SPLC Brands Parents’ Rights Groups Hateful ‘Extremists’ – Because They Promote Policies Majority of Americans Support

Craig Bannister | June 8, 2023
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On Tuesday, the far-left activist Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) published its latest list of what it considers “hate and antigovernment extremist groups,” including parental rights groups because they want schools to stop teaching racist, anti-white propaganda and exposing young children to liberal sexual and gender ideology.

SPLC’s annual “YEAR IN HATE & EXTREMISM” report labels at least a dozen parental rights groups as “hate” groups or antigovernment extremists, mainly because they oppose schools exposing young children to transgender ideology propaganda and the teaching of Critical Race Theory (CRT).

SPLC has been harshly criticized for its anti-Christian bias and for employing “hate” and “extremist” labels to denigrate groups simply because they oppose liberal policies and agendas.

First, SPLC attempts to vilify parent’s rights groups by associating them with liberal-despised former President Donald Trump.

“Without Trump at the helm, activists have made a concerted effort to organize in the local arena, pursuing their agenda in venues where it is easier to gain power,” SPLC opines, launching into its condemnation of parental rights issues:

“Schools, especially, have been on the receiving end of ramped-up and coordinated hard-right attacks, frequently through the guise of ‘parents’ rights’ groups. These groups were, in part, spurred by the right-wing backlash to COVID-19 public safety measures in schools. But they have grown into an anti-student inclusion movement that targets any inclusive curriculum that contains discussions of race, discrimination and LGBTQ identities.”

SPLC then singles out “Moms for Liberty” as an example – because it does not believe public schools have the right to co-parent their children:

“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. 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.’”

In a press release announcing the report, SPLC frames parents’ rights groups as “anti-student inclusion groups” and falsely claims the groups want to remove “any curriculum” discussing race and discrimination:

“Schools are a primary target for locally driven extremist mobilization, according to the report, with 12 anti-student inclusion groups leading a movement to gain power through school boards to attack public education, ban books, and remove any curriculum that contains discussions of race, discrimination, and LGBTQ+ identities. One group at the forefront of this mobilization is Moms for Liberty, a Florida-based group that the SPLC has designated as an anti-government extremist group in 2022.”

According to USA Today, the following parents’ rights groups are among those considered “extremist” by the SPLC:

 

However, national surveys reveal that majorities of Americans support the causes of parental rights groups, which are opposed to schools teaching divisive, racially-charged theories and transgender and sexual ideology, especially to young children.

Instead of teaching slanted views, such as Critical Race Theory, 68% of American adults said that schools should “teach students that the United States has a complicated history with ‘good and bad aspects,’” a Washington Examiner/YouGov survey of U.S. adults reveals.

“When it came to teaching students about sexual orientation and gender identity, the poll found widespread opposition to the teaching of such concepts in elementary school,” The Examiner reports:

“The poll found that 67% of respondents said they opposed such lessons to students in kindergarten through third grade, including 53% who said they strongly opposed it. Additionally, 59% opposed classroom instruction on the topics in fourth and fifth grade, with 44% saying they were strongly opposed.”

Likewise, a Summit Ministries/McLaughlin Group survey of likely general election voters found that 69% of voters with an opinion on the issue believe that Critical Race Theory curriculum that teaches that white culture is inherently evil further divides ethnic groups and races amongst American youth.

“70% of voters with an opinion said that public schools should be investing more classroom time in teaching standard curriculum like math, science, and grammar, rather than teaching cultural curriculum like critical race theory and sexual identity/transgenderism,” according to a press release by Summit Ministries.

A Fox News/Beacon Research/Shaw & Company Research survey of U.S. registered voters yielded similar findings:

  • 64% of all voters, and 70% of those with children, called it a problem that parents don’t have enough say about what students are being taught in public schools.
  • 60% of voters said there’s too much of a focus on race in public schools.
  • 60% of voters said public schools are “overly accommodating transgender policies.”
  • 79% of parents said they felt either “extremely concerned” (46%) or “very concerned” (33%) about “what’s taught in public schools.”

 

Finally, as The Daily Signal notes, the SPLC uses hyperbolic, sweeping terms to characterize parental groups as “hateful” and “non-inclusive” – but, it fails to provide the specific details of what parents object to in schools:

“The SPLC report does not once mention the Left’s aggressive promotion of sexualized material for children in schools and at other venues. It does not mention the ‘Drag Queen Story Hour’ movement or the fact that many of the books which parents demand removed from school libraries include pornographic content.

“It does not mention how many on the Left champion the idea that children should be able to identify with a gender opposite their biological sex, hide that identity from their parents, and even obtain life-altering drugs without parental consent. Instead, it acts as though the parental rights movement emerged in a vacuum, or worse, is motivated by hatred.”

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