NEW YORK, July 5 (C-Fam) Critics and victims of the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) may have danced a jig recently when it was announced that the hard-left group had fired 25% of its staff, totaling 60 staff members.
Founded to help poor blacks in the South, in recent years, SPLC is best known for its annual hate list of pro-life and pro-family groups who have publicly opposed the homosexual/trans agenda. SPLC also goes after groups opposed to open borders and those groups it has deemed as anti-Islamic.
Mainstream pro-life and pro-family groups labeled by SPLC include Alliance Defending Freedom, the Family Research Institute, the Ruth Institute, the American College of Pediatricians, Do No Harm, Family Watch International, and the World Congress of Families.
C-Fam (publisher of the Friday Fax) and Alliance Defending Freedom were first labeled as hate groups by SPLC in 2013 for advising the government of Belize that there is no existing treaty obligation about homosexual sodomy. At the time, Belize was under pressure from an international lawyers’ group that argued that homosexual sodomy is protected behavior under various international treaties. However, such a thing is not mentioned in any human rights treaties.
The SPLC blacklist has been used effectively by other organizations and businesses as a way to avoid listed groups. For instance, hate-listed groups are not allowed to participate in the Amazon Smile program, where a portion of purchases are directed to non-profits listed by the customer. Blacklisted groups may not receive such funds.
Fidelity Investments informed C-Fam several years ago that it would no longer allow anonymous donations to C-Fam from the Fidelity Charitable Fund, the idea being that potential donors might be discouraged from giving. There are a myriad of ultimately unknown ways the list is used against groups on the list.
SPLC is highly controversial. Charity Navigator rates it F for its hoarding of donor funds, which now total close to a billion dollars. SPLC raises upward of $100 million per year. An assassin used its list several years ago to target the Family Research Council office. Carnage was only avoided by the quick actions of a brave security guard.
SPLC founder Morris Dees resigned a few years ago for what some say was sexual harassment and racism. Dees’s wife divorced him years ago and charged him with trying to sexually molest her young daughter from a previous marriage.
SPLC’s motivations have been called into question. A top executive of SPLC is on video telling donors that SPLC is in the business of putting its political opponents “out of business.”
Most of the groups targeted by SPLC are small and poor and do not have the means to fight back. One group did, however. Maajid Nawaz threatened to sue when his Muslim organization was labeled a hate group for criticizing Islamic terrorism. SPLC apologized and paid the group more than $3 million. Others are not so lucky. SPLC sued Arthur Goldberg for helping Jewish men find their way out of homosexuality. SPLC sent over a dozen lawyers and put Goldberg out of business. To this day, Goldberg owes millions of dollars in fines.
Given its huge coffers, it is hard to imagine why the group decided to shed 60 staffers. Fired staff say many of them were members of a recently formed union, and recriminations abound.
SPLC has been silent about the rash of Christian churches burned or vandalized since Roe v. Wade was overturned.