Some parents' rights organizations listed as 'hate groups' trends now
Parents' rights organizations including Florida-based Moms for Liberty are the latest to be added to a list of 'hate and anti-government groups.'
A new report from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) has added them, among others, to their 'Hate Map' as part of the release of their 'Year In Hate and Extremism 2022' report.
In previous years, groups to be included on the list were akin to neo-Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan the addition of anti-government groups the list has increased from 733 'hate groups' in 2021 to 1225 'hate and anti-government extremist groups' for 2022.
Moms for Liberty was founded in early 2021 by conservative women in Florida, has quickly expanded its presence across the country.
It has landed national media attention for its efforts to fight COVID safety measures in schools, ban books, limit discussion about race and LGBTQ identities and populate local school boards with conservatives.
Moms of Liberty co-founders Tiffany Justice (left) and Tina Descovich (right) blasted the decision to label their organization as a 'hate group' by the Southern Poverty Law Center
A new report from SPLC added Moms for Liberty - among 11 others - to their 'Hate Map' as part of the release of their 'Year In Hate and Extremism 2022' report
According to the new SPLC report schools have been on the 'receiving end of ramped-up and coordinated hard-right attacks.'
Parental rights groups appear to have had an exponential growth according to SPLC 'spurred by the right-wing backlash to COVID-19 public safety measures.'
They've been described to have 'grown into an anti-student inclusion movement that targets any inclusive curriculum that contains discussions of race, discrimination and LGBTQ identities.'
'At the forefront of this mobilization is Moms for Liberty, a Florida-based group with vast connections to the GOP that this year the SPLC designated as an extremist group,' the report reads.
'They can be spotted at school board meetings across the country wearing shirts and carrying signs that declare, 'We do NOT CO-PARENT with the GOVERNMENT.'
'The group hijacks meetings, preventing officials and parents from conducting their normal proceedings.'
The report goes on to claim that groups like Moms for Liberty have 'similar rallying cries' to those who 'opposed school desegration.'
'Galvanizing supporters around supposed 'parental rights' and 'family values' is nothing new – similar rallying cries were adopted by those who opposed school desegregation during the civil rights movement and by the Moral Majority of the 1980s,' it
