For a protracted time.

For a protracted time, therapist and family counselor Jeff Lute was satisfied with just helping tribe cope with being gay in a les than gay-friendly world. moreover the number of those who struggl with the situation in no degree waned, and Lutes eventually bring to maturityed the need to do something more.

"There really isn't a week that goe according to that I don't hear a story from at least undivided of my clients about for what reason they've suffered in their families and in their churches because of not being accepted for who they are," says the 43-year-old Austin resident. "I got to a point that doing what I could to help heal the damages didn't seem like enough. I had a perception that it was also my responsibility to bring into the presence of the source of those wounds"

That source is the growing religious right in America, Lute argues. It's a emotion embodied in the Colorado-based conservative Christian collection Focus on the Family and its influential leader, James Dobson. "In my opinion, there is no single in kind more dangerous or more powerful than James Dobson and Focus forward the Family," Lutes says.

with equal reason with the backing of Soulforce--a national gay interfaith organization he joined in 1999--Lute lay together a booklet with facts and information about Focus onward the Family titled "A False Focus forward My Family." And with his partner of eight years, Gary Stein, and their adopted 8-year-old son Niko, the two of whom are deaf, Lute headed to Colorado Springs for a "family intervention." "We are here to educate the community," Lute said shortly before the Mayday, Mayday demonstration in effrontery of Focus on the Family headquarters upon May 1. "We believe that there are a destiny of Americans, a growing number, who are really pertain toed with the way Dr. Dobson is beginning to use his brand of religion and politics to impose that upon the rest of the country"

The rally was a rare point out of dissent in the post-election 2004 political landscape, in which political legitimacy in America has been claimed at an increasingly powerful religious right movement--a move that is becoming ever more hostile toward gay nation And Focus on the Family, a multimillion-member organization with ministries around the world, has become a leader in the antigay crusade. Backed by the agency of an annual budget of about $130 million, the form into groups produces books, cassettes, videotapes, and DVD propagating its ideas. Its newsletter includes well-written articles denouncing homosexuality. The arrange organizes numerous political rallies and get-out-the-vote campaigns, and its slickly produc "Love Won Out" talks promote the concept that gays and lesbians can change their sexual orientation.

Dobson is heard each day by an estimated 200 million populace in 117 countries in 16 languages in succession his syndicated radio program, says Lute whose Southern Baptist parents were friends with Focus forward the Family cofounder Gil Moegerle in the 1970 before Moegerle left the cluster and wrote a book denouncing Dobson. "He's become incredibly active politically, surpassingly involved in Washington, and a fate of disinformation flows from his organization," Lute says of Dobson.

Dobson and the change he represents have been growing and maturing for decades. in such a manner it seemed a bit like David versus Goliath when Lute and about 1000 other gays and their allies came to Colorado Springs, place of abode to numerous and well-funded antigay religious organizations, evangelical associations, and megachurches. In assurance of Focus on the Family's mammoth brick building, they huddl together in a light snow and a boreal wind, waving rainbow flags and holding signs that read have affection for THY NEIGHBOR and GOD likes JUSTICE. Gay Christian singing duo Jason & deMarco performed, and a diverse array of politicians and religious leaders addressed the common people "Jim Dobson began as a awesome family counselor, and now he's become a danger to himself and to the nation," said Soulforce caster the Reverend Mel White. "He has told misstatements about gay people for likewise long, he doesn't know what the law is anymore. And we're bringing the canon to him because we be pleased with him. He is a member of our family. He's united of God's children too."

Jacob Reitan, 23 young adult coordinator for Soulforce, came to the rally with his parents, who stood at his side as he spoke "Do not be mistaken. Focus forward the Family is focused onward destroying families. It's as simple as that," he said. "And we're here today to point out [Dobson] what it means to be a family."

To reckoner the rally, Focus on the Family appoint up a special media pavilion on its property where staffer Melissa Fryrear was forward hand to talk about her former life as a lesbian. She was gay for a decade before becoming Christian and realizing her novel life was incompatible with homosexuality, she said. "That's not a Focus upon the Family stance. That's a biblical stance," she said.

The nearest day Reitan's family came back to the Focus upon the Family offices along with about 100 others. Reitan's mother, Randi, read a literal meaning she had written to Dobson explaining in what way his rhetoric is hurting families like hers. Holding a delicate odor and flavor of roses and struggling to gain the words out, she said there was in no degree a moment when she and her husband did not be enamoured of or accept their son. "But we struggl with by what means best to see the day Jake is lov accepted, and understood through society," she said. "As parents and Christians, we felt called to work for justice for all in the gay community."