Apparently, I work for a hate group. I learned that this spring when the Southern Poverty Law Center identified Do No Harm, the medical nonprofit that employs me, as one of “more than 1,500 hard right extremist groups operating across the country.” We seemingly earned that label for our opposition, alongside a majority of Americans, to so-called gender-affirming care for minors, though I suspect that the SPLC also resents our stance against “diversity, equity, and inclusion” in medicine.
The SPLC is well-known for targeting conservative and non-progressive organizations. The center deploys a form of guilt by association, hoping that the public won’t notice the difference between genuinely awful groups and those that simply oppose the progressive Left. While the Westboro Baptist Church and the Nation of Islam rightly earn the SPLC’s “hate group” designation, groups like Moms for Liberty—which push back against progressive orthodoxy on topics like porn in schools—clearly do not.
In recent years, left-wing and apolitical organizations have increasingly shared, or at least spotlighted, our concerns with pediatric gender medicine. The New York Times, for example, has acknowledged the uncertain risks of hormonal interventions, the lack of evidence for the benefits of “gender affirming care,” and the evidence-based reckoning now taking place in Europe. Additionally, systematic reviews in Finland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom found substantial risks associated with the use of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, prompting those countries to limit minors’ access to pharmaceutical interventions.
Even leading liberal politicians and U.S. health authorities see the writing on the wall. In July, for instance, the Biden administration claimed to oppose sex-change surgeries for minors. In August, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons declined to endorse “any organization’s practice recommendations for the treatment of adolescents with gender dysphoria,” citing the low-quality evidence base. In a follow-up interview, ASPS president Steven Williams stated that “[c]urrently, ASPS doesn’t think that gender-affirming care for adolescents is appropriate.”
Steven Williams doesn’t find himself in the SPLC’s crosshairs. Neither does President Biden. Neither do the New York Times or European health authorities. What explains the center’s double standard?
One reason may be prudential: the SPLC might think that applying the “hate group” label too recklessly would anger its supporters. The center’s activists and benefactors doubtless revel in the smearing of groups like Do No Harm, Parents Defending Education, and Moms for Liberty. There is considerably less appetite for friendly fire directed at the New York Times or other liberal transgressors.
This points to the second reason: SPLC’s conception of “hate” is less about “what” than it is about “who.” The New York Times has enough credibility with liberal audiences that it can occasionally deviate from orthodoxy while remaining in the center’s good graces.
More fundamentally, it is a mistake to think that the SPLC is earnestly monitoring and reporting on hate groups. In reality, the center has become an enforcer for the far Left, using the cover story of being a “hate” watchdog to smear anyone who threatens progressive power and control over social policy.
If the SPLC’s accusations about hate were in earnest, it would level them equally at all who oppose the life-altering surgeries for children who identify as transgender. But it doesn’t. Instead, it serves as an attack dog for progressive interests. And that raises an important question. What’s more malicious: Trying to protect people from bad medicine, or trying to destroy the reputation of groups that don’t toe your ideological line?
Photo: The offices of the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama, circa 2007. (By Nameofuser25 at English Wikipedia - Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons by Spyder_Monkey., Public Domain, Link)