Socially conservative organisations, religious groups and even churches should be labelled as ‘hate groups’, according to a new liberal coalition in the USA.
The Eliminate Hate Campaign (EHC) aims to pressure the media to refer to US organisations which back traditional family values as ‘hate groups’, and has compiled a list of 52 it wishes to target and undermine.
Their accusations have been rejected by organisations on the EHC’s list.
Activists
The EHC, which is made up of numerous LGBT activist groups, also aims to “mitigate the increasing influence” of groups defending a traditional understanding of marriage and gender.
It accuses the groups of being ‘extremist’, and hiding anti-LGBT views under the guise of Christian or family values.
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a religious liberty group which provides legal assistance to Christians, was singled out as one of the most prominent organisations on the list.
‘Inciting violence’
Its spokesman said: “ADF doesn’t have time to respond to organisations who do nothing more than call names, create division and incite violence across the country in order to raise money.”
Peter Sprigg, spokesman for the Family Research Council (FRC), another targeted organisation, defended FRC’s position opposing gender identity as a protected characteristic.
He said: “We believe that it’s really not possible for a person to change their sex, that biological sex at birth is essentially immutable”.
‘Bigots’
In the UK, organisations and people who support traditional marriage have also been branded ‘bigots’ by opponents.
In 2015, BBC radio presenter Iain Lee repeatedly attacked Christian views on homosexuality, calling them “obnoxious”, “poisonous”, “bigoted” and “homophobic”.
Lee was criticised by the BBC for his comments, calling his language “inappropriate”, and he subsequently resigned.