COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) – At least 500 people braved cold temperatures and light snow in front of the Focus on the Family campus to protest the conservative Christian group’s campaign against gay rights and same-sex marriage.

The protesters May 1 held rainbow flags, multicolored balloons and signs reading “God Loves Justice” and “Love Thy Neighbor.” An American-Indian group played drums and some protesters sang “We Shall Overcome.”

Focus on the Family, founded and led by James Dobson, has vigorously opposed gay rights and same-sex marriages, urging voters during last year’s election to vote for President Bush and in favor of same-sex marriage bans that passed in 11 states.

“We are here to say, Jim, we love you enough to stop you from doing the damage you are doing to families across the nation,” said Mel White, executive director of Soulforce, a national interfaith organization that supports gay rights.

Thomas Minnery, the group’s director of public policy, watched the rally from inside the headquarters. He denied that Focus delivers a message of hate but reiterated the organization’s belief that homosexuality violates Biblical scripture.

“There are thousands of people who have left homosexuality, including some on our staff. To say that one is born that way obviously flies in the face of facts,” Minnery said.

Soulforce protesters planned to deliver letters detailing personal stories about the harm of anti-gay rhetoric and to talk to Focus staffers on May 2. They had pledged nonviolent, civil disobedience if they were denied entrance.

Dobson missed both events. He was traveling on the East Coast that week and was in Washington, D.C., for the National Day of Prayer events.

On May 1, speaking to the crowd that included gay and lesbian couples, families and children, White called Focus on the Family “a toxic religion zone.”

Kendra Wiig and her mother, Deborah Wiig, both of Denver, also challenged the group’s position.

“Although Focus says homosexuality is against families and against religion there are a lot of loving families with gay mothers, daughters and sons,” said Kendra Wiig, who is bisexual.

In her last year at Colorado State University, Kendra said she fears for her desired career as a college professor if she is open about her sexuality.

Focus has a program called “Love Won Out” that teaches homosexuality can be prevented or treated.

Focus on the Family staffer Melissa Fryrear said she was gay for a decade before becoming Christian and realizing her new life was incompatible with homosexuality.

“That’s not a Focus on the Family stance. That’s a biblical stance,” said Fryrear, who talked to reporters inside a tent on the organization’s grounds.

Meanwhile, protesters were in a festive mood despite the weather, walking under several strands of rainbow-colored balloons, listening to music and eating hot dogs. Children took turns trying to walk on stilts.

Will Pharis and Rich Weinman, who live on a ranch near Cheyenne, Wyo., have been a couple for nine years. Both teach in Weld County in northern Colorado. They marched with hundreds of others around the Focus on the Family campus, which covers at least a city block.

“We feel we wanted to have a presence here,” Weinman said. “We are known in our school district as a couple and we’ve had a lot of support from the teachers and administrators. I’m pretty convinced that mainstream folks are OK with diversity.”

During the Soulforce protest, a small group from the anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., protested Focus on the Family for being gay-friendly because it encourages gays and lesbians to become heterosexual. The church made the news when its pastor, Fred Phelps, led anti-gay demonstrations after the 1998 slaying of openly gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard.

Dobson, a child psychologist, founded Focus on the Family and has spread its message through his books and radio broadcasts that reach about 220 million people worldwide.

His reach stretches beyond religious matters, his political clout growing as evangelical Christians have become politically active. Now, he’s lobbying against Democratic senators blocking President Bush’s judicial nominees.

Three Soulforce members were arrested for trespassing at Focus on the Family headquarters on May 2, the Denver Post reported.

Philip Reitan, 57, Randi Reitan, 54, and their son, Jacob Reitan, 23, all of Eden Prairie, Minn., tried to deliver a letter to Dobson, and were arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor trespassing. They are due in Colorado Springs municipal court May 23.