Gay protesters arrested at Focus on the Family

Two women demanding that Focus on the Family (FOF) stop issuing misleading statements about research on lesbian and gay parents were arrested inside the organization's national headquarters in Colorado Springs on Feb. 20. Dotti Berry and Robynne Stapp of Blaine, WA, entered the building seeking a meeting with FOF founder James Dobson. Officials refused to set up a meeting with Dobson and the women staged a sit-in in the lobby. After about 20 minutes, police were called. When the women refused a police order to leave they were taken into custody. "I am here today because I believed Dr. Dobson's teachings for many years, and it almost led to my suicide," said Stapp. "My healing came from my acceptance of myself and my acceptance that God loves me exactly as I am." The women are not unknown to FOF staff. Stapp and Berry, who are associated with Soulforce, a nondenominational group that protests against church groups that exclude gays, have toured FOF twice before to dialogue with visitors and staff about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals and families. Dobson and other Focus spokespeople frequently discredit LGBT parenting with references to "more than 10,000 studies that have showed that children do best when they have a mom and a dad." Last year, the American Psychological Association (APA) said that such claims rely on "studies that simply do not address gay and lesbian parents and their children." The APA also said that "no credible evidence shows that children raised by lesbian or gay parents differ in any important respects from those raised by heterosexual parents." Even some of the researchers who did the studies quoted by Dobson have accused FOF of being misleading. New York University professor Dr. Judith Stacey last year accused FOF of twisting research on gays "to prop up unscientific claims." "I am deeply troubled by the ways in which Focus on the Family willfully misrepresents my research on lesbian and gay parenthood to support their ideological opposition to homosexuality," said Stacey. Canadian researcher Dr. Elizabeth Saewyc, an associate professor at the University of British Columbia, and the lead author of a study on suicide, said that FOF is incorrectly blaming an increased rate of suicide attempts by young people on "pro-gay advocates" who tell lesbians they were born gay and must "embrace homosexuality." Stapp and Berry were charged with trespassing. They are the first participants in an ongoing campaign by Soulforce called "Focus on the Facts," which is modeled on Gandhi's Satyagraha campaigns in South Africa and India.