Focus on the Family’s Complete Track Record of Anti-LGBTQ Hate
The Christian nonprofit, founded by the late James Dobson, has advocated for anti-LGBTQ policies for nearly half a century.
Focus on the Family (FOTF) is a Christian ministry with a half-century history of anti-LGBTQ advocacy. Through the years, they have worked with the biggest American politicians and lawmakers to pass or maintain laws that treat LGBTQ people as second-class citizens. The nonprofit, which today amasses more than $100 million a year in revenue, was founded by James Dobson, who believed secularism was the cause of the rapid decay of American society. Here is the organization’s complete track record on LGBTQ issues.
1970
James Dobson publishes Dare to Discipline, a book that recommends corporal punishment as a way to discipline poorly behaved children, writing:
“Pain is a marvelous purifier. … It is not necessary to beat the child into submission; a little bit of pain goes a long way for a young child. However, the spanking should be of sufficient magnitude to cause the child to cry genuinely.”
Dobson believes children are inherently sinful and that they must embrace authority in order to fix America’s societal problems.
1977
Dobson launches FOTF in Arcadia, California. As the president and sole employee at the time, he hosts a weekly radio show on 34 stations where he mixes his background in psychology and in working with children with his evangelical principles. On the show, Dobson says secularism has led to the “rapid decay” of American society and that biblical principles are the cure.
1980
FOTF’s radio show grows to broadcast every day on more than 200 outlets. Around this time, Dobson joins fellow evangelical Rev. Jerry Falwell Sr. in opposing IRS regulations that bar private religious schools from refusing to enroll Black students. Falwell is founder of the Moral Majority, a national effort to elect Christian Right politicians and whose early fundraising appeals used a “Declaration of War” on homosexuality.
FOTF now has about three dozen employees. Its radio show is offered via satellite, allowing other countries to access its programming.
1982
President Ronald Reagan appoints Dobson to the National Advisory Committee for Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, representing FOTF’s most significant connection to the White House.
1983
Dobson launches the Family Research Council (FRC), an evangelical activist group that opposes LGBTQ rights, pornography, abortion and divorce and supports conversion therapy. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., FRC is referred to as FOTF’s “embassy.”
1985
Dobson is appointed to U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese’s Commission on Pornography. The commission aims to investigate the harmful effects of porn and its connections to organized crime, though it is criticized for being ideologically biased.
1986
FOTF begins printing anti-abortion resources for crisis pregnancy centers. In that same years, it opens a book publishing divisions that sells many stories that highlight folks who have supposedly cured their homosexuality and are now “ex-gays.” Today, the publishing division sells books titled “Hope for the Same-Sex Attracted,” “Coming Out of Homosexuality,” “When Homosexuality Hits Home: What To Do When A Loved One Says, ‘I’m Gay,’” “A Change of Affection: A Gay Man’s Incredible Story of Redemption” and “Gay Girl, Good God.”
1987
FOTF begins printing Citizen, a magazine that features articles such as “How Would Homosexuals Affect the Military?” and “Homosexual Militants Invade the Pews.” In an editor’s note in the latter example, the article states:
“Homosexual activism is, by design, vulgar and intended to shock and offend. The following accounts are not suitable for young readers.”
The magazine would amass a million subscribers.
FOTF continues to explode in growth. Its radio show now airs on 970 stations across 17 countries, and the organization has 450 employees.
Jan. 23, 1989
Dobson gets the final interview with serial killer Ted Bundy the night before he is executed. He gives Bundy a platform to blame pornography for his crimes.
1990
In a FOTF newsletter, Dobson writes:
“The widespread effort to redefine the family … is motivated by homosexual activists and others who see the traditional family as a barrier to the social engineering they hope to accomplish.”
In a special issue of Citizen magazine, Dobson predicts that the Cold War would be replaced by a “culture war” to be fought on three fronts: abortion, public education and homosexuality.
1992
FOTF’s campaign in support of Colorado’s Amendment 2, which blocks local LGBTQ anti-discrimination protections, sees success when the initiative passes. The campaign positions anti-discrimination laws as “special rights” that undermine religious freedom, promote homosexuality and destroy traditional families. However, the amendment never goes into effect.
1993
FOTF continues to grow and moves onto a 45-acre campus in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It reportedly now has 1,200 employees, receives 3,000 phone calls per day and has been sent approximately 10,000 letters from individuals seeking assistance with spiritual guidance, family matters and same-sex attraction.
1994
Dobson co-founds Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) along with other evangelical leaders. ADF has a cruel history with anti-LGBTQ advocacy to this day as the group who helped convince the Supreme Court to overturn Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy last month. This represented their 17th victory at the nation’s highest court.
1996
FOTF is instrumental in orchestrating a nationwide campaign to ban same-sex marriage, known as the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).
DOMA is signed into law by President Bill Clinton, representing a major win for FOTF.
1997
FOTF endorses the Southern Baptist Convention’s boycott of Disney. In an article, it lists several “offenses” by Disney. This includes a Disney-owned movie that has portrayals of homosexuality.
Former Dobson aide and FOTF co-founder Gil Alexander-Moegerle publishes “James Dobson’s War on America,” an exposé on his former boss. The book includes an anecdote where Dobson expresses frustration at the lack of research that supports the intellectual inferiority of Black Americans.
1998
FOTF expands into Latin America, opening a branch in Costa Rica called Enfoque a la Familia. Today, the branch teaches that homosexuality is “wrong,” and promotes conversion therapy.
Later that year, FOTF launches Love Won Out (LWO), an “ex-gay” ministry for so-called former homosexuals where they offer conferences, education, counseling and research to “uphold God’s design for sexuality.” LWO’s homepage says:
“[Our] ministry exhorts and equips the church to respond in a Christ-like way to the issue of homosexuality. And to those who struggle with unwanted same-sex attractions, we offer the Gospel hope that these desires can be overcome.”
The group promotes conversion therapy and, in cases where “change appears impossible,” a life of abstinence. In its distributed literature, LWO claims:
“Focus does take strong exception to the activist movement that seeks to gain special privileges and protected minority status for the homosexual community … for their identity is based on changeable behavior, not on unchangeable skin color or ethnic status.”
LWO is taken over by Exodus International in 2009 and becomes defunct when Exodus shuts down in 2013. Exodus President Alan Chambers would later renounce conversion therapy, come out of the closet and apologize for the pain the group caused to the LGBTQ community.
Oct. 12, 1998
After Matthew Wayne Shepard, a 21-year-old gay man, is beaten, tortured, tied to a fence and left to die, his murder sparks a national conversation around LGBTQ bullying and hate crime legislation.
For years, people say FOTF’s anti-LGBTQ campaigns and rhetoric influenced the crime. FOTF denies this and has published misleading articles as recently as 2024 backing claims that Shepard was killed over drugs and money and not his sexuality. FOTF calls Shepard’s story “an enduring fabrication” and “a legend.”
1999
FOTF publishes a book by John and Anne Paulk titled “Love Won Out,” regaling the story of their relationship to promote their “ex-gay” ministry. Both John and Anne claim to be formerly gay and say they overcame their homosexuality through their Christian faith. John would eventually renounce his anti-gay activism and apologize for the harm he caused in promoting conversion therapy.
2004
FOTF forms a separate lobbying and political action organization, which today is called the Family Policy Alliance (FPA). FPA would go on to be on the advisory board for Project 2025.
FOTF’s lobbying efforts would help drive 13 states to approve constitutional amendments banning same-sex marriage by the end of the year.
Oct. 15, 2004
Dobson speaks at a “Mayday for Marriage” rally on the National Mall in D.C., whose organizer hopes the event “unif[ies] Christians in the legal and political battle against same-sex ‘marriage.’”
Nov. 12, 2004
After intense political lobbying during the 2004 elections, political analysts identify Dobson as one of the biggest players in conservative politics. Slate writes that “no one helped Bush win more than Dr. James Dobson.”
2006
In a FOTF newsletter, Dobson promotes the work of Joseph Nicolosi, one of the founders of the modern “reparative therapy” movement. He shares an excerpt that discusses “certain signs of prehomosexuality which are easy to recognize” and claims that “there is no such thing as a ‘gay child’ or a ‘gay teen.’” It also calls for fathers to “affirm their sons’ maleness” and suggests that a father can “take his son with him into the shower, where the boy cannot help but notice that Dad has a penis, just like his, only bigger.”
Oct. 22, 2008
Leading up to the presidential election, FPA publishes a “Letter from 2012 in Obama’s America,” which includes excerpts that imply that homosexuals are pedophiles.
“The Boy Scouts chose to disband rather than be forced to obey a Supreme Court decision that they would have to hire homosexual Scoutmasters and allow them to sleep in tents with young boys.”
Oct. 28, 2009
Obama signs the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act into law. The measure expands the 1968 federal hate-crime law to include crimes motivated by gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and disability.
Dobson tells radio listeners that the law will “muzzle people of faith who dare to express their moral and biblical concerns about homosexuality.”
February 2010
FOTF’s new president, Jim Daly, wants the organization to reach a younger audience and be more inclusive on social issues. He tells Dobson these objectives can’t be realized if he continues as FOTF’s radio host. Dobson leaves the organization and begins a new ministry.
July 20, 2011
The Respect for Marriage Act is proposed for the first time. The act would repeal DOMA and require all states and territories to recognize the validity of same-sex marriages.
FOTF is present at a hearing defending DOMA. During the hearing, Sen. Patrick Leahy questions FOTF representative Thomas Minnery about how one can focus on the family while putting LGBTQ families at a disadvantage.
Leahy: “Yes or no … if you have parents legally married under the laws of the state – one set of parents are entitled to certain financial benefits for their children, the other set of parents are denied those same financial benefits for their children…are not those children of the second family, are they not at a disadvantage?”
Minnery: “That would be yes.”
2015
SCOTUS rules in favor of gay marriage nationwide. FOTF calls the ruling “disappointing.”
2019
FOTF rebrands their magazine into The Daily Citizen, an online publication they describe as “a faith-based perspective to counter the mainstream media’s anti-Christian bias.” Today, the site offers parenting resources on LGBT Pride, homosexuality, sexuality/marriage and transgender.
Articles include “‘Detransition Awareness Day’ - Hope and Healing for Those Caught in Transgenderism,” “Rosario Butterfield Drops Essential Truth Bomb on LGBT Lies” and “Feds Ask Parents: ‘Did You Know Gender Ideology Can Be Promoted in Kids TV Shows?’”
2020
FPA, which shares a headquarters with FOTF to this day, begins finding success from two of their campaigns to restrict transgender rights: “Save Girls Sports” targets trans girls’ participation in sports; “Help Not Harm” seeks to ban all forms of gender-affirming care for minors. Over the next three years, at least 20 states would adopt FPA’s model anti-trans legislation.
2021
An investigation by openDemocracy finds that FOTF connects LGBTQ people to conversion therapists nationwide.
Nov. 24, 2022
In late 2022, just days after a gunman massacred five people at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, vandals spray paint “THEIR BLOOD IS ON YOUR HANDS – FIVE LIVES TAKEN” on the sign outside FOTF’s headquarters. FOTF’s president releases a statement after the shooting, saying:
“We recognize the community is hurting in the aftermath of the reckless and violent actions of a very disturbed individual. This is a time for prayer, grieving and healing, not vandalism and the spreading of hate.”
April 24, 2024
Although FOTF argues that “conversion therapy” does not exist, they still promote “pastors, counselors and ministries that help people find freedom from bondage to homosexual sin.” This reflects a new rhetorical strategy by the group of distancing themselves from the term “conversion therapy” while continuing to promote the practice.
Feb. 2, 2026
FOTF publishes an article titled “Biblical View on Transgender Identity: A Primer,” where they promote the idea of “rapid onset gender dysphoria” a term coined in a retracted study that failed to obtain ethics approval. The article claims transgender identities are associated with “peer contagion” and falsely states that social media influencers and pro-LGBTQ school clubs are causing children to become trans.
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At the risk of being “holier than thou” (them) - I know I am.
I, we have the moral high ground. What a sick organisation.
Their religiously inspired insidious, sometimes visible and disgusting efforts do not represent a world world where equality and diversity (its natural after all) count for more. Their moral values are debatable to say the least.
It would be great to have a list somewhere of the changing names and and acronyms these groups use to avoid being seen. Ironic that (being seen), it suggests an element of shame and/or deceit… not (I believe) an honourable religious trait…
This is an amazing article, thank you for writing it.
One spot that's missing is James Dobsons funding and promotion of Teen Challenge, which has practiced conversion therapy on its clients.