Friends of Humanity

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Friends of Humanity
Portrayed by none
Known Aliases:	FoH
Affiliations:	Anti-Mutant

Socked By:	Various
Introduction:	November 2003

The Friends of Humanity are one of the major anti-mutant groups in the United States, both on a political level (rallies, leaflet campaigns etc) and in terms of more violent activities.

The Friends of Humanity first came to the mansion's attention on November 17, 2003, having claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of the son of one of the Professor's friends in the Senate. The group had not been heard of before this time; they did, however, at that time have established connections with the Mississipi branch office of the FBI, which during that time was being investigated for corruption. At this time, they were primarily an underground militia/terrorist cell network, that gradually moved into public view and attempted to establish a positive face and a solid recruitment base as a counter to the mutant-friendly President McKenna administration. A further incident brought them under further notice, with information on the Florida branch being passed onto the FBI by the X-Men.

The FOH have been under investigation by the FBI for years, but as they were largely underground, and not doing anything hugely (or obviously) illegal, no charges have ever been laid against the group as a whole. In some places where they have overly-enthusiastic and idealistic youth in their membership, there have been some problems, leading to small time arrests for assault or vandalism, or, as in the case of Salem Center, a sympathetic police force has looked the other way.

Up until 2004, the FOH were primarily a New England group--the first reports of their activities came from Philadelphia, which was their most likely point of origin; as of late November 2003 they had been active all up and down the East Coast, with a few incidents in the Midwest (such as in Doug's hometown of Denver) and in California as well. Past 2004 they became more widespread, distancing themselves from violence and becoming more politically-minded - by 2006, they had offices in New York, as was evidenced by an incident involving an attack by a disgruntled mutant. They were also using more creative means to target mutants, including the Internet - M-Date was a fake mutant online meeting service set up by Duncan as a means of drawing mutants out.

Currently, the Friends of Humanity are in fact two separate organizations. The official Friends of Humanity is a pro-human interest group, the advocates a broad spectrum of policies which involves the registration of mutants and strong limitations regarding the use of mutant abilities. They also operate a 527 group, they have opened chapters across the country to influence local and statewide races for candidates which support what are considered anti-mutant policies. The FoH has a youth chapter, which has had mixed success in establishing themselves in high schools, colleges and universities, and a scholarship program to encourage the success of young men and women who share their views. Many schools regard the FoH as a ‘hate group’ and deny access to organize on school grounds.

The official Friends of Humanity strongly deny any involvement with the terrorist actions claimed by earlier groups, and have disavowed any support of violence or hate crimes against mutants, although they often arrange support for trials in which a human is defending themselves against charges of assaulting or criminally interfering with a mutant. Recently, they staged a march in the still damaged streets of New York City, as a way to raise awareness about the dangers of mutants, and the irresponsibility of not enacting mutant registration laws. They have been careful to moderate their retoric on their mailing lists, publications, and websites to avoid language extreme enough to have them listed as a hate group, and in the wake of Apocalypse’s attack on New York City, some politicians have started to look more closely at the FoH as a legitimate segment of American opinion.

The non-official Friends of Humanity are individual cells, usually locally formed and run, which engage in acts of vandalism, harrassment, and violence against mutants. These cells operate largely independently, and when investigated, disavow any official ties to the FoH, although they certainly support their sentiments. Secretly, the FoH maintains very low level ties with many of these groups, usually through only the founding member, and even then, rarely communicating directly. Most actions by these cells are internally motivated and directed, but occasionally some resources or intelligence about a target are passed along through this contact, to direct an incident. The official FoH have been very careful with this, since the FBI has been investigating them since 2003, and only their position of total separation from any violent acts has protected them from prosecution as a terrorist group. It is currently unknown what the true extent of the Friends of Humanity is, how large their numbers are, or even if they are limited to the United States. What is known is that in the days following the attack on New York City, their numbers have been growing, and there is the potential for the group to emerge as a legitimate political power in the future.

In September 2012, Sam Guthrie encountered a Kentucky chapter of the FoH, led by Reed. After the encounter turned physical, Reed and the FoH struck back by setting fire to the jail where Sam was being held on assault charges, as well as the Guthrie homestead.