The ADL withdrew its smear of Charlie Kirk. The SPLC should follow its example.

The Anti-Defamation League last week retired its “Glossary of Extremism” amid backlash for having designated Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA as an extremist organization. The ADL isn’t alone in applying such inflammatory labels. Months before Kirk’s assassination, the Southern Poverty Law Center added Turning Point USA to its “hate map,” equating it with the Ku Klux Klan.

The threats reached a fever pitch after Kirk’s assassination and ahead of the Supreme Court term, in which we have cases pending. On Tuesday, we deliver oral arguments in Chiles v. Salazar, which will determine whether states can forbid licensed counselors from helping children with gender dysphoria become more comfortable with their sex. For the first time in our history, there won’t be an accompanying rally outside the court. Security professionals warned us that the threats of violence at an outdoor event were too great.

Ignoring those threats would be irresponsible amid a wave of violence perpetrated by supporters of radical gender ideology. Threats from those who share this worldview have been directed at our client, Kaley Chiles, a Christian counselor from Colorado. That state’s law bars licensed counselors from saying anything to clients under 18 that “attempts or purports to change an individual’s . . . gender identity,” even if it is the client’s stated goal to find peace with her sex. “Hate” designations and related violence are intended to extinguish the courage of people like Ms. Chiles. Her presence in court is proof that they have failed.

Groups like the ADL and the SPLC are fostering hate by dehumanizing people who disagree with them. Little wonder that a third of college students believe it is acceptable to use violence to stop a speaker.

Since I was accosted and threatened at Yale Law School in 2022, I have had to travel with security most places I go. Videos about me online that refer to the SPLC’s hate designation are adorned with comments such as “Where is Luigi when you need him?”—a reference to the alleged assassin of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

But we won’t be cowed. When our cases in defense of women’s sports are argued at the Supreme Court in January, we expect to be back with the biggest rally yet—this time with the security apparatus needed to defend our speakers. We welcome the peaceful counterprotesters who will come. We would defend their First Amendment rights if necessary, knowing full well that they would never return the favor.

Ms. Waggoner is CEO and chief counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom.

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Source: False Charges of ‘Hate’ Encourage Violence – WSJ