Battling the religious right.

• Author: Rivers, Frances
• Position: Citizen's Project of Colorado Springs, Colorado

Fixing the bright blue bumper sticker Celebrate Diversity on a car in Colorado Springs is no token gesture of political correctness. It signifies support for one embattled group's fight against the growing influence of the Religious Right in the political affairs of the community. Citizen's Project has distributed more than 15,000 of the stickers, even though, as co-founder Amy Divine commented, "Diversity has become a dirty word in this community."

Opponents of the group's message have defaced the bumper stickers so they read, Celebrate Perversity. More than one car sporting the original slogan has been run off the road.

But the Project's 6,000 members are not so easily quashed. Their aim is to challenge the Religious Right's anti-gay, procensorship, pro-school-prayer efforts and the atmosphere of religious intolerance it fosters in Colorado Springs.

Citizen's Project has come out in strong opposition to Amendment Two, the measure that would prohibit gay-rights laws. It has also objected to various attempts to modify school curricula. In one case a teacher showed graphic footage of a suction abortion from a Pat Robertson video as part of a class on human sexuality. In another instance, parents brought a lawsuit against a local school for its teaching of Greek and Roman mythology.

It was this last incident that alerted Divine and her husband, Doug Triggs, to the growing intolerance of the community. Colorado Springs has long been a conservative-minded town, but over the past few years, Christian ministries and organizations have been flocking here. More than sixty of these religious groups are now based in Colorado Springs. New office blocks keep springing up all over town.

The Citizen's Project has responded with a variety of strategies. It has had school-board candidates fill out comprehensive surveys to expose "stealth" candidates who hide...