Montana- For nearly three decades, Dallas Erickson [pictured] has taken his campaign against obscenity and sexually oriented businesses to just about every corner of the state.
Erickson, of Stevensville, is the founder of Help Our Moral Environment, or HOME. The organization says it works to “significantly reduce sexual violence and the victimization of children, women, men and families by eliminating child pornography, regulating sexually oriented businesses and removing illegal pornography from the open market in Montana.”
Erickson said Billings-area residents angry about Planet Lockwood’s strip club contacted him in December 2001. He met with the county commissioners and offered his services to the opponents of the strip club.
Erickson said he has helped several communities — including Townsend, Bigfork, Belgrade, Manhattan and Livingston — try to restrict sex-based businesses. He’s proud of the fact that a strip club in Livingston closed because of community pressure and more restrictive regulations.
“We picketed that place for several months while I worked with the city,” Erickson said. “That did the trick.
“We’re making a difference,” said Erickson, a former law enforcement official and a father of nine.
Three Forks Mayor Gene Townsend said Erickson appeared in town soon after a strip club opened about six miles out of town on Highway 287.
“He came in and led the charge and furnished us with ordinances that were hundreds of pages long,” Townsend said. “Our goal was to make sure we did it right so that it didn’t end up being challenged. We ended up putting a lot of legal hours in it.”
The Montana Human Rights Network has described Erickson as anti-gay, and his Web site formerly stated the organization’s opposition to “the homosexual agenda.” That statement has been changed in recent weeks and now reads:
“We extol the virtue and value of the two-parent, marriage-based family as the foundation of society. HOME believes that marriage can only be the union of one man and one woman, is intended to be lifelong, and that sexual relations should be confined to lawful marriage. HOME seeks to protect families, schools and places of worship against the cultural forces that threaten them.”
Said Erickson, “We are for the protection of marriage and aren’t for giving special protection to same-sex partners.”