Fear Mongering, Slavic/Russian evangelicals picketing Gay Pride

[mbrideson]

LA Times article of October 13 has a story about the Slavic pentacostal/evangelical religious groups who are actively organizing to not only picket Gay Pride celebrations, but also force their way into public school boards to block any diversity inclusion in childrens' curriculum.
--------------
For Gays, a Loud New Foe
Sacramento's large enclave of immigrant Slavic evangelicals is becoming a force on social issues. Their actions shock many.
By Rone Tempest, Times Staff Writer
October 13, 2006


SACRAMENTO — Organizers of the annual Rainbow Festival were prepared for trouble.

The Q Crew, a local "queer/straight alliance," distributed cards telling people what to do if approached by hostile demonstrators. Sympathetic local church groups formed a protective buffer along the festival ground's cyclone fence. Mounted police were on patrol.

Jerry Sloan manned a table for Stand Up for Sacramento, a recently formed gay self-defense organization.

"So far, so good," he said. "No Russians."

The festival, held last month amid the gay bars, restaurants and shops of midtown's "Lavender Heights" neighborhood, went off without conflict. But the elaborate security preparations reflected growing tensions between Sacramento gays and the city's large and vociferous community of fundamentalist Christians from the former Soviet Union.

Over the last 18 months, Sacramento Russian-language church members have picketed gay pride events, jammed into legislative committee meetings when gay issues were on the agenda and demonstrated at school board meetings.

Incited by firebrand Russian Pentacostal pastors and polemical Russian-language newspapers, the fundamentalists turn out en masse for state Capitol protest rallies.

Full text of article: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-me-russgay13oct13,1,3246120,full.story

[Dash]

I don't even know what to say...

On Sept. 5, the day after the Sacramento Rainbow Festival, several hundred sign-wielding demonstrators appeared at the Capitol to oppose a state Senate bill, SB 1437, that would have banned negative references based on sexual orientation from state textbooks and classes.

In the crowd were Bondar's mother, father and grandmother.

The next day, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed the bill, stating that protection against discrimination already existed in state law.

"We may not have gotten the veto without them," said Thomasson, who spearheaded the lobbying effort against the bill.

I've often wondered if Arnold's wishy-washy attitude toward gay rights was a result of pressure from particular groups. He confuses me.

[Giancarlo]

Well Arnold has certainly done a lot more than his predecessor and I'm voting for him.

I saw this article today in the LA Times. All I'm going to say is... I wonder how hard it is to be Slavic and be gay. Or how about more specifically... being gay in that Slavic community? One of my friends is from Ukraine and he is gay... his parents have disowned him and kicked him out of the house. Ironically, he's the only one in the family who is pursuing a degree here.

These fundamentalists disgust me. It doesn't surprise me that we have people who hate democracy in this country. It certainly doesn't surprise me they are against equal rights. They want everything for themselves, and they want the rest of us to suffer. These same people probably complained about the sphere of the Soviet Union and the abuse it rendered to its populace and satellite states... and now they are turning around and doing the same thing the Soviet Union did? Hypocrisy at best.