Sacramento LGBTQs respond to several unnerving incidents in queer neighborhood

The Sacramento LGBT Community Center is holding a town hall Tuesday, December 16, following a series of violent, troubling incidents in the city’s queer neighborhood. The meeting will feature Sacramento police, the Midtown Association, and Sacramento District 4 City Councilmember Phil Pluckebaum, who represents Lavender Heights, the city’s LGBTQ neighborhood.

The most serious incident, as the Bay Area Reporter previously reported, was the severe beating November 1 of gay Sacramentan Alvin Prasad outside the Badlands Sacramento LGBTQ nightclub in Lavender Heights, a small neighborhood in midtown Sacramento anchored at 20th and K streets, just east of the California State Capitol.

Sean Wesley Payton Jr., 24, was arrested in connection with the incident, and he will be in Sacramento County Superior Court, also on December 16, for bail review, a pretrial release hearing, and a preliminary hearing. Sacramento Police are investigating whether a hate crime occurred. 

Prasad is on life support in a coma, facing the prospect of permanent brain damage. His daughter, Andrea Prasad, stated December 5 that he has been moved to another hospital. A GoFundMe campaign has raised $12,197 for his expenses.

More recently, Andrea Prasad stated to the B.A.R. December 10, "The change is that he is never getting better."

"The doctor has confirmed that he will forever be a vegetable," she stated. "My dad isn't living, he's just existing in a hospital bed until his brain decides to shut off on its own. My father wouldn't want to live like this. The doctor asked me the big question, would my dad want me to 'pull the plug?' Truth is tough, yes, my dad would want the plug pulled."

But according to the center, this isn’t the only incident to strike Lavender Heights in recent months.

“What happened to Alvin is tragic and further evidence of why community members have been feeling less safe, not just in Lavender Heights, but in their every aspect of their daily lives,” David Heitstuman, a gay man who is the center’s executive director, stated to the Bay Area Reporter in an emailed reply. 

Other incidents
Among those was an attempt to tear down the center’s rainbow flag November 15. 

“Three unknown individuals made multiple attempts to climb the pillars in front of the center and tear down the rainbow flag, which they were ultimately unsuccessful at doing,” Heitstuman stated. “Bystanders reported them using homophobic slurs and a confrontation occurred between the attempted vandals and community members passing by.”

A Sacramento police spokesperson stated, “Just after 1:15 a.m. officers responded to the 1000 block of 20th St. for reports of a possible assault. Responding officers located a disturbance involving multiple individuals. No injuries were reported, the incident was mediated, and the parties were separated. Officers conducted an investigation, and no crime was determined to have occurred at the time.”

Heitstuman stated there were other incidents in downtown and midtown Sacramento during the month of October, but couldn’t speak to specifics.

“I don’t know the specific details of the other incidents involving individuals who were attacked, but the Sacramento Police Department LGBTQ+ liaison made me aware that there were two incidents,” Heitstuman stated.

When asked what Heitstuman was referring to, the police spokesperson shared some details about two incidents. The first was around 9:30 p.m. October 6 in the 1000 block of 20th Street, when an individual told police they were assaulted. 

“The victim of the assault reportedly sought medical treatment on their own, after the incident,” the spokesperson stated. “Officers conducted an investigation and a report was generated.”

The second reported incident was October 7 around 2:45 a.m. 

“The victim sustained minor injuries from [an] assault,” the spokesperson stated. “Officers conduct[ed] an investigation and a report was generated.”

That report was made on the 800 block of H Street, but the spokesperson didn’t say where the alleged assault occurred.

Pluckebaum, a straight ally, didn’t immediately return a request for comment about what he hopes to see come out of the upcoming meeting.

Things have gotten to the point where George Raya, a longtime gay activist who lives in Sacramento, is calling for a citizen patrol group called the Lavender Angels to be restarted after lapsing almost a dozen years ago.

“The idea was to have people wearing vests and whistles,” and walking the streets of Lavender Heights, Raya told the B.A.R. “This is what we did in 1991 and it worked; this is what we did in 2012 and it worked.”

A similar organization, Castro Community on Patrol, started in San Francisco’s LGBTQ neighborhood in 2006. It is more structured, but currently has a limited number of volunteers, Greg Carey, a gay man who is chief of patrol, stated December 10. He added they are looking for interested people to serve.

According to the Sacramento LGBTQ+ Historic Experience Project, the first iteration of the Lavender Angels started in 1991 after the killing of 24-year-old Vincent Blades, who had recently moved to Sacramento from Reno, Nevada. Blades “was stabbed and killed by two men who had been shouting gay epithets at him in a parking lot near the Faces bar at 20th and K streets,” according to the project report. 

“The goal of the Lavender Angels was to serve as the eyes and ears of the police and to report hate crimes and violence toward the LGBTQ community,” the report continued. “Volunteers wore white T-shirts with ‘Lavender Angels’ printed on them in neon pink and patrolled the epicenter of Lavender Heights between 19th and 20th streets and Capitol Avenue and K Street on Friday and Saturday nights. The program was supported by the local police department and set up a hotline for people to anonymously report such crimes directly to the police.”

A second iteration lasted around a year, from 2012-13, according to Raya.

Neil Anthony, a gay Sacramento man who helped put together a November 22 candlelight vigil for Prasad, told the B.A.R. that he is friends with him. He supports the call to reinstate the Lavender Angels.

“Our goal is to work together with elected officials and members of our community to bring back our Lavender Angels, a group of volunteers dedicated to protecting our community and making our neighborhood safer for all, emphasizing safety through training, awareness, communication, volunteer patrols and a clear visible presence in our neighborhood," Anthony stated.

He told the B.A.R. he’d consider volunteering himself.

“Volunteers are needed, and through our unity and devotion, we can resist the hatred that continues to emerge and not allow this current political climate to force us into fear and submission,” Anthony concluded.

The community meeting will be held at 6 p.m. at the LGBTQ center’s Lavender Heights location, 1015 20th Street. To learn more, the center asks people to email [email protected] or visit saccenter.org.

Updated, 12/11/25: This article has been updated with additional information on Alvin Prasad's medical condition.