Tea Party president jokes about murdering GLBTQ people

by: AFY_EmilyB

Saturday, September 4, 2010 at 5:51:00 PM EDT

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The President of the Montana Big Sky Tea Party, Tim Ravndall, thinks it's funny to joke about murdering gays.

A Facebook exchange:

Dennis Scranton: "I think fruits are decorative. Hang up where they can be seen and appreciated. Call Wyoming for display instructions."

Tim Ravndal: "@Kieth, OOPS I forgot this aint(sic) America no more! @ Dennis, Where can I get that Wyoming printed instruction manual?"

(A reference to the torture and murder of Matthew Shepard in Wyoming in 1998). Randval has apologized. But the organization has not yet met demands to remove himl from office.

What's it going to be, Tea Party and sympathizers? Are you going to have the guy who thinks murdering gays is hilarious as your president? Any official denunciation of violence coming our way anytime soon?

I was in college and had just come out when Matthew Shepard was murdered. His death was such a horrifying and unexpected tragedy that it left its mark on everyone I knew, even though none of us had ever met him. To read the exchange between Scranton and Ravndal makes me wince as if from a physical blow.

Matthew was my age - he'd be almost 34 now. Is the world now, no better than the world that he left? Is this truly where Tea Party and other anti-gay types want us to be? Because this is where the road of homophobia and discrimination against GLBTQ people ends. This is where the fractured discourse, alarmist propaganda, and fearmongering ends. In violence and death.

It's not funny to me. Is it funny to you, Tea Party?