Number of Antigay Hate Groups Rises 60 Percent

The number of hate groups in the U.S. has grown for the 12th consecutive year, according to a report published Wednesday by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Specifically, SPLC reports a 60% increase in the number of antigay hate groups, from 17 in 2010 to 27 last year. "They represent both a kind of right-wing populist rage and a left-wing populist rage that has gotten all mixed up in anger toward the government," Mark Potok, a senior fellow with the Southern Poverty Law Center and author of the report, told the New York Times.

SPLC has been tracking the growth of hate groups for 30 years, and has documented a steady growth of such organizations since 2000, when 602 were identified. The legal advocacy group attributes the growth of antigay groups to the advances in LGBT rights, including the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" and a growing push for marriage equality nationwide.

"It was precisely these advances that seemed to set off a furious rage on the religious right, with renewed efforts to ban or repeal marriage equality and what seemed to be an intensification of anti-gay propaganda in certain quarters," Potok wrote in the report.

Read the full report here.