The list is compiled by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a legal nonprofit that has evolved to become an occasional source of political controversy, Legal Insurrection notes. The SPLC’s “Extremist Files” categorize each individual or group by 16 “ideologies,” including Holocaust Denial, Ku Klux Klan, Neo-Nazi, and other tags that are more contemporary. One is “anti-LGBT,” the grouping to which Carson belongs.

“Carson’s own story as an ‘up by the bootstraps’ black man reared in poverty translated into an inspiring, magnetic narrative that captured media attention,” Carson’s profile reads. “Soon he was appearing as the keynoter at a rash of right-wing and hate group gatherings, linking gays with pedophiles, comparing the U.S. to Nazi Germany and endorsing biblical economic practices for 21st century America.”

The SPLC quotes two of Carson’s uncompromisingly pro-traditional marriage statements, one of which was “It’s a well-established pillar of society and no group, be they gays, be they NAMBLA, be they people who believe in bestiality — it doesn’t matter what they are, they don’t get to change the definition.” It was one of a few instances in which Carson has “stepped in it,” so to speak, and he later apologized on CNN for the “insensitivity” of the remark.

“One of the things I’m learning as I spend more time on television is how to be more artful, and this is a good lesson in doing that. The basic thing that we were really talking about is whether a group has the ability to change the definition of marriage.”

Carson is joined on the watch list by such individuals as David Duke, Louis Farrakhan, and deceased Westboro Baptist Church pastor Fred Phelps, all of whom are quite different from Carson.