According to a new study released Wednesday by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), at least 1,018 hate groups were operating in the United States last year.
The SPLC in 2000 identified 602 groups whose “ideology is organized against specific radical, religious, sexual or other characteristics.”
Groups distrustful of the federal government, the so-called patriot or militia movement, have risen dramatically, from 824 in 2010 to 1,274 last year.
“They represent both a kind of right-wing populist rage and left-wing populist rage that has gotten all mixed up in anger toward the government,” Mark Potok of the SPLC told the paper.
Groups designated as anti-gay increased from 17 in 2010 to 27.
The report cited advances in gay rights for the increase, in particular the growing acceptance of gay marriage and the repeal of “Don't Ask, Don't Tell.”
“[I]t was precisely these advances that seemed to set off a furious rage on the religious right, with the renewed efforts to ban or repeal marriage equality and what seemed to be an intensification of anti-gay propaganda in certain quarters,” the report's authors wrote.
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