Watchdog identifies nearly a dozen active hate and antigovernment groups in Connecticut

Eleven Connecticut organizations appeared in the Southern Poverty Law Center’s latest report on national extremist activities as local officials warn that hate-crimes are on the rise in the state.

The 2022 Year in Hate and Extremism study by the SPLC, a civil rights watchdog that works to “track, expose and counter hate and extremism in the United States,” included two Connecticut parents rights groups on its list of hate and anti-government organizations.

Connecticut Parents Involved in Education and the Fairfield County chapter of Moms for Liberty appeared alongside the Proud Boys and the neo-Nazis as groups that the SPLC tracked last year.

Moms for Liberty co-founders Tiffany Justice and Tina Descovich said that the SPLC designation as an anti-government organization “can do real harm” in a response published by the Wall Street Journal.

“If it is now ‘hate’ or ‘extreme’ or ‘antigovernment’ to ask questions of public education officials, what does that say about parents’ ability to be involved in their children’s education?” Justice and Descovich said. “They (the SPLC) find it threatening that parents have become vocal and involved in the education system since the pandemic, and they want us to sit down and shut up.”

The SPLC describes Moms for Liberty as “a far-right organization that engages in anti-student inclusion activities and self-identifies as part of the modern parental rights movement.” They said the group “grew out of opposition to public health regulations for COVID-19” and now “opposes LGBTQ+ and racially inclusive school curriculum, and has advocated books bans.”

In their fight against “woke ideology,” Moms for Liberty pushes indoctrination and groomer conspiracy theories, SPLC said. The SPLC said chapters have referred to teacher unions as terrorist organizations, advocated for eliminating the Department of Education and teamed up with the Proud Boys and other controversial groups at rallies.

“The national organization and its chapters reflect views and actions that are antigovernment and conspiracy propagandist, anti-LGBTQ and anti-gender identity, and anti-inclusive curriculum,” the SPLC said.

CTPIE, an offshoot of the U.S. Parents Involved in Education, which describes itself as a part of “national coalition of states attempting to abolish the US Dept. of Education,” employs much of the same dogma.

A perusal of the Connecticut Facebook group of 359 members unveiled homophobic memes, anti-trans and critical race theory rhetoric, talk of a “war for the souls of our children,” and users claiming a claim that the “antichrist” will be LGBTQ a member of minority religious groups.

In response to the anti-government group classification, the USPIE Facebook account called the SPLC’s 2022 report a “hit job hate group list.” Connecticut members called the label a “#badgeofhonor.”

Other SPLC-identified extremist groups in Connecticut included statewide chapters of the anti-Muslim organization Act for America, the neo-Nazi Nationalist Social Club (NSC-131), the white nationalist Patriot Front, and the Proud Boys hate group.

The National Constitutional Coalition of Patriotic Americans, a group which believes that “this country has reached a place that our constitution never intended and are working diligently to correct the course through a variety of measures,” was also added to the SPLC’s list of active anti-government organizations in Connecticut.

Other groups with an anti-government label included two conspiracy-pushing media organizations, Waterbury-based We Are Change CT and The Post and Email based in Canterbury, as well as the Connecticut branch of The American State Assembly, which believes that the “original Government…unknowingly gifted its powers to a corporate government entity in DC,” and that U.S. citizens are “​​governed by foreign corporate governmental service providers.”

In 2022, the SPLC tracked 1,225 active extremist organizations in the U.S. Mirroring recent headlines in Connecticut, the SPLC said that these groups have shifted to grassroots efforts including flyering, demonstrations and displays, with schools emerging as “a primary target for locally driven extremist mobilization.”

“We are exposing a concerted effort by hate groups and extremist actors to terrorize communities and gain control of public institutions by any means necessary,” Margaret Huang, president and CEO of the Southern Poverty Law Center said in a statement. “These groups are descending on Main Street America and disrupting people’s daily lives, too often with dire consequences for communities of color, Jewish people, and the LGBTQ+ community.”