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In what was an otherwise very informative segment discussing the rise in the number of hate groups in America in the wake of the recent shootings in Texas and questions as to whether there are links with a white supremacist prison gang, the audience of MSNBC's The Cycle were treated to conservative co-host S.E. Cupp playing concern troll for right-wing gay-hating fundamentalists, who are none too happy about being designated as hate groups by the SPLC.

As Dave Neiwert discussed here:

When right-wingers got wind of the fact that the Southern Poverty Law Center had designated a number of Religious Right organizations who specialize in rhetorically bashing gays and lesbians as hate groups, they and their allies on the Right came more or less unglued.

Now, rather than face up to the substance of the accusations, they're choosing to demonize the SPLC and their critics. Par for the course for this crowd.

Which is exactly what Cupp did this Wednesday with the SPLC's Heidi Beirich right about mid-way through the segment above:

CUPP: But Heidi, your group, the SPLC, has earned significant criticism over the years for smearing religious and far right groups and ignoring far left hate groups. Shouldn't people be aware of your ideological biases before they take seriously your claims about who they should be afraid of?

BEIRICH: Well, I guess I have to dispute the notion of the question on its... on the premise. The fact of the matter is that we've written about left wing domestic terrorism for almost a decade now coming from animal rights groups, for example, or eco-terrorist types. The criticism we get most heavily from the right-wing are complaints about our listing of groups like the Family Research Council or the American Family Association as anti-gay hate groups.

And the fact of the matter is that those organizations are akin to many of the white supremacist organizations that we list in the sense that they lie about gay folks. White supremacist folks lie about African-Americans.

In the case of something like the Family Research Council, they put out all kinds of defamatory information about how gays are child molesters at higher rates and so on, with the intention of destroying that particular population and making them appear to be lesser. So for us, it is a no-brainer to put groups like that on our hate list.

CUPP: The Family Research Council was actually the victim recently of a hate crime as I'm sure you're aware, when a gentleman stormed the building in D.C. with a bag full of Chick-Fil-A sandwiches.

BEIRICH: Yeah, I mean obviously, we condemn all kinds of violence. It's a horrible thing and what we're all about trying to stop domestic terrorism, violence and anything inspired by hate. That was a disgusting incident.

The wingers over at Brent Bozell's rag, Newsbusters, who I will not link to, were all over this, defending Cupp and blaming the SPLC for the shooting at FRC's headquarters, because of course they want to paint someone who tells the truth about hate groups and the lies they tell as a hate group themselves, as though the work the SPLC is doing is somehow equivalent to the garbage being spread by these so-called Christians. And naturally their comment section was full of attacks on Beirich for her looks, because we all know the most important thing is how you look on TV and not what comes out of your mouth. As Dave noted in his very long post which I linked above, when you can't defend your message, you attack the messenger.

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Family Research Council (FRC) President Tony Perkins is defending the Boy Scouts of America's policy banning gay members by saying the organization wanted to "make good citizens" by encouraging scouts to be "morally straight."

In a letter earlier this week, Perkins had blasted UPS CEO D. Scott Davis after the shipping company decided to stop funding the Boy Scouts over its anti-LGBT stance.

"Apparently, the company isn't interested in true diversity but in strong-arming anyone who disagrees with their extreme agenda -- including a century-old youth development program, whose only crime is instilling character into millions of American boys," a statement on FRC's website said. "As for their longstanding policy on homosexuality, the Boy Scouts are doing what every parent would want them to: putting children's safety first."

CNN host John Berman on Friday, invited Perkins, who founded the designated hate group, to explain why his organization was boycotting UPS.

"Well, the Boy Scouts for over 100 years, as part of their moral code, has challenged boys to be straight and to be upstanding citizens," Perkins opined. "That's their code, morally straight, that they not engage in sexual behavior, that they keep themselves morally conditioned and mentally sharp, and that's been their code."

"What have you is you have a few corporations, major corporations, who are saying, look, unless you abandon a century old value set, we're not going to give you money," he continued. "And the -- some things don't change with time. The Boy Scouts are one that have laid down a marker and said we will continue with what's worked for our boys. We're going to continue to produce young men who make good citizens."

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This report contains offensive and violent language and is not safe for work.

Police in Grand Rapids, Michigan say that there was nothing they could do after Bible-preaching protesters threatened to rape and murder pro-LGBT activists at a "Gay Day" event over the weekend.

In a video posted to YouTube, several protesters with Bibles can be seen shouting at a woman celebrating in the inaugural "Gay Day" celebration, an event organized by the human rights group Tolerance, Equality and Awareness Movement (TEAM) to showcase the community's diversity.

"Back in the day there was no free power, there was no going to the mall," one protester tells the woman. "There was, 'sit your ass in this house until I bring my ass home.'"

"And if your ass get to going out there like you said, guess what?" a second protester adds. "You get raped. And that's what's going to happen to you. ... Keep your pussy clean, that's all you need to do. Do you understand?"

After one man claims, "the Lord said that," the woman challenges him to find the corresponding Bible verse.

He responds with Isaiah 13: "Their children also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes; their houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished."

"What does 'ravished' mean? It means, we going to rape your ass," the protester explains. "And I'm going to have fun doing that shit. And you going to like that. I promise you."

After briefly arguing that he is misinterpreting the Bible, the woman observes, "Anything I say, you say it doesn't matter."

"It's going to matter right now," the man shoots back. "It's going to matter when your clothes off and I'm going inside of you repeatedly. That's when it's going to matter. Because you going to enjoy yourself."

The woman in the video told WWMT that the men also recited her boyfriend's license plate number and promised to find and kill him. She said she called 911, but the Grand Rapids Police Department officer told her that there was nothing he could do.

Lt. Mark Ostapowicz explained to MLive.com that the report was closed because no one came forward with a specific complaint.

"The Gay Day celebration group was upset that the Bible group was able to protest, but in their protest they weren’t doing anything wrong, according to the (responding police officer’s) report," Ostapowicz said. "“When the officers got there they were not threatening each other. As long as they’re not breaking any of the protest rules, there’s nothing we can do."

"As of right now, we just have two groups in disagreement with each other. Nothing happened that led the officers to do more."

In a letter posted to their website on Tuesday, TEAM called on authorities to take action to protect the LGBT community.

"It is our position that these actions should not be tolerated in this community, and that the perpetrators of such actions be brought to justice," TEAM president Chris Surfus wrote in the letter. "[H]ate speech that incites violence, rape and other criminal actions is not constitutionally protected."

"It is our hope that the Grand Rapids Police Department will formally charge these men for these atrocious and unwelcome actions in our community," he added.

WWMT reported that the men were part of a Christian black supremacist group called the Black Hebrew Israelites. According to the South Poverty Law Center, the quickly spreading movement preaches "a frightening, racist theology that says Jesus Christ is returning soon to kill or enslave white people, Jews, homosexuals, and others."

Certain cultures practice "corrective rape" to "correct" the sexual orientation of Lesbian women.

The following video is NSFW.

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Counter-demonstrators dressed as zombies outnumbered protesters from the Westboro Baptist Church at a military base near DuPont, Washington over the weekend.

Melissa Neace, 27, launched a Facebook group to organize the zombies event after she learned that the radical ant-LGBT church would be picketing Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Seattle.

"We wanted to turn something negative around, into something people could laugh at and poke fun at," Neace explained to The News Tribune. "It was the easiest way to divert attention from something so hateful."

Over 200 people committed to attending the event on Saturday, which she called "Zombie’ing Westboro Baptist Church AWAY from Fort Lewis!"

The specific reason for Westboro's protest was not immediately clear, but church members at the event ranted that God was killing U.S. soldiers because of LGBT rights.

"Amazon’s founder said today he’s going to put $2.5 million in the kitty," one protester told KIRO-TV. "Amazon.com’s founder (donated) to push for fag marriage in the state of Washington."

"And you think God kills soldiers because of that?" the reporter asked.

"Absolutely, he does," the protester insisted.

(h/t: The Huffington Post)

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The leader of a Christian think tank is blasting the media for not investigating President Barack Obama's citizenship.

During a Tuesday segment on American Family Association's AFA Today radio program, Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council — a hate group, according the the Southern Poverty Law Center -- encouraged listeners to read an article by conservative columnist Sandy Rios which suggests the president is weakening the U.S. so that communists in Russia can "reclaim power."

"I would encourage you to read the article," Perkins said. "In society today, we throw around labels a lot and I think we've become desensitized and what we're looking here and what's Sandy's bringing up here is not labels. We're not calling somebody a Marxist, a socialist. ... We're looking at facts."

"What the media has done -- going back to our earlier discussion about the media -- is they have attempted to marginalize anyone who challenges this administration on those principles and that driving ideology."

He added: "You know, it goes back to what they did to those that, you know, questioned the issue of his birth certificate. Look, I don't know about all that, but I will tell you this: It's a legitimate issue from the standpoint of what the Constitution says."

"When you put it all together it connects the dots. It makes you wonder why did he risk Congress -- the control of the House -- to push through health care? It's a part of that ideology."

Rios, who also appeared on the program, applauded tea party favorite Rep. Allen West (R-FL) for accusing up to 81 House Democrats of secretly being members of the Communist Party.

"The point is when Allen refuses to back down, I'm with him all the way," she explained. "The first year that Barack Obama was in office, in the White House, there was an ornament on Christmas Tree of Mao Zedong, which doesn't -- that may sound silly. But that's not silly to me."

(h/t: Right Wing Watch)

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After interviewing the president of Planned Parenthood, Cecile Richard the night before, CNN's Eliot Spitzer felt somehow obliged to bring in the Family Research Council's Tony Perkins to respond to that segment, who of course continued his organization's attacks on Planned Parenthood despite Spitzer's best efforts to get him to admit that Planned Parenthood isn't doing anything any different than most hospitals or other health care providers across the United States that provide reproductive health services for women.

Why CNN felt the need to bring in someone from a group that the Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled a hate group for their anti-gay rhetoric is beyond me, but controversy for the sake of controversy seems to be what they do these days for ratings.

What I found extremely irritating about this segment is that after a long back and forth between Spitzer and Perkins on whether Planned Parenthood is really any different than any other medical provider that Perkins group is not singling out, which he never really answered for, Eliot Spitzer only half-assed called out Perkins his lie about Planned Parenthood and the sex traffickers.

Dave wrote about O'Reilly pushing that same lie on Fox here -- Right-wingers don't care if Planned Parenthood video was already exposed as a hoax -- they'll do it live!.

Word to Eliot Spitzer. If you're going to let known liars from hate groups come on your show to discuss Planned Parenthood, be prepared with a few facts ahead of time so you can give them some specifics about why they're full of it when they lie, instead of leaving your audience wondering what the truth is.

And Tony Perkins does not deserve one iota of "respect" or a 'respectful" conversation. The man is a hate monger and deserves to be treated as such. He trafficks in fearmongering and lies and the policies he's pushing for are harmful to the LGBT community and to women and he deserves every bit of scorn which can be given to him for that hatred and fearmongering, and who he's aligned himself with politically.

The man's "Christian values" align perfectly with those that manage to line his pockets for pushing the GOP's agenda of hatred and bigotry and to keep voters distracted from caring about their own economic interests and he should be treated as such. Heaven forbid we might ever see that happen on CNN or any other of our corporate networks he's willing to come on and be interviewed.

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After the continued fearmongering and Muslim bashing that we heard out of presidential candidates Herman Cain and Newt Gingrich during the recent presidential debate and with Rep. Peter King holding yet another hearing exploiting the fear of Muslims in the United States, MSNBC's Cenk Uygur talked to the SPLC's Mark Potok about whether this sort of hatred towards any other minority group would go unaccounted for in this day and age.

As they both rightfully noted and as Dave has reported on here continually, regardless of the fact that there are legitimate right wing hate groups that those in Congress and our politicians should be concerning themselves with, the media and the public in the United States both seem for the most part to just shrug at the bigotry being aimed at the Muslim community, largely as Potok explained, due to the fact that Americans wanted some sort of boogeyman after 9-11, and the Republicans have been more than happy to continue to exploit those fears for political gain.

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The Southern Poverty Center's Mark Potok joined MSNBC's Cenk Uygur to discuss Rep. Peter King's upcoming hearings on radical Islam and whether they're being motivated by King's well known bigotry against the Muslim community. As Cenk noted it's caused outrage from the Muslim community and their supporters who demonstrated in New York City's Times Square against the hearings.

As was pointed out during the segment, the Muslim community has been cooperating with the Justice Department to try to weed out radicals among their ranks, and in the mean time there's been an explosion of hate groups within the U.S. such as the Klan, Neo-Nazis, Black Separatists, White Nationalists, racist skinheads and Neo-Confederate groups. As this report by the SPLC shows, U.S. Hate Groups now top 1000:

The number of active hate groups in the United States topped 1,000 for the first time and the antigovernment “Patriot” movement expanded dramatically for the second straight year as the radical right showed continued explosive growth in 2010.

Several factors fueled the growth: resentment over the changing racial demographics of the country, frustration over the lagging economy, and the mainstreaming of conspiracy theories and other demonizing propaganda aimed at minorities and the government.

The report is in the Spring 2011 issue of the SPLC’s quarterly investigative journal Intelligence Report. The Hate Map also contains a comprehensive, state-by-state listing of hate groups and their locations. Read on...

Rep. King seems determined to single out the Muslim churches to attack for political gain while ignoring the threat from these other groups. I guess that's not too surprising from someone who doesn't seem to mind "palling around with terrorists" himself as long as they're Irish Catholics.

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Keith talks to columnist Dan Savage about the hateful anti-gay rhetoric coming from the opponents of the repeal of DADT and Savage makes a great point about what we're seeing now.

Olbermann: Is there something you think particularly about gay's serving in the military that these people don't like or is it as you're suggesting, this is like a time line which wherever they encounter "the gay"... these bizarre straight people, presumably straight people, who knows, have to over react just because this is the latest battlefield, no pun intended?

Savage: Well first that's a really great point. Who knows who's lifting these people's luggage, these folks who are sort of paranoid about people being fellated in their sleep. I'd like to see what's going on in their heads. I think they're projecting, some of them. Whenever they're on the verge of losing they trot out these desperate nightmare scenarios and they really are on the verge of losing the last two final issues when it comes to gay rights such as service in the military and marriage.

Savage was spot on with that remark. Every one of these anti-gay bigots strikes me as just another self-loathing closeted gay hypocrite who can't resolve their own issues with trying to fight off "teh gay" since they've been told their own natural impulses are a sin. And then we have John McCain who is simply pandering to the far right as he worries about getting reelected since he's got wingnut J.D. Hayworth running against him.

On to the other bigots that Keith talks about. We've got Peter Sprigg.

Family Research Council: End Of DADT Means More Gay Rape In The Military:

Here's how the Family Research Council envisions things going if Don't Ask, Don't Tell is repealed: first, more straight soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines will be fellated in their sleep against their will. Then, commanders afraid of being labeled homophobes will refuse to do anything about it. Eventually, the straight service members will quit out of fear. Read on...

And next we have Cliff Kincaid.

Far Right Christian Group Warns That ‘Gay Blood’ Will Destroy Our Military If DADT Is Repealed:

Today, right-wing hate-monger Cliff Kincaid’s group America’s Survival launched a repulsive fear campaign against repeal, warning that “disease-tainted gay blood threatens our troops.” The group’s abhorrent video — and the 60 page report that accompanies it — present ludicrous stereotypes of gay men and women, going so far as to claim that “open and active homosexuals into the U.S. military could very well result in the spreading of deadly HIV-tainted blood throughout the ranks”. Read on...

And then there's Bryan Fischer from the AFA.

AFA's Fischer Outdoes Himself:

It was about a year ago that I wrote a seemingly throwaway post about the fact that Bryan Fischer had been promoted from his position running the Idaho Values Alliance, the state affiliate of the American Family Association, to a position as director of Issue Analysis for Government and Public Policy with the AFA itself and the host of a daily two-hour radio program for the organization.

Since then, Fischer has proven himself to be among the most radically right-wing figures within the contemporary Religious Right movement.

Just last week he declared on his radio program that "God is obviously looking for is more Phinehases in our day," approvingly citing a story from the Book of Numbers about a man who killed two people with a spear for engaging in sexual immorality.

But yesterday he managed to outdo himself once again, declaring that Adolf Hitler was gay and that he surrounded himself with gay soldiers because only gays were willing to be savage and brutal enough to carry out his agenda.

Dan Savage laid waste to all of those kooks, and I completely agree with him about what the basis of their problem is. They're all badly in need of just coming out of the closet and being done with it. One of these religious anti-gay wingnuts they failed to mention here is James Dobson. If he isn't every bit as gay as his buddy Rent-Boy-Rekers I'll be shocked. Anyone who recommends showering with your male children and that them seeing your penis size is going to keep away "teh gay" has got some really serious issues.

I hope to hell the Congress finally repeals DADT. It's long overdue. Every one of these anti-gay bigots needs to be asked how many men they've had sexual relationships with when anyone has them on for an interview.

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Dick Armey gave a speech at The National Press Club and had this to say about Tom Tancredo -- Armey Accuses ‘Destructive’ Tancredo Of ‘Alienating’ Hispanics.

Who in the Republican Party was the genius that said that now that we have identified the fastest-growing voting demographic in America, let’s go out and alienate them? [...]

The Republican Party is the most naturally talented party at losing its natural constituents in the history of the world. This party was born with the emancipation proclamation and can’t get a black vote to save its life. How do they do that? Well, the same thing with the Hispanics. [...]

When I was the majority leader, I saw to it that Tom Tancredo did not get on the stage because I saw how destructive he was.

As Think Progress noted:

Armey’s remarks have clearly made “nativist-extremist” groups that are trying to exploit the momentum of the tea party movement nervous. Americans for Legal Immigration (ALIPAC) quickly came to Tancredo’s defense and started urging its members to attack Armey’s immigration position. According to ALIPAC, Armey has been fighting to “keep the illegal immigration issue out of the Tea Party movement.” On an organizing conference call hosted by NumbersUSA, callers dismissed Armey as not being a “true tea party patriot,” but also sought tips on how to translate their anti-immigrant views to fit the tea party narrative.

I find Armey's statement pretty ironic given the amount of blatant racism we've seen the movement feeding off of to get their base riled up. As the ADL noted, the movement has some bigger problems than just Tancredo. White Supremacists May Attempt To Co-Opt July 4 "Tea Parties" To Promote A Hateful Agenda