Contributions to Anti-LGBTQ Hate Groups Continue to Increase Around U.S.

As anti-LGBTQ bills are increasingly introduced around the country, the power of hate groups continues to rise, and violence against the LGTBQ community is still growing.

According to an NBC News analysis, 11 nonprofit, anti-LGBTQ hate groups identified by Southern Poverty Law Center pulled in more than $110 million in contributions in the financial year ending in 2020. These contributions have increased by 25% since 2016, when these same groups reported $87 million in contributions. 

Anti-LGBTQ groups primarily consist of Christian right groups but also include such organizations as the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality that purport to be scientific, as SPLC reports.  

“Many of those, while not specifically tied to a church, are rooted in the conservative Christian, biblical sense of human sexuality,” Scott McCoy, the interim deputy legal director for LGBTQ rights and special litigation for the SPLC, tells NBC News.

The 2021 SPLC report identified 733 hate groups actively operating across the country, and the number of documented active hate groups has declined for the third year in a row after reaching a historic high of 1,020 in 2018. Though, the report notes that this doesn’t necessarily demonstrate a decline in the power of the far right. Rather, it it suggests that the extremist ideas that mobilize them are operating more openly in the political mainstream.

SPLC recorded a high rate of hate groups during Trump’s presidency; just in 2020, they tracked 838 active hate groups. According to SLPC, new hate groups are formed due to reactions to changes to society, “especially changes that challenge white hegemony.” 

“Many of these groups assert that LGBTQ people are a threat to society itself. That kind of extremist rhetoric and belief is part of what goes into our decision-making process,” McCoy says.

The SPLC hate map shows that in 2021, California had the most hate groups across the country, with a total of 65 groups, followed by Florida with 53 and Texas with 52 hate groups .  

“It is important to understand that the number of hate groups is merely one metric for measuring the level of hate and racism in America,” the 2020 report says. “And that the decline in groups should not be interpreted as a reduction in bigoted beliefs and actions motivated by hate.”