An article in today’s Helena IR reported on who is opposing Helena’s non-discrimination ordinance. Here are a couple of additional pieces of information.

Leading the charge are Mike Dellwo and Tim Ravndal.  Dellwo is the principal of Helena Christian School, which is not accredited by the Board of Public Education, the entity which assures all schools in Montana meet minimum standards.  There are other private Christian schools in Montana that are accredited.  Dellwo’s is just not one of them.

TEA Party leader Tim Ravndal was forced out of one TEA Party sect after comments implying support for lynching gay people like Matthew Shepard was lynched were reported on blogs and in the state and national media.  He formed a new TEA Party group in the Helena area.

The third opponent, a Mark Seitz, is a pastor at a fundamentalist church.

Montana state law does not protect people from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or expression. This means that LGBT people can be fired from their job, denied housing, or be kicked out of a restaurant simply because they’re LGBT. The non-discrimination seeks to change that in Helena.