Sacramento: The Gay Community and Fundammentalist Russians

[Bobbieo]

I am a former, 14 year resident of Sacramanto and attended American River College and CSUS. My daughter is still there and tells me this has become the worst place in the country to live. Reason - the Russian Orthodox Fundamentalists.

I just finished Googling the area and learned there are somw 300,000 Russian Ukranium Fundamentalists currently there who are basically and viciously Anti-Gay!!!.

In fact, they have taken over American River College, working to take over local school boards with the Sacramento City Council as the ultimate goal.

WOW, what a shock!!! Any comments from DU Sac. residents

[LeftyMom]

1. For some reason the mods tend to lock threads on this.

It's a real problem locally.

-LM, lifelong Sacramentan

[Ken Burch]

4. Why on earth should they?

The issue of the Orthodox crazies is serious.

They've also demonstrated strength in the Puget Sound are in Washington state.

We NEED to be tracking these people. They're a potential religious fascist movement.

[LeftyMom]

6. A guy got killed while partying at Folsom Lake becaue somebody *thought* he was gay.

He wasn't, but that's beside the point. The teachings of these churches (they're kind of an unofficial Assemblies of God spinoff with some wacky homegrown beliefs about demons similar to what Holiness churches have) are dangerous. They teach that sin is caused by infestation of demons. Gay people, in these teachings, are completely taken over by demons.

Now how do you think good churchgoing folk would treat somebody they genuinely believe is an genuine tool of the devil?

The potential for violence from this community, directed toward the objects of their church-sponsored hate, notably glbt people and people of color, is very high.

[Ken Burch]

12. Exactly

These people need to be watched, and if necessary, need to be fought.

They could form the next Gestapo while the Tea Party types are distracting us.

[Bobbieo]

5. I just discovered this problem and it is a real shock to me. I am very surprised

I have never read anything about it before here on DU. I am not gay but consider my two years as a American River student, two of the best years of my life and to discover it has been taken over my bigots makes me very sad.

[CurtEastPoint]

2. Gee, I just Googled and one of the references was from Stormfront.org (White power hate site)

Need we say any more?

[LeftyMom]

3. How many articles in local papers did you have to pass to get to that?

Both the Sacramento Bee (our well-regarded daily) and the News and Review (the free weekly with the massage parlor ads in the back, but they run some good stuff) have done extensive reporting on the extreme homophobia coming from the various churches in the area catering to Russian and former Soviet countries' immigrants to this area.

[mitchtv]

7. a deadly cult full of hate

God Damn them

[Bobbieo]

8. Research told me before emigrating to the US, Russian refugees

learned about Sacramento from two sources: a short wave fundamentalist radio program and a Russian language newspaper printed in Sacramento distributed to underground churches in the Soviet Union.

Again, the power of the media!

[Ruffhowse]

9. Good article on the problem

http://www.jewsonfirst.org/06c/gr096.html

[murielm99]

10. Here is an article from the Southern Poverty Law Center's

website about this anti-gay movement.

http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2007/fall/the-latvian-connection

I believe that the SPLC really needs to get involved in Sacramento. They have put people in jail in the past. They should be encouraged to put some muscle into this situation before it is too late.

[AnnieBW]

11. And people wonder why Sacramento has so many foreclosures

They're all leaving to escape the crazy Fundies!

[Bluenorthwest]

13. This hate group has been a growing problem for years

Someone translated a paper for me once. Very frightening.