The conservative Family Research Council, whose Chinatown building was the site of today’s shooting, has long elicited visceral reactions from left-wing activists. And the antipathy toward the group has only increased as the push for same-sex marriage has grown stronger.

“The FRC has been labeled a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center,” the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights organization, wrote in a blog post yesterday attacking FRC. The Human Rights Campaign wrote the post in order to condemn vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan for planning to speak at the FRC’s annual conference next year.

The Southern Poverty Law Center charged FRC with “dissemination of false and demonizing propaganda about gays and lesbians” when explaining why it should be regarded as a hate group.

The FRC denounced the hate group designation at the time it was first applied in 2010. “This is intolerance pure and simple,” it said in a newspaper advertisement. “Elements of the radical Left are trying to shut down informed discussion of policy issues that are being considered by Congress, legislatures, and the courts.”

h/t Erick Erickson