Tea Partyers Up In Arms

A Montana Tea Party leader has been removed from his position, the result of an antigay Facebook post he had made earlier this summer, the Associated Press reports.

Tim Ravndal, the now-former president of the Big Sky Tea Party Association, was dismissed by the group's board of directors after a July 23 post in which he voiced his opposition to marriage equality.

In a likely reference to the 1998 Matthew Shepard murder in neighboring Wyoming, another Facebook user wrote on the post, "I think fruits are decorative. Hang up where they can be seen and appreciated. Call Wyoming for display instructions."

Ravndal replied, "Where can I get that Wyoming printed instruction manual?"

Jim Walker, chairman of the Tea Party chapter, said in a statement, "We continually make it known that we will not tolerate bigoted dialogue, behavior or messages at our functions, our meetings or within our ranks."

But there's also dissension in said ranks. Kristi Allen-Gailushas, secretary for the local Tea Party group, resigned in protest Tuesday, the Helena Independent Record reports. "They didn't even listen to Tim and what he had to say," Allen-Gailushas told the newspaper. "They were just worried about the [Montana] Human Rights Network and the ACLU and what they were going to say."

In a Facebook post, Allen-Gailushas fired a further shot across the bow: "The Gay community wants a war. ... they've got one!!"

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