The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) is the premiere U.S. non-profit organization monitoring the activities of domestic hate groups and other extremists – including the Ku Klux Klan, the neo-Nazi movement, neo-Confederates, racist skinheads, black separatists, antigovernment militias, Christian Identity adherents, and others. It currently is tracking more than 1,600 extremist groups operating across the country.

SPLC has just added one more name to its list of domestic hate groups and extremists. It’s the Liberty Counsel, the law firm that represents Kentucky clerk Kim Davis. The Liberty Counsel is now on the same list as the Family Research Council and the Ku Klux Klan.

The SPLC sums up Liberty Counsel as a “legal organization advocating for anti-LGBT discrimination under the guise of religious liberty.” SPLC provides the following quotes from Liberty Counsel in support of its position in labeling it a hate group.

“Homosexual conduct can result in significant damage to those involved who engage in such conduct. There is no evidence that a person is born homosexual. And there is evidence that people can change. Our culture is being pressured with demands that our homes welcome, our daycares embrace, our schools indoctrinate, our businesses promote, and our laws reward this harmful sexual behavior.” – Liberty Counsel website, “Resources on the Family,” 2015

“Now [the group will] allow homosexual young boys in the Scouts and allow homosexual leaders in the Scouts, and what are you going to have? You are going to have all kinds of sexual molestation. This is a playground for pedophiles to go and have all these boys as objects of their lust.” – Mat Staver, “Faith and Freedom Radio,” August 2015

“When you consider that the life of the average homosexual is not controlled by reason, not controlled by the will, it’s really a life controlled by this lust, this passion, that has kind of overwhelmed them, and so you have kind of the essence of a lack of self control.”—Steve Crampton, Liberty Counsel attorney, “Faith and Freedom Radio,” July 2013

“Your lifestyle – homosexuality – is always and forever, objectively and demonstrably wrong. It is never good, natural, right or praiseworthy. … In almost every category – disease, depression, drug and alcohol abuse, and suicide – those who call themselves ‘gay’ live and die with consequences that have nothing gay, in the true sense of the word, about them.”—Matt Barber writing at WND, June 2012

Watch David Pakman address SPLC’s action

For many more quotes and the reason behind SPLC listing Liberty Counsel a hate group, click SPLC on Liberty Counsel.

Farron Cousins is the executive editor of The Trial Lawyer magazine and a contributing writer at DeSmogBlog.com. He is the co-host / guest host for Ring of Fire Radio. His writings have appeared on Alternet, Truthout, and The Huffington Post. Farron received his bachelor's degree in Political Science from the University of West Florida in 2005 and became a member of American MENSA in 2009. Follow him on Twitter @farronbalanced