Former University of Kentucky coach arrested at Focus on the Family headquarters
Posted February 20, 2007
Berry (left) and Sapp (right) were arrested Monday.
Dotti Berry, a former University of Kentucky women's basketball coach, was arrested this afternoon (Monday) at the Colorado Springs, Col. headquarters of Focus on the Family -- one of the largest and most influential Christian ministries in the United States.
Also arrested was Berry's spouse Robynne Sapp. (The couple was legally married in British Columbia, Canada late last year.)
Berry, a committed gay rights activist, was taken away in a blue and white police cruiser after trespassing at the facility. She had requested a meeting with the group's founder -- James Dobson -- but he refused to meet with her, so she vowed to stay until he either 1.) changed her mind or 2.) had her arrested.
Dobson opted for the latter option.
Berry and Sapp were released from jail later in the day. The couple is scheduled to speak to a Colorado Springs pro-gay rights group on Tuesday.
In a statement Berry said: "I am here today because I am willing to do Whatever It Takes to deliver truth to Dr. Dobson. I believe in Dr. Dobson's ability to empower and share truth with people. I believe that when Dr. Dobson recognizes the untruth of what he has often spoken about gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons, and the harm it has created, not only for us, but for our families, he will shift and become the most powerful ally we have ever had. His "Saul to Paul" moment will be beyond anyone's wildest dreams as the scales fall off his eyes. I want to witness that conversion with Dr. Dobson. This is WHY WE CAN'T WAIT. The transformation of each of us is at stake. I am here to mirror Dr. Dobson's human essence, so that the reflection will cause him to fully understand why it is important to begin telling a new and true story, one that empowers all of us.
Dr. Dobson, a best-selling author, is probably the best-known psychologist in the evangelical community. Holding an earned doctorate in child development from the University of Southern California, his daily radio program is heard across America. Dr. Dobson supports traditional Christian teachings on human sexuality. As soon as I'm able to get a statement from "Focus On the Family", I'll post it.
To read a press release on Berry and Sapp's protest, click below.
Berry's websites include www.standupspeakout.com and gayintostraightamerica.com
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SOULFORCE PRESS RELEASE: February 19, 2007
For Immediate Release
Contact: Paige Schilt, Media Director
Cell: 512-659-1771
paige@soulforce.org
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Lesbian Couple Arrested for Peaceful Protest at Focus on the Family: Soulforce Campaign Asks Dobson to Take Steps Toward Reconciliation with LGBT Community
(Colorado Springs, CO) -- At approximately 1:30 p.m. on February 19, 2007, Dotti Berry and Robynne Sapp of Blaine, Wash., were arrested and removed from Focus on the Family headquarters in police custody. The couple entered the building earlier in the day and refused to leave until the organization's founder, James Dobson, takes a step toward reconciliation with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities by ceasing his misleading statements about research on lesbian and gay parents.
They have been charged with trespassing and have not yet been released.
"I am here today because I believed Dr. Dobson's teachings for many years, and it almost led to my suicide. My healing came from my acceptance of myself and my acceptance that God loves me exactly as I am," said Sapp. Sapp and Berry have toured Focus on the Family twice before to dialogue with visitors and staff about LGBT individuals and families.
Dobson has consistently misrepresented LGBT families with misleading references to social science research. In recent months, several social scientists -- including Dr. Carol Gilligan of New York University and Dr. Kyle Pruett of Yale -- have publicly rebuked him for mischaracterizing their research conclusions.
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." According to the American Psychological Association (APA), such claims rely on "studies that simply do not address gay and lesbian parents and their children." Moreover, "no credible evidence shows that children raised by lesbian or gay parents differ in any important respects from those raised by heterosexual parents."
Berry and Sapp are the first participants in an ongoing campaign called "Focus on the Facts," which is modeled on Gandhi's Satyagraha campaigns in South Africa and India. In the words of Nelson Mandela, Gandhi "rightly believed in the efficacy of pitting the soul force of the Satyagraha against the brute force of the oppressor and in effect converting the oppressor to the right and moral point."
"I am here to mirror Dr. Dobson's human essence, so that the reflection will cause him to fully understand why it is important to begin telling a new and true story, one that empowers all of us," says Berry.
Berry and Sapp will speak to the media outside Focus on the Family headquarters when they are released later this afternoon.
The Focus on the Facts campaign is coordinated by Soulforce, a national LGBT social justice organization founded on principles of nonviolence. For more than a decade, members and allies of Soulforce have confronted Focus on the Family's anti-gay rhetoric and publicized its harmful impact on the lives of individuals, parents, and children.
Soulforce is a national civil rights and social justice organization. Our vision is freedom for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people from religious and political oppression through the practice of relentless nonviolent resistance. For more information go to www.soulforce.org.
Comments
I agree with their cause, but to expect Dobson to change his mind on the issue is beyond foolish.
I guess we can now refer to Dobson as the Bull Connor of the gay rights movement, albeit without the props of chewing tobacco, dogs, and fire hoses. We live in the era of 911 now; just one call and all your critics are arrested without the muss and fuss of the sixties.
By the way, is this the same James Dobson who was quoted on this blog as saying, before the ink was dry on the accusations made against Ted Haggard, that the accusations were nothing but lies put out by the liberal media to harm Haggard, and that he knew the charges weren't true? I'm still waiting for his apology on that one.
Strategically, these activists made the mistake of trying to approach Dobson on the cheap. He regularly golfs with corporate bigwigs at $10,000 a head: For twenty grand, these folks could have had his attention for at least part of a golf game.
Of course I wasn't there (Ghandi turned June Cleaver here doesn't do much protesting these days), but unless she was threatening him in some way it seems awfully un-Christian not to at least have a little chat instead of having her arrested. Calling the cops seems a bit hyperbolic, and only made him look worse in the press.
Were I to wear a sandwich board in front of his house it would be protesting his approval of physical punishment for children.
They knew beforehand he would never meet with them. Their intention was to be arrested, and the attention behind that was to look brave and noble, in this posturing, narcissistic way.
You're right, Jack, they did plan this to make themselves look good and Dobson look bad in the press, and their plan succeeded beautifully because of Dobson's ineptitude.
Two unknown amateur protestors could both get national attention for themselves and cast Dobson in the role of Bull Connor solely because of Dobson's arrogance and political ineptitude.
All he had to do was invite them in for some tea with an associate, and he would be the hero today. The same type of arrogance which led Dobson to make the statements he did about Haggard led him to believe he is invincible and thus forget what little political skill he ever had.
Five cents worth of political acumen would have made Dobson the hero, not the villain, but that would have required some creativity on his part, something he apparently isn't good with.
If Dr Dobson believes what he says is true, he has earned his position and entitled to his opinion. Maybe this wasn't the approach to take.
Nobody has a right to demand an appointment with any executive, and no one has the right to refuse to leave the premises of a business.
That's all quite true, Jack, in the real world, but it's not true in the world of public relations.
Remember the episode of The West Wing where the American Indian tribe came and sat in the lobby of the White House? When the person who they were supposed to see couldn't see them, they just decided to wait. And the administration finally had to get someone to see them or have them evicted by the secret service, in front of everybody, which would put their cause on the front page of every newspaper in the country.
And this incident is that one written in smaller print. No, these people had no right to do what they did. And yes, it was all a publicity stunt. But public relations is an art that can be mastered. Had Dobson assigned an underling to meet with them, he could have looked reasonable for meeting with them and it would have been a non-story.
So, as a purely public relations move, I score it Lesbians 1, Dobson 0. And my point is that if Dobson had played it right, it would have gone the other way.
Editor's note: Caleb, you're right about PR. These types of standoffs are part press conference, part improvisational theatre and part chess match. The person "under seige" is at a big disadvantage, because he or she is on defense, not offense, but is not necessarily destined to lose. Once in awhile, the person whose office is being occupied gets the last laugh. For years at Harvard, activists would march into an administrator's office, sit down on the floor, wave signs and chant "Hey, hey, ho, ho, this (fill in the blank, depending on the person's title or the policy under attack) has got to go." They'd vow to "occupy" the building til their demands were met. The cops would be called and a throng of reporters would take pictures of the protesters being literally carried out or otherwise forced out. Front page stories would quickly ensue. But there was one administror at one of the graduate schools (I forget which one) who was a genius. When the protesters and the cameras showed up and sat down and started chanting, he ignored them for hours, letting them holler til they lost their voices. Then as the evening dragged on, he sent over wine and cheese and other snacks. So now, the media had great pictures of the protesters enjoying a late night snack, courtesy of the adminstration. As the food was being consumed, he (and his wife I think) came by -- all smiles -- shook their hands, wished them a good night and said one of his aides would be there with them in case they needed anything during the evening. Twenty years later, I don't remember what cause they were espousing or which office they occupied. But I remember the wine and cheese.
This is a wacky way to seek attention. Their behavior doesn't make them seem noble and brave, just dumb and deluded.
I think you're (intentionally or not) misunderstanding the nature or protest, Jack.
Civil rights workers, too, wanted to get arrested, and wanted to get thrown out of white churches in the south, and surely demanded attention from people from whom they had no right to "demand" attention. The same was true with coal miners who unionized in Appalachia and innumerable other groups who had good points to make.
And of course, he has a "right" to his opinion, but as a public person who has written and spoken broadly on this topic he should reasonably expect a certain amount of challenge.
Two unknown amateur protestors could both get national attention for themselves
Well, I don't know how much national attention they got; this is the first I've heard of it, and I'm a news junkie.
Apparently, savvy readers of the Bible Belt Blogger get the story first.
Do we even know if Dr. Dobson was in the building?
Would it matter to those two? Dobson could have been in Jibuti. They would just pretend that they were going to see Dobson, and as long as people came to take their pictures that would achieve their goals.
Dotti Berry: Another good reason to keep your daughter out of women's collegiate sports.
This is the same sort of activism that Louie Crew tried when he introduced himself to Archbishop Peter Akinola as a gay man and then reported on his blog that the Archbishop pulled back in revulsion. Of course that account has never been confirmed by any eye witnesses, but the story has been circulated widely to detract from Akinola's standing as a top leader in the Anglican Communion.
SO glad that wasn't about Rick Pitino...