Charles and Philip Barnett have settled down to raise their children, but their domesticity is disrupted when Philip's nephew Steve is delivered to their doorstep early one morning after being beaten senseless by his homophobic father.<br><br>So the family grows, but of course, that's the easy part. A rabidly fundamentalist sheriff and a gay-bashing incident leave Steve and his new boyfriend in legal hot water and at the mercy of the deputies' harassment, and Charles must once again take up the fight for justice for his loved ones.

Triumph

“No, I’m not,” Julien said. “And it wouldn’t stop with you. The three babies in this house would very likely have been taken away as well. Charles and Philip would surely have gotten them and you back, but it would have been one hell of a mess.”


“Learn from it,” Philip said. “There are some things that you simply cannot joke about, at least when you don’t know who might be listening.”


“Steve,” I said, “all the fundamentalist preachers in town believe gay men are sexual predators, as do most of their congregations. They would automatically assume that what you joked about was actually happening. You have no idea how deeply the hatred runs.”


The point having been made, I decided to change the subject and said, “Julien, can you bring us up to date on your brother-in-law’s trial?”


“There’s not a lot to tell at this point. The trial is set for early October.”


“The local assistant prosecutor told me that the judge is strictly no-nonsense,” I said.


Chapter 37