Anti-LGBTQ+ activist to testify before Congress against Southern Poverty Law Center

A House Judiciary Committee hearing will include Tyler O'Neil as the top witness regarding the Southern Poverty Law Center. O'Neil is a senior editor at The Daily Signal and authored a book attacking the SPLC’s work against hate crimes. He has also defended the American Freedom Law Center, which defends accused domestic terrorists, and has criticized the Episcopal Church for its positions on immigration and homosexuality. Critics say the hearing lacks credible witnesses and frames an anti-civil-rights agenda as congressional oversight. They argue the focus on the SPLC does not improve public safety and instead enables racist and anti-LGBTQ+ groups to operate with less scrutiny.

"Tyler O'Neil, now a senior editor at The Daily Signal, was listed as the top witness at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on the Southern Poverty Law Center being held Wednesday. That's largely because O'Neil penned a book, "Making Hate Pay: The Corruption of the Southern Poverty Law Center," entirely dedicated to disparaging the decades of work fighting hate crimes done by the SPLC."

"But in his capacity at the Daily Signal, O'Neil has also defended the American Freedom Law Center, a group that defends accused domestic terrorists, and has disparaged the Episcopal Church as "one of the most flaccid and spineless of the dying mainline Protestant denominations," specifically over its stances on immigration and homosexuality."

""House Republicans can't find credible witnesses for their anti-civil rights crusade next week because they have no credible case. They're giving a microphone to one of the far-right's most discredited, anti-LGBTQ+ extremists and dressing it up as congressional oversight," said Kyle Herrig, Executive Director of the Congressional Integrity Project."

""It's all in service of the Trump administration's backwards prosecution of the Southern Poverty Law Center, the premiere organization tracking the very extremism people like Tyler O'Neill support. Attacking the SPLC doesn't do anything to make Americans safer. It just makes it easier for racist, anti-LGBTQ+ organizations to operate in the dark.""

Read at Advocate.com