You are here: Home » News » Politics » Election 2010 » Supporters Of Homophobic MT Tea Party Twit Force Board To Vote On Reinstating Him To Group

Supporters Of Homophobic MT Tea Party Twit Force Board To Vote On Reinstating Him To Group

Posted by: Bridgette P. LaVictoire on September 9, 2010.

09/09/10-by Bridgette P. LaVictoire
While the board of the Big Sky Tea Party Association of Montana did the right thing in kicking Tim Ravndal to the curb, many people in the organization apparently feel that it was the wrong thing to do after the man engaged in an exchange on Facebook which seemed to advocate the lynching of lesbians and gays. Now, after a rather raucous meeting on Tuesday, the group’s board has stated that they will reconsider kicking Ravndal out of the group this coming Monday.

Roger Nummerdor, the former president of the group, stated that he feels that bringing him back into the group could lead to more disunity than having kicked him out. According to Nummerdor “I feel strongly that the comments he made were very detrimental not only to the local tea party but other tea party organizations in Montana and across the nation. I actually believe that if he was reinstated we would lose a lot more members than if we keep him away from the organization.”

Ravndal was kicked out of the group based in Helena, MT on Sunday after comments he made surfaced. The exchange appears to have been a joke about the death of Matthew Shepard. In 1998, Shepard was attending the University of Wyoming when he was targeted by two men, taken out into a field, beaten, robbed and left to die tied to a fence. Even without the connection to the murder of Shepard, the exchanges referred to ‘fruit’, a slang term for a gay man, in connection with both same-sex marriage and hanging. Additionally, Ravndal claimed that allowing same-sex marriages to happen violated his Constitutional rights for some unknown reason. In other words, however these statements were taken, they appeared to be very homophobic.

Ravndal has apologized for the comments and stated that he did not make the connection between the exchange and Matthew Shepard’s murder. He has since apologized a second time regarding the incident. The group’s board of directors decided to vote again regarding his membership after a number of Ravndal’s supporters showed up to defend him. Also, a board member resigned along with the group’s secretary and several members. According to Nummerdor, most of the people who showed up on Tuesday do not typically attend the group’s meetings.

The comments and the divisions are a boon for the state Democrats whose leadership are observing the splintering and hope to be able to make some gains in various races this fall by targeting voters who are upset or turned off by Ravndal’s comments and the ongoing interaparty strife. Martin Kidston, spokesman for the MT Democratic Party, noted that while the tea party movement does not claim to be Republican, the line is often very blurry and it is hard to separate the two. Kidston stated “They may be a flash in the pan. Everybody’s out to balance the budget, create jobs— the tea party doesn’t have the corner on that.”

The divisions between the Republican’s internal groups has begun to cause a lot of friction that could sink the Party’s ability to win in November. Many Social Conservatives are threatening to abandon the Party if they do not support bans on abortion and same-sex marriage while many Fiscal Conservatives are threatening to abandon the Party if they do support these bans. Fiscal Conservatives want to reign in spending, even on Defense, which upsets the Hawks in the Party.

Source