U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz on Thursday proudly defended the Family Research Council (FRC), a hate group that has spent nearly 40 years spreading dangerous lies about LGBTQ people under the cloak of “religious freedom.” The Florida Republican also lashed out at the Southern Poverty Law Center, an institution dedicated to tracking and exposing the more than 800 current hate and extremist groups across the U.S.
According to the SPLC, the FRC “often makes false claims about the LGBTQ community based on discredited research and junk science.
The intention is to denigrate LGBTQ people as the organization battles against same-sex marriage, hate crime laws, anti-bullying programs and the repeal of the military’s ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy.