Community | September 06, 2010 | 319 comments

Tea Party president jokes about murdering GLBTQ people

source: http://www.amplifyyourvoice.org/u/AFY_EmilyB/2010/9/4/Tea-Party-president-jokes-about-murder...

Image
putdownmypants
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?
  1. groups:
    Community,   Webmash,   Progressive America,   Gay,   14 more
  2. tags:
    Politics,  Human Rights,  LGBT,  tea party,  6 more
  3.     
    |

319 comments // Tea Party president jokes about murdering GLBTQ people

  • MyronKeith
    • 0
      MyronKeith  

    • I'd like to say this surprises me; I'd like the tea party to go away. All I can say is...curse the reality that doesn't give me what I want.

    • 1 year ago
  • Hipstar
  • carebearquest
    • +3
      carebearquest  

    • It's taking every little bit of hope I have for human kind to convince myself that the rest of the Tea Party isn't as horrible. Sadly, I have a strange feeling that Ravndal will not be the last member that gets caught being ignorant and hateful.

    • 1 year ago
  • randallr01
    • +5
      randallr01  

    • Rest In Peace, Matthew Shepard. I'll never forget when I heard about his murder. It's still heartbreaking.

      Randval has apologized??? He's not sorry one bit. He'll only be "sorry" if it damages his career....

    • 1 year ago
  • Stever_B
    • +3
      Stever_B  
    • randallr01:

      It seems to have damaged his career (from the link):

      Apparently, the Big Sky Tea Party didn't find him very funny either...

      FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  September 5, 2010
       
      Jim Walker, Board Chair of the Big Sky Tea Party Association announced today that the group’s Board of Directors voted to remove Tim Ravndal as President and member of the non-profit organization because of unacceptable comments made on his personal Facebook account.

      Walker stated: “Our Board learned about the situation from an article in the Great Falls Tribune on Saturday.  We immediately called an emergency meeting for the following morning.   We are extremely disappointed by Mr. Ravndal’s commentary. The discussion in that Facebook conversation is entirely outside the position of the Big Sky Tea Party.   Even though Mr. Ravndal was having a personal conversation and made no reference to our group, we felt strongly that swift and decisive action was required as we can not accept that sort of behavior from within our membership, let alone from an officer of the corporation.   We continually make it known that we will not tolerate bigoted dialog, behavior or messages at our functions, our meetings or within our ranks.  If a person demonstrates bigotry relative to race, sex, ethnicity, etc they are not welcome in our organization.  The Tea Party movement is about standing up for individual freedom for everyone.

      I do believe Mr. Ravndal when he explained that he was in no way intending to promote violence and that he was not thinking about nor condoning the murder of an innocent victim in Wyoming in 1998 when he responded to some very disturbing comments made by another individual.  However, no matter how we considered the commentary, it was clear to us that he was participating in conversation which was overtly bigoted and we cannot have an officer of our corporation engaging in such behavior.” 

      Walker indicated that as Chairman of the Board, he will oversee activities of the organization until a replacement for the office of President can be identified and approved.

    • 1 year ago
  • common_sense_please
    • +9
      common_sense_please  
    • Stever_B:

      Sadly this guy will just do a Sarah Palin and claim he was shocked-just shocked that people read his Facebook comments and took them out of context. His next claim will be that of course this is all a part of the giant left-wing/ liberal/Nazi/socialist/communist/atheist/Muslim/terrorist plot to make him look bad and/or its President Obama's fault.

      That and by Monday he will be the newest host of his own talk show on Fox News.

    • 1 year ago
  • timetide
  • common_sense_please
  • common_sense_please
    • +6
      common_sense_please  

    • Just as the Tea Party completely missed the irony of being homophobic while wearing tea bags hanging from your hats and Glenn Beck failed to see the irony behind co-opting Martin Luther King's I have a dream speech and claiming civil rights was really a white man's struggle--this guy fails to see the irony behind co-opting Billie Holiday's song Strange Fruit.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h4ZyuULy9zs

    • 1 year ago
  • Replicant
    • +11
      Replicant  

    • The Tea Party is either very disorganized or they are hateful. The manner in which they aggressively protest democrats and "liberals" makes me think it's the latter.

    • 1 year ago
  • Sparky2U
  • littlwarrior
    • +11
      littlwarrior  
    • Sparky2U:

      So instead of talking about this we should what just ingnore it. Lets murder all gays thats a fabulous idea. fucking bring it, I got guns and I dont care if its the law i fucking kill

    • 1 year ago
  • Stever_B
    • +7
      Stever_B  
    • Sparky2U:

      What's bullshit here, Sparky? The story? You don't believe it happened? Or that someone took the time to post it? I'm SOOOO curious why you posted that comment....

    • 1 year ago
  • vixxxen618
  • randallr01
  • fun_size
  • congoboy
  • Nephwrack
  • flyingkick
1234
301 - 319 of 319
more from Community:
from the community

top videos