What An Ogress You Are, Congresswoman Foxx

The comments made today by Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) during the House of Representatives debate on the expansion of hate crimes legislation to include, among other things, sexual orientation and gender identity, suggests that a new strain of swine flu is sweeping the Republican Party---a morally porcine variant. Thus far, its symptoms include a Tourette-like impulse to horrify, and a predilection for politically expedient revisionism at whatever the moral cost.

Addressing the House, Rep. Foxx announced that the murder of Matthew Shepard, widely acknowledged to be the most famous gay bashing hate crime in American history, was in fact a "hoax," perpetrated by activists eager to pass "these bills."

Politico reports that according to a senior Democratic aide, Matthew Shepard's mother, Judy Shepard, was in the gallery watching when Rep. Foxx said, "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. 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."

According to reports in the New York Times, Matthew Shepard was lured from a bar in the early hours of October 7th 1998 on the pretext of a seduction, kidnapped, tortured, burned, beaten, then tied to a fence for 18 hours in near-freezing temperatures till a passing cyclist eventually spotted him. He died a lingering death a few days later on October 12th. His killers, Aaron J. McKinney and Russell A. Henderson, admitted that they targeted Shepard because was gay. At trial, McKinney's attempt to use the "homosexual panic" defense (essentially that Shepard's homosexuality so distressed and enraged his murderers that they had no choice but to kill him) was thrown out by the judge.

The two were sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole.

That Rep. Foxx (herself a mother and grandmother who, according to her gushing MySpace profile, "enjoy[s] gardening, attending church and spending high quality time with their two grandchildren") would, in 2009, refer to Matthew Shepard's murder as an "unfortunate incident" in the presence of his mother, or use this particular murder ---this internationally known and recognized murder --- as her personal fistful of offal flung at Matthew Shepard's memory during the House hate crimes debate, seems not only obscene, but also demonstrates the increasing desperation of the ultra-conservative wing of the GOP as their hold on what they think of as the moral high ground in America crumbles to dust.

It's as though Rep. Foxx and her colleagues don't understand that in the age of the Internet and mass media, people don't "forget" the facts of cases like the Shepard murder, and seems unaware that if she's is going to stand up in the House of Representatives and proclaim right-wing lunatic-fringe urban legends to be facts --- for instance calling Shepard's murder "a hoax" --- it will only serve to make her and her party look malevolent, clueless, and inbred. It suggests the scraping of the very bottom of a moral slop bucket, politically and personally. It suggests the transient nature of "family values," and that perhaps dragging Matthew Shepard's memory through the mud in front of his mother was somehow worth it in order to make sure that "immoral" people like Shepard and his kind don't receive posthumous "special rights" due to their "lifestyle choices."

And judging by the virulent opposition among the religious right to this expansion of the definition of a hate crime, it suggests, among other things, a by now sickeningly familiar potential for smug cruelty masquerading as Christian morality.

It hardly seems necessary to add that the Matthew Shepard murder and its outcome was a shot heard round the world, one which sparked debate and dialogue in several countries including the United States on the necessity of not only acknowledging, but also punishing, hate crimes.

The Matthew Shepard Act passed the U.S. House of Representatives today with a vote of 247 in favor to 175 against, ushering in yet another sign of the changing face of American society, one that suggests hope for an inclusive future.

I'd like to imagine the feelings of Judy Shepard as the hate crimes bill named after her murdered son passed the House in the presence of the woman whose contribution to the passage of that bill was to attempt to besmirch his memory with ugly distortions.

But judging by Congresswoman Foxx's preposterous comments earlier in the day, I doubt she herself felt much besides a peevish sense that her side lost one more battle in what they like to call "the culture war." I rather suspect that calling bigotry and hate by their proper names is still news in Mrs. Foxx's private, personal, dark corner of North Carolina, where it's clearly still a cold October night in Laramie in 1998.

Comments

[RadicalRationalist]

Foxx's remarks were astounding. The level of insensitivity she demonstrated amazes me. Was shocks me on a larger level is that there really are decent, reasoned points to make against hate crimes legislation. There are decent, reasoned arguments in favor of it was well. This is a policy issue where we could actually have a worthwhile debate in this country, but the Right has gone completely off the rails.

This article does a good job of summing up the sensible sides of this debate, largely because the poster cannot make up his own mind:
http://radicalrationalist.wordpress.com/2009/05/07/weigh-in-the-m…ew-shepard-act/

[roseytrebles]

Guys, look at this--

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6004708591409502724

It's video footage of Matthew Shepard two years before he was killed. Perhaps the only useful part of this whole despicable display with Virginia Foxx was how it can remind us--or me, anyhow--of how homophobia in this country is ugly enough to send such a gentle person to the kind of death that no one deserves (not like it would have been more okay if he had a different personality type, of course). I'm donating to the Matthew Shepard foundation and I'm going to make it a personal mission to make sure that that woman does not get elected again. And if anyone else would like to send an email complaining to her they can go here--

http://www.foxx.house.gov/?sectionid=95&sectiontree=3,95

Ugh. This whole thing makes me sick--and, more than that, just sad.

[Bely]

Wow, it's kind of eerie how he's in NC in the video, and even defending the place at first when he says that Helms only represents the conservative side. And to think that about 12 years later someone from that same conservative side would be trying to defame his memory like this...it's shameful.

[STG 44]

The whole concept of "Hate Crimes" has an Orwellian ring to it. A crime is a crime is a crime. Period. Judges may, within sentencing guidelines, take circumstances and motives into account in setting the sentence of a person convicted of any crime. This is just another take on the anti-equalitarian concept of "Affirmative Action". The law should be color blind, gender blind, religion blind and sexual orientation blind. We don't "handicap" baseball or football games after all, so why "handicap" the law?

[roseytrebles]

Of course all crimes are hate crimes--I think one of the residents of Laramie specifically said so in The Laramie Project--but hate crimes under this definition are different in the sense that they're carried out on one person, but they really target a whole community of people. Plus I think that--even with the example of The Laramie Project again--there are places in which certain hate crimes are condoned because of the prejudice behind them, like when another Laramie resident joked that you don't get put in jail for killing a gay man in Wyoming. So yes, maybe the law should theoretically be color blind, gender blind, religion blind and sexual orientation blind, but only when the society judged by the law is blind too. And, clearly, it isn't.

[STG 44]

The Dems in Congress voted to add pedophiles to their long list of "oppressed minorities" in need of protection from "Hate Crimes", so why not included race-ophiles to the list. If pedophile comes from the Greek words for "child" and "love" wouldn't a raceophile be a person who "loved" his own race?

[Skeptiqone]

There are absolutely no ideas coming out of the Republican party. It is all name calling, vindictive attacks, and outright misrepresentation of the truth (my mom calls that a lie). What a terrible person Congresswoman Foxx is. Even if the particular case of Matthew Shepard were not true, how would that effect the need for hate crimes legislation? It enables the federal government to step in and prosecute a case when the local government is not doing it's job, because of prejudice.

[1differentdrummer]

Would a lady make that remark?

[MGarr]

BRAVO. Thank you for reminding us how far we have come. Now is the time to be vigilant and active, to make sure that the dark corners of this country do not reappear.

[elaygee]

Wait till two or three of her dozens of grandchildren turn out Gay or Lesbian. Who will she blame then?

[JudgeCCrater]

Homosexuals, of course. Certainly couldn't be genetic, no, no.

[DASM]

Thank you, Mr. Rowe.

[nomobull]

AND I THOUGHT BEING FROM SC WAS EMBARRASSING.

[noamjunior]

dont kid yourself it is

[Manx]

Her comments invoked memories of the Army-McCarthy hearings, when counsel for the Army said to Joseph McCarthy, "Sir, have you no sense of decency?"

[redstateblue]

I have not one word in defense of the harridan who represents me in Congress, but her "dark corner" of North Carolina is growing lighter. Both my husband (a Republican) and I stood in long lines to vote for Obama. It was pretty easy to tell who was there to vote for whom. The Obama supporters were upbeat, smiling and chatting. The McCain supporters wore expressions ranging from blank to sullen, with a few looking like they had smelled something rank.

I'll do my best to see that Ms. Foxx joins the unemployment rolls next year.

[carolinecantoo]

And I thank you for that.

[NeoLiberal]

Hear hear.

As a former resident of Winston-Salem, I applaud all attempts to unseat bigotry, hate and intolerance.

The voters of the 5th district deserve better.

In my district, the 11th in Asheville, we've already turned the corner.

[kathy001]

Thank you!!! Be sure to let us know who her opponent is so we can donate to the campaign.

[noamjunior]

please call and e-mail her and tell her you are a person in her district that finds her hateful idiocy unscceptable behavior from an elected representative

[wasmaba]

thank you. Look forward to next election so I can donate my dollars to her opponent.

[dangerousdan14]

From North Carolina: Foxx's latest disgrace illustrates the huge downside of the racially gerrymandered congressional districts NC adopted in the 90s to get more black congressmen. I live in the blatantly gerrymandered "I-85" district 12. I'm happy to have Mel Watt as my rep, but piling all the Piedmont's black voters into a single district has made for a greater number of lily-white districts, which have sent horrors like Sue Myrick, Robin Hayes and Virginia Foxx to Congress. This from a state with mostly Dem governors and state senate and assembly. This is a historic mistake that must be remedied.

[NeoLiberal]

The 2010 census is just around the corner, and the drawing board for districts is being readied.

[18wheeler]

Ed Schultz had her as the Psycho Talk tonight. Nauseating to hear and look at her at the podium being almighty and righteous...

[SD Indy]

In case anyone is interested, Rachel Maddow is going to be interviewing Judy Sheppard tonight on MSNBC.

[kareemachan]

I've already told her how I feel about her comments.

http://www.foxx.house.gov/