It sure seems that way at times, especially since that city is the headquarters for James Dobson's Focus on the (Straight) Family.
Not everybody there is happy about that image, especially those who are trying to attract business to Colorado Springs:
Mike Kazmierski wants the world to know that not everybody in Colorado Springs - home of Focus on the Family, the anti-gay-marriage amendment, the anti-domestic-partnership initiative and Will Perkins - is a flaming anti-gay-rights activist.
"We're really very diverse," said the president of the Colorado Springs Economic Development Corp.
As they travel nationally trying to attract new industry, the question comes up all the time," said Jay Patel, a member of the Diversity Forum along with Kazmierski. "They are constantly having to apologize and try to rectify that perceived image."
Kazmierski said the reputation of the Springs as intolerant is widespread. "But like the misperception that Colorado Springs is covered in snow eight months of the year, it's wrong."
Ted Trimpa, a partner at Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck and a prominent gay activist, agreed.
The image of the Springs "is stuck at where the city was three or four years ago," he said, "and it's a little unfair."
While Focus and other conservative religious organizations still wield tremendous political power in the community, "the dynamic has changed," he said. "People within the Republican Party there have started saying no to extremism.
"We actually may be reaching a tipping point."
Trimpa said gay-rights leaders have an obligation to help the city become genuinely diverse.
"I tell my gay friends we have to let go of the notion of the epiphany.
"There is not going to be a day when the opposition wakes up and says, 'You're right. We're so sorry."'
Instead, the strategy should be one of building mutual respect, he said. "We have got to move to respecting where they come from and at the same time building our own power base."
Could Colorado Springs be a tipping point where right-wing extremists lose their influence in favor of a balanced approach where all people are accepted?
Let's hope so. It would be wonderful to see the city known for being a trendsetter in acceptance rather than bigotry.
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colorado springs is my (now disowned) hometown... for many reasons, not the least of which is the uncomfortable feeling i get when i am there, i have severed my emotional ties with the place where i grew up... it's a shame, really because it's a gorgeous area of the country... i spent a good chunk of my earlier life backpacking in and around the front range of the rockies, and the first 30 years of my life, the first thing i saw in the morning outside my window was pikes peak... it's too bad it has become a magnet for some of the most intolerant and hateful of the so-called christian fundamentalist religious groups... i suppose the high concentration of active duty and retired military don't help matters either... again, it's a shame...
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