Hamilton Square Baptist Church Riot

The documentary film A Nation Adrift chronicles some of the events that took place during the Hamilton Square Baptist Church riot in San Francisco in which a angry group of male homosexuals and lesbians vandalized church property, assaulted church members, terrorized church congregants, threw rocks, and disrupted a church service. During the riot the rioters pounded on the church doors and attempted to kick them down. When the rioters saw church children standing in the lobby, they shouted "We want your children. Give us your children." During the riot an eight year old mentally handicapped girl was verbally accosted when exiting through the front entrance of the church and was so traumatized that she fell down the church steps. In addition, a nine year old boy, was hysterically crying and said "They are after me. It's me they want." The nine year old boy did not calm down until the family was several miles from the building.

The day of the riot was the day Reverend Louis Sheldon, of the Traditional Values Coalition, was a guest speaker. Only the church's membership and regular attenders were notified of the service, through the church's bulletin. No public notice or invitation was made in regards to the guest speaker. However, the September 16, 1993 edition of the Bay Area Reporter, the meeting was made public in a front page article using inflammatory language. The church received telephone calls prior to the Reverend Sheldon's arrival demanding that he should not come.

The church believes that the police department acted poorly during the riot. According to the church, "In spite of all this malicious disruption, not a single arrest was made by police outside of one citizen's arrest. The church's property was not secured, and the fundamental rights of the worshippers were not protected because, we were told, "The Board of Supervisors would never support the measures necessary to do so.""