Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) generated intense controversy when she railed against The Matthew Shepard Act, which would expand the definition of hate crimes to "those motivated by gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and disability." Foxx claimed that Shepard's horrific murder was a "hoax." "We know that that young man was killed in the commitment of a robbery. It wasn't because he was gay," she said.
There's stupid. There's hateful. There's ignorant, hurtful, and mean-spirited. And then there's Virginia Foxx, who in a few short moments managed to remove any lingering suspicion that she's a rabid, inhuman, Right-wing ideologue who cares little for anything or anyone but her narrow ideology. Hey, it's what Jesus would do, right??
I lack the vocabulary necessary to adequately express the utter disdain I feel for anyone who could stand on the House floor and utter such hateful words. That she did this with Matthew Shepard's mother in the House gallery is simply inhuman and beyond astounding. Even if she honestly feels that Shepard's death was what she (mistakenly) believes it to be, simple human decency would seem to dictate having enough respect for his mother not to insult her and our salt in her wounds on the floor of the House.
Jeebus, what a sorry excuse for a human being....
This goes far beyond merely, as Foxx's non-apology apology would have us believe, "a poor choice of words." No, this hateful tour de farce was little more than Foxx's sorry, hateful attempt to minimize Shepard's murder- he was gay, ergo, he deserved what he got. It's What Jesus Would Do....
No mother should have to bury their son, especially in the manner Mrs. Shepard had to bury her son, Matthew. To have to sit through a diatribe as spiteful and hateful as what Rep. Foxx subjected her to is beyond anything a mother- indeed, and reasonable human being- should have to endure. I can only hope that Rep. Foxx will one day come to her senses and understand the needless, senseless pain she caused so many through her words...and that she'll have a reserved parking space in Hell.
