Images in this article contain swear words.
FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—Moms for Liberty has received countless death threats, but the messages spiked after the Southern Poverty Law Center put the parental rights group on its “hate map,” its cofounders say.
“It gave people permission to treat us as subhuman,” Tiffany Justice, one of the group’s cofounders, told The Daily Signal. She accused Moms for Liberty’s critics of trying “to whip people up into such a frenzy that they end up sending death threats to me and to the members and our children.”
“Designating us as a hate group gives people permission to dehumanize us, and the SPLC knows it,” Justice added.
The SPLC brands mainstream conservative and Christian organizations “hate groups,” placing them on a map with chapters of the Ku Klux Klan. In June, it added a slew of parental rights organizations to that “hate map” for 2022 and labeled them “antigovernment groups,” part of an “anti-student inclusion movement.”
As I wrote in my book “Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center,” the SPLC has faced multiple scandals and defamation lawsuits. In 2019, after the SPLC fired its cofounder amid a racial discrimination and sexual harassment scandal, a former employee called the hate accusations a “highly profitable scam.”
In 2012, a now-convicted terrorist targeted the Family Research Council for a mass shooting, using the “hate map” to identify his target. The SPLC condemned the attack but kept the council on the map ever since.
Protesters mobbed the Moms for Liberty summit in Philadelphia, held June 29-July 2, citing the SPLC accusation. They also cited a Moms for Liberty chapter which apologized after quoting Adolf Hitler to illustrate that the Nazis tried to brainwash and recruit children.
Tina Descovich, the other cofounder, exclusively shared many of the death threats her organization received after the SPLC’s accusation.
“I will personally eradicate you from Massachusetts,” one person wrote to the organization’s “Contact Us” page. He condemned Moms for Liberty as “nasty sows.”
One person, who gave the name “Execute All-Nazis,” wrote, “Piece of s— fascists like you deserve to be dragged against a wall and force-fed hot lead. Eat s— and die.”
“You women have no soul, no morals, for quoting Adolf Hitler in your newsletter,” another threat-sender wrote. “The state should remove your kids and/or grand kids from your homes. Evil, evil, evil people you are!”
Another threat appeared to reference the SPLC. “You are NOTHING But a bunch of F—ING C—S who should be F—ING DESTROYED AS AN EXTREMEST [sic] GROUP YOU F—NG BIGGOTED [sic] C—S,” the person wrote.
A person who gave the name “Satan Anti-Christ” wrote that Moms for Liberty “will answer for the crimes YOU committed against our LGBTQ children (legally of course).”
“We are Legion.”
Another person merely wrote, “Eat s— and die.”
Descovich shared other voicemails, emails, and “Contact Us” responses that included vile threats against the family members of Moms for Liberty, and she said the group has received many, many more.
“I send them to law enforcement,” Descovich said.
“The SPLC is purposely putting a target on all moms’ backs—all moms that are standing up for their children,” she added.
She mentioned the FRC shooting as evidence of how the SPLC’s demonization inspires hate and could spark violence.
“I don’t think you have to look any further than at the Family Research Council and how they were threatened by a shooter because of the designation as a ‘hate group,'” Descovich argued.
Despite the threats, Descovich said Moms for Liberty will stand firm.
“We ask ourselves all the time, ‘If not us, then who?'” she said. “The future of our children and our country is too important to stay silent. Generations of Americans have sacrificed their own lives to protect our liberty and freedom and we will not back down.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the threats or the accusation that its attack gave “permission” for them.
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