By Jordan Dixon-Hamilton
Article Source
The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), an organization that frequently lists mainstream conservatives alongside hate groups like the Ku Klux Klan, has placed Moms for Liberty and other parental rights group on its “hate map” for being “antigovernment extremist groups.”
Florida-based Moms for Liberty was added to SPLC’s hate map along with 11 other parental rights groups, including several Virginia-based groups, according to the organization’s annual 2022 Year in Hate and Extremism report.
The inclusion of these 12 parental rights groups brings the SPLC’s total number of hate and antigovernment extremist groups to 1,225 organizations. Of those, 523 were “hate groups,” and 702 were deemed “antigovernment extremist groups,” which the parental rights groups fell under.
“Schools, especially, have been on the receiving end of ramped-up and coordinated hard-right attacks, frequently through the guise of ‘parents’ rights’ groups,” the SPLC’s report claims.
“These groups were, in part, spurred by the right-wing backlash to COVID-19 public safety measures in schools,” the report continued. “But they have grown into an anti-student inclusion movement that targets any inclusive curriculum that contains discussions of race, discrimination and LGBTQ identities.”
The SPLC claimed Moms for Liberty is at the “forefront of this mobilization,” and noted, “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.’”
Moms for Liberty was founded in 2021 and is “dedicated to fighting for the survival of America by unifying, educating and empowering parents to defend their parental rights at all levels of government,” according to its website.
The organization was founded primarily in response to school administrations’ response to the coronavirus pandemic, which saw school closures, forced masking, and remote learning. Since its founding in January 2021, Moms for Liberty boasts over 100,000 members and local chapters in 40 states.
Moms for Liberty co-founder Tina Descovich encouraged Breitbart News Daily listeners to start their own local chapters if there is not one readily available during an interview last year.
“The best way to get plugged in and to know what to look for is to visit moms for liberty.org, look for your local chapter,” Descovich said. “If there’s not a chapter you can click another link and … start a chapter.”
The organization has gained the attention of national Republicans in its short-lived history, with former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis slated to speak at its annual summit in Philadelphia at the end of this month.
Moms for Liberty is also one of the organizations at the forefront of the fight against the LGBTQQIAAP2S+ agenda being pushed in elementary school classrooms.
“[The movement] is primarily aimed at not wanting to include our hard history, topics of racism, and a very strong push against teaching anything having to do with LGBTQ topics in schools,” SPLC Intelligence Project Director Susan Corke said. ”We saw this as a very deliberate strategy to go to the local level.”
Interestingly, the SPLC’s Learning for Justice project promoted an explicit sex education book for elementary school students in a guide to teachers last year.
“The guide was published by Learning for Justice, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center, and is titled ‘Best Practices for Serving LGBTQ Students,’” Breitbart News reported. “The guide discusses pronouns, sex education, and policies surrounding cross-sex access to sports and bathrooms.”