That’s right. As reported by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the number of hate groups have grown from 602 to 926 since the year 2000. The highest concentration not surprisingly falls below the Mason Dixon line, and unfortunately, my own home state of California with 88 groups.

From the SPLC Report…

As in recent years, hate groups were animated by the national immigration debate. But two new forces also drove them in 2008: the worsening recession, and Barack Obama’s successful campaign to become the nation’s first black president. Officials reported that Obama had received more threats than any other presidential candidate in memory, and several white supremacists were arrested for saying they would assassinate him or allegedly plotting to do so.

While the vast majority of hate groups groups are comprised of neo-Nazis, white nationalists, skins heads and the KKK, some have made it their mission to target and vilify the LGBT community as well. Those include…

• Traditional Values Coalition – Anaheim CA
• Abiding Truth Ministries – Temecula, CA
• Family Research Council – Colorado Springs, CO
• Traditional Values Coalition – Washington D.C.
• Illinois Family Institute – Carol Stream, IL
• Heterosexuals Organized for a Moral Environment – Downers Grove, IL
• Westboro Baptist Church – Topeka, KS
• The School of Christian Activism – Springfield, MA
• Mass Resistance – Waltham, MA
• Watchman on the Walls – Seattle, WA

Noticeably absent from the list…

• The American Family Association – Tupelo, MS
• Focus on the Family – Colorado Springs, CO
• Americans for Truth – Naperville, IL
• Concerned Women for America- Washington, D.C.

It’s hard for me not to believe that the rise in the number of hate groups, or at least a rise in their membership, has been fueled in part by anti-muslim sentiment after 9/11, the LGBT community demanding equality, and stoking the fires of  hard religious right leading up the election.

And sure, I definitely blame the Bush administration, which allowed an environment of hate, intolerance and economic suffering to grow and fester during his watch, allowing hate groups to flourish. Need we be reminded of the hate we witnessed during the end of the Presidential campaign?