Has Rep. Virginia Foxx no basic human decency? She stands in the same room, with a mother who has been living with the brutal death of her son for the past decade and describes it as a “very unfortunate incident”??? I guess on that scale, the September 11 terrorist attacks were like, really totally not cool.
It is very well documented that Matthew was indeed selected because he was a gay man. And can I just point out that using the word “hoax” in conjunction with a brutal murder is maybe not the best move, from a public relations standpoint.
I came out in 1992 when 2 men were convicted of second degree murder for targeting a local gay man. My late gay great grandfather was bashed. My late bisexual father was targeted for violence because of his orientation. Minimizing that homophobia did indeed play a role in these criminal behaviors is grotesque and insulting.
I tried calling Rep. Virginia Foxx yesterday at both her Washington and North Carolina offices. Not surprisingly both locations had full voice mail boxes.
Matthew Shepard killed in non-bias "robbery," Foxx says
North Carolina Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx is questioning whether the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old gay University of Wyoming student, was a bias attack motivated by his sexual orientation.
Shepard’s mother Judy was in the gallery at the time, according to a senior Democratic aide.
The socially conservative Foxx, arguing against a new Democratic hate crimes bill that includes new protections for gays and lesbians, described the description of Shepard’s murder as a anti-homosexual attack a "hoax" — and questioned whether prior bias crime legislation should have been named after him.
“I also would like to point out that there was a bill — the hate crimes bill that’s called the Matthew Shepard bill is named after a very unfortunate incident that happened where a young man was killed, but we know that that young man was killed in the commitment of a robbery. It wasn’t because he was gay."
She added: "This — the bill was named for him, hate crimes bill was named for him, but it’s really a hoax that that continues to be used as an excuse for passing these bills.
"Matthew Shepard’s mother was in the gallery yesterday and I believe she was back today — so I’m sorry she had to be around to hear it," said Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.). "It’s an urban myth… And I’d tell her that man did land on the moon and the moon wasn’t made out of green cheese."
Recent Comments