Hate in the U.S.A. -
I'm Feeling Like a Target

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) publishes a magazine, Intelligence Report. The Report is an unrelenting litany of hate across the United States. I'm amazed at the world views of the haters, bigots, and killers profiled in the Report. These are twisted people with dark minds, small hearts, and no charity. I read the magazine from cover to cover, and came away feeling profoundly depressed.

The SPLC shines a bright light into some very dark corners of America. After reading the publication, I feel like a target: I'm a gay atheist in a committed relationship with a secular Jewish gay man. Much of my family is African American.

The SPLC web site has a Hate Map of the United States. On the map, I clicked Maryland. My state (the "Free State") is home to ten hate groups: two Ku Klux Klan groups, four Neo-Nazi groups, two white nationalist groups, one racist skinhead group, and one black separatist group. I'm betting that every one of those groups hates me.