Religious Left

Bay Area Reporter It's been just over a year since Satendar Singh was brutally attacked at a recreation area near Sacramento, allegedly by Russian immigrants who perceived him to be gay. But without the inclusion of sexual orientation in the federal hate crimes law the man authorities believe delivered the fatal blow remains a fugitive from justice. One of those arrested, Alexsander Schevchenko, 22, was sentenced to 150 days in county jail after being found guilty on two misdemeanor charges. "Five months in jail for the murder of a man was a slap on the wrist," Sloan said of the sentence Schevchenko received. "It indicates that if you harm a gay person, chances are its not going to be costly." Sloan believes the attack - according to testimony at Schevchenko's trial and police reports, the perpetrators first sent their families home then called friends for additional back-up - "was a conspiracy and should have been prosecuted as one." Former Sacram...

BACKSTORY By 365gay Newscenter Staff Anderson County, S.C. -- An 18-year-old, who had told police he was beaten by his father after attending a gay pride parade, was charged Thursday with filing a false police report. Dwight Clark Ables told police last week that his father yelled, swung the bat and tried to “cast the demon of homosexuality out of him.” Investigators said Thursday they had found no evidence to support any of the allegations. full article

By Pearce Adams The Anderson Independent Mail Anderson, South Carolina - Violence broke out Sunday in Anderson when an 18-year-old man returned home from a gay pride parade and was assaulted by his father. During the assault, the teen's 49-year-old father yelled, cursed, swung a baseball bat, prayed and tried to “cast the demon of homosexuality out of him,” according to the teen's version of events to Deputy S.C. Weymouth, the incident report states. FOLLOWUP/UPDATE full article

By Crystal Carreon The Sacramento Bee Over the past three weeks, jurors heard testimony in the trial of Aleksandr Shevchenko, 22. But by the end of closing statements Thursday, the circumstances that led to the punch that killed 26-year-old Satender Singh appeared just as murky and controversial as they did last July. At issue is whether Singh's death resulted from a hate crime. The jury of six men and six women also will decide whether Shevchenko should be held responsible. related articles full article

By Crystal Carreon, The Sacramento Bee In the trial of Aleksandr Shevchenko, both the prosecutor and the defense attorney reminded jurors Tuesday that the hate-crime case is about perceptions, what people saw and who did what before a punch led to the death of a Fijian man last year. Shevchenko has been charged with two felony counts of penal code 422.7 - hate crimes - for his alleged role in fracas at Lake Natoma last July that led to the death of Satender Singh. He appeared Tuesday in a black dress shirt and pressed slacks, seated next to his attorney in court. Since Singh's death, gay activists and other community groups have focused on the violence at Lake Natoma as a symbol of the tensions between gays and some members of a Slavic evangelical movement that has backed hostile, anti-gay rhetoric. But some members of the Slavic community have charged that Shevchenko is a victim of "political correctness," and that the case against him has been exaggerated. full article

An article caught my eye. It said “ Comparing slavery to gay rights? No comparison. Slavery of human kind is against God's will to the highest degree. Homosexuality is a sin, period ”. The Bible does not specifically condemn the practice of slavery. It gives instructions on how slaves should be treated (Exodus 21:2-6, Exodus 21:7-11, Exodus 21:20-21, Deuteronomy 15:12-15, Ephesians 6:9, Colossians 4:1, Luke 12:47-48), but does not outlaw the practice altogether. It also explains whom can be slaves (Leviticus 25:44-46). The Bible also has instructions to slaves (Ephesians 6:5, 1 Timothy 6:1-2). I thought I’d look up some of the things that were being said by the Christians back when slavery was the hot topic. " [Slavery] was established by decree of Almighty God...it is sanctioned in the Bible, in both Testaments, from Genesis to Revelation...it has existed in all ages, has been found among the people of the highest civilization, and in nations of the highe...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — On the first day of July (2007), Satender Singh was gay-bashed to death. The 26-year-old Fijian of Indian descent was enjoying a holiday weekend outing at Lake Natoma with three married Indian couples around his age. Singh was delicate and dateless — two facts that did not go unnoticed by a party of Russian-speaking immigrants two picnic tables away. According to multiple witnesses, the men began loudly harassing Singh and his friends, calling them “7-Eleven workers” and “Sodomites.” The Slavic men bragged about belonging to a Russian evangelical church and told Singh that he should go to a “good church” like theirs. According to Singh’s friends, the harassers sent their wives and children home, then used their cell phones to summon several more Slavic men. The members of Singh’s party, which included a woman six months pregnant, became afraid and tried to leave. But the Russian-speaking men blocked them with their bodies. “We don’t want to fight you either,” one ...

CAMBRIDGE — Central Kings Rural High School students David Shepherd and Travis Price bought 75 pink tank tops and other pink items for students to wear after a new student at the school was bullied for wearing a pink shirt. Two students at Central Kings Rural High School fought back against bullying recently, unleashing a sea of pink after a new student was harassed and threatened when he showed up wearing a pink shirt. http://thechronicleherald.ca/Front/858884.html .