The president of the anti-gay National Organization for Marriage wasted no time capitalizing on the Family Research Council shooting incident, attempting to make it illegitimate to refer to groups like his as “hate groups:” Shooting Spurs Heated Debate on Gay Rights, ‘Hate Group’ Label.

Brian Brown, the president of NOM, pointed to a recent blog post by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), one of the largest gay-rights groups in the country. The post, “Paul Ryan Speaking at Hate Group’s Annual Conference,” called attention to the vice presidential candidate’s scheduled appearance at the FRC’s national summit next month.

“Today’s attack is the clearest sign we’ve seen that labeling pro-marriage groups as ‘hateful’ must end,” Brown said in a statement issued following the shooting.

So just for the record, the shooting attack at the Family Research Council is awful, and I totally condemn it without reservation. I couldn’t possibly disagree with the FRC more, but violence is no answer to what they’re doing; in fact, as you can see, it only gives them an excuse to play victim.

Nevertheless, make no mistake: the Family Research Council is, and remains, a far right hate group, trafficking in bigotry and religious fanaticism in order to deprive gay people of human rights. “Hate group” is the correct term for what they are, and no one should stop referring to them as such.