Responding to the Justice Department's recent decision to no longer defend Section Three of the Defense of Marriage Act, Washington Times columnist Robert Knight unleashed an unhinged, homophobic rant in which he cited an anti-gay hate group and called the decision an “impeachable offense.”

Knight implored his readers to “check out Brian Camenker's shocking expose 'What same-sex 'marriage' has done to Massachusetts'” and wrote that Camenker's organization, MassResistance, “is warning the nation that there will be no quarter for those who think homosexuality is wrong and that marriage is the union of one man and one woman.”

As Media Matters has noted, the Southern Poverty Law Center named MassResistance among the “anti-gay” groups on its list of “Active U.S. Hate Groups in 2008” - and with good cause.

MassResistance has previously called on parents to keep their children home from school during an event promoting awareness of, and opposition to, anti-gay bullying and has stated that suicide prevention programs for gay and lesbian youth have no “legitimate medical or psychological basis.” The organization was also a major source behind the right-wing's false attacks on Department of Education official Kevin Jennings back in 2009.

Camenker, the group's longtime leader, has viciously attacked gays in the past. In 2007, he reportedly denied that gays and lesbians were targets of the Holocaust and has compared his supporters to the Allies and the gay rights movement to Nazis. In 2008, Camenker wrote that [s]ame-sex marriage “hangs over society like a hammer with the force of law.”

Given The Washington Times' long history of anti-gay rhetoric, it's not shocking that one of its columnists would launch a homophobic rant like this. (See Jeffrey Kuhner's anti-gay attacks in his February 24 column.) But to allow a columnist to promote the work of a hate group as a legitimate source is simply irresponsible.