The group Moms for Liberty was started in 2021 by Tina Descovich, Tiffany Justice and Bridget Ziegler, three current or former school board members in Brevard County, Fla. Initially focused on mask mandates and other COVID-19 restrictions in schools, the organization is now “dedicated to fighting for the survival of America by unifying, educating, and empowering parents to defend their parental rights at all levels of government.”

In just two-and-a-half years, Moms for Liberty has grown to 285 chapters and well over 100,000 members in 45 states. In 2022, more than half of the 500 candidates endorsed by the organization were elected to school boards. In a nod to Moms for Liberty’s status as a major player in the war against so-called “woke” instruction related to gender identity, sexuality, race and racism, the leading contenders for the Republican presidential nomination spoke at its annual summit in Philadelphia last week.

In June, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) branded Moms for Liberty an “extremist” organization. The SPLC emphasizes that in contrast to the relatively mild agenda on its website, Moms for Liberty’s social media posts, policies and practices target teachers, school officials and the U.S. Department of Education; advance conspiracy theories; and spread “hateful imagery and rhetoric against the LGBTQ community.” The American Historical Association has condemned the group’s advocacy of censorship and legislation “that renders it impossible for historians to teach with professional integrity without risking job loss and other penalties.”

At the Philadelphia summit, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis applauded the organization’s efforts to help parents send their kids to school “to watch cartoons, be kids,” and focus on the basics, reading, writing, science and math, “without having some agenda shoved down their throats.”

Former President Trump declared that Moms for Liberty “is no hate group … You’re the best thing that ever happened to America.” Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley said, “When they mentioned this was a terrorist organization, I said ‘Well then, count me as a Mom for Liberty.’”

Despite (or because of) the overheated rhetoric, many Americans appear to have very little substantive knowledge about Moms for Liberty. Even Lucy Reyna, the treasurer of an Indiana chapter of Moms for Liberty, told reporters she wants to learn “What I am part of.” If the organization turns out to be too partisan, Reyna added, she will reconsider her participation.

Here are six reasons why Moms for Liberty is an extremist organization:

1. Featured speakers at the “Joyful Warriors Summit” included Katharine Gorka, an anti-Muslim activist, who has advocated “shutting down radical mosques” in the U.S.; North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, who believes teaching children about sexual orientation and gender identity is child abuse, homosexuality is “filth” and the transgender rights movement is “demonic” and “full of the Antichrist spirit”; and KrisAnne Hall, who compared the U.S. Capitol police to Nazi SS troops and claims the government of the United States “has no authority outside the PERMISSION of the sheriff” and “is just as much of a federal power as France or Texas within your state.”

2. Prominent members of Moms for Liberty have close ties to the Proud Boys, Three Percenters, QAnon and white Christian nationalists. Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio once boasted that Moms for Liberty is “the gestapo with vaginas.”

3. The front cover of “The Parent Brigade,” the newsletter of the Hamilton County, Ind., chapter of Moms for Liberty, recently carried a quote from Adolf Hitler: “He alone, who OWNS the youth, gains the future.” At a media training session at last week’s summit, Christian Ziegler, chair of Florida’s Republican Party (and Bridget Ziegler’s husband), questioned the decision of chapter leaders to apologize: “The media is not your friend … Never apologize. Apologizing makes you weak.”

4. Tiffany Justice’s confrontations with teachers were “so disruptive and disrespectful,” administrators threatened to bar her from the school. The chair of the Monroe County, Pa., chapter of Moms for Liberty was arrested for harassment; the head of communications for the Lenoke County, Ark., chapter allegedly threatened librarians with gun violence; a restraining order was issued to the chair of the Livingston County, Mich., chapter after she reportedly told school board members, “We’re coming after you. Take it as a threat. Call the FBI. I don’t care.”

5. The chair of the El Paso County, Colo., chapter raised the hypothetical of a teacher telling a tomboy, “it might be time to transition. Let’s go talk to the school therapist. Let’s go talk to a physician. Let’s do this.” She believes “teachers, unions and the president” are engaged in a coordinated effort to make children trans and gay to “break down the family unit, conservative values,” and “slowly erode constitutional rights.” However, she does not know of anyone who transitioned because of social pressure.

6. The Williamson County, Tenn., chapter of Moms for Liberty alleged a book about Martin Luther King Jr. and the March on Washington promotes “anti-American, anti-White, anti-Mexican” instruction, singling out a photo of segregated water fountains and an image of firefighters hosing down Black children. The chapter also demanded the removal of “The Story of Ruby Bridges,” about a six-year old who integrated a school in Louisiana in 1960.

All Americans should welcome more active engagement of parents in their children’s schools. They should also agree that Moms for Liberty extremists are making our schools — and our democracy — worse.

Glenn C. Altschuler is the Thomas and Dorothy Litwin Professor of American Studies at Cornell University. He is the co-author (with Stuart Blumin) of “Rude Republic: Americans and Their Politics in the Nineteenth Century.”