage on the religious right, with
the renewed efforts to ban or repeal marriage equality and what
seemed to be an intensification of anti-gay propaganda in certain
quarters,” the
report's authors wrote.