After attack leaves LGBTQ man comatose, Lavender Heights community talks safety
Doug Marques was hopeful that an approximately two-hour forum on safety in Lavender Heights represented a beginning.
But Marques, a 71-year-old gay man and Sacramento resident, had his concerns.
Marques’ friend Alvin Prasad was left comatose after an attack six weeks ago outside a bar around the corner, Badlands, according to numerous media reports. Another friend of Marques’ had been pummeled since then, he said. And Marques continues to worry about the safety of local LGBTQ people.
“We are people just like everybody else,” Marques said. “We deserve to be treated that way. We do not need to be harassed because of who we are.”
On Tuesday, Marques and about 60-80 other people gathered at the Sacramento LGBT Community Center which is on 20th Street in Lavender Heights, the heart of Sacramento’s gay district, to voice their fears and frustrations. A panel of officials spoke, took questions and, at times, absorbed animus from community members.
While the meeting was local to Sacramento, there is concern about a national uptick in the targeting of LGTBTQ people across the U.S. The Human Rights Campaign noted in August that “hate crimes against the LGBTQ+ community remain alarmingly high.” As Tuesday’s meeting showed, there aren’t easy answers, but there are people willing to speak up.
‘A reminder that we have a lot of work to do’
Tuesday’s meeting began after 6 p.m., with a panel consisting of Sacramento LGBT Community Center CEO David Heitstuman, Sacramento City Councilmember Phil Pluckebaum, Midtown Association Executive Director Emily Baime Michaels and Sacramento Police sergeant and LGBTQ+ Community Liaison Jon Houston, who is openly gay.
Heitstuman acknowledged the attack on Prasad, calling it “incredibly tragic” and also referenced recent mass shootings.
“It’s just a reminder that we have a lot of work to do to ensure that there is greater cultural affirmation, acceptance and a sense of welcomeness in our world,” Heitstuman said during the meeting.
Sacramento City Councilmember Roger Dickinson was in the audience but didn’t speak as part of the panel. Pluckebaum said after the meeting that Dickinson was there because there’d been an attack in his district.
“I always have concerns about LGBTQ+ safety and the safety of other groups that are all too commonly targeted for their assumed characteristics,” Dickinson said just before the meeting got underway.
After about 10 minutes of the panelists speaking, the rest of the meeting was reserved for questions, of which there was no shortage. The questions went right up until the meeting ended at 8 p.m.
Neil Galimba, who has a business near the LGBT center, sat in the front row of the meeting facing the panelists and wearing a red plaid shirt. Galimba said he’d had a client attacked three weeks before Prasad and that other people had been attacked over the past year-and-a-half.
Galimba wanted to know why police hadn’t distributed informational flyers that businesses could put in their windows.
“I think there’s a lot of people in the room here that share frustration that a year and a half of red tape is not something that is acceptable when we can get together, print these things out for $100 or $200,” Galimba said.
Houston replied that Sacramento police had walked the neighborhood but gotten little buy-in from businesses.
Later, in response to a question from a different person about what the police would commit, Houston referenced that he had spoken with the department’s public information officer and that the police could use social media to get the word out about “being aware of your surroundings and safe practices.” He also noted the work of the department’s patrol officers and weekend entertainment team.
The mood during the meeting was tense at times. Even among panelists, minor fissures sometimes surfaced. Pluckebaum followed up on Houston’s comments by saying that he would “be a little less diplomatic” but that Sacramento police was half-staffed and that “we’re not going to be able to make any service-level commitments.”
Others in attendance at the meeting wanted more from the police, though.
Former state Assemblymember Dennis Mangers, 85, has been active in Sacramento’s LGBT community since the early 1980s.
Mangers told The Bee following the meeting that he would like for there to be a news conference involving Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho, Sacramento Mayor Kevin McCarty, Police Chief Kathy Lester and new city manager Maraskeshia Smith to assure the public safety of the LGBT community.
“We need to hold our police department accountable,” Mangers said.
Some in the meeting cited frustration with emergency response times and perceived homophobia among law enforcement. There was some disagreement about tactics, too. Some community members shouted at one another about an hour into the meeting. One person went around the room distributing flyers that urged people to physically fight back if they were attacked.
Work going forward
Among the panelists, there was some optimism about what might happen going forward.
Heitstuman told The Bee that the conversation was an important one and that it was vital for community members to feel safe. “By listening and understanding, we develop a plan to move forward,” Heitstuman said.
Houston deferred comment to a public information officer for Sacramento police. He stressed near the end of the meeting that it served a purpose.
“Without conversations like these, we don’t know that there’s a lot of things happening,” Houston said. “We don’t know what we could do better.”
Pluckebaum told The Bee that he was inspired by the passion and care of people in Lavender Heights.
“There’s an old quote, ‘I agree with you. I want to do it, now make me’ and this is one of those instances,” Pluckebaum said. “You’ve got a strong, active community here that’s going to show up and get stuff done. I couldn’t stop them if I wanted to.”
As for Galimba, he said in an interview following the meeting that he gave the panel some credit for showing up, saying it took courage. But that wasn’t enough for him.
“I think we heard a little bit too much pat on the back from the panel,” Galimba said. “As I said, I’m still giving them credit for showing up. But… with Harvey Milk and Castro, there would have already been a plan of action the night after this happened to Alvin. We didn’t find out about it until two weeks after it and here we are, six weeks later and he’s still in a coma.”
This story was originally published December 16, 2025 at 11:34 PM.
