Apr. 29th, 2009

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I want one...

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Since probably only [livejournal.com profile] russianmissile has any idea who she is, let me provide the intro before the rant.  Ms. Foxx is, unfortunately, North Carolina's Congressional Representative from the 5th House District, over by Winston-Salem.  I've never had any reason to know anything about her before, as I live and vote in the 8th Congressional District.  However, I do know that I've routinely seen political signs for her over the nearly fifteen years I've lived here, so she keeps getting re-elected fairly easily, apparently.

However, what I heard come out of this woman's mouth, on the House floor no less, makes me outraged.  I'm sure most, if not all, of the Americans here will remember the name Matthew Shepard, but in case you don't he was a young man in Wyoming about a decade ago who was lured out of a bar by a gang of other young men, then robbed, beaten, pistol-whipped, and then tied to a fence post overnight in the freezing Wyoming winter.  And the excuse for this heinous act?  One of the murderers later confessed he knew Matthew was gay, so they pretended to be gay to lure him out of that bar, and leave him, badly beaten, tortured with a sharp object, and tied to a post, to die.  He was not found for 18 hours.

There was a Hate Crimes law named after him, signed by President Clinton, and it was this law which was apparently up for discussion in the House today.  Ms. Foxx took her opportunity to speak in order to give voice to vicious lies, saying that 'we know that [the Matthew Shepard incident] was really a hoax.' 

Yes, that's right.  Apparently, Rep. Foxx's version of things had this pegged as just a robbery.  No, this young man certainly didn't suffer horribly because hate-filled idiots targetted him and tortured him and killed him because of his sexuality, because he was gay.  Nope, if you relied on the House minutes today for your facts on this crime, you'd think nothing but a robbery took place. 

And all this pales in comparison when you learn that Matthew Shepard's mother was in the House gallery, having to hear this woman spread lies about her son, and disparage both his suffering and death as well as the law named for him aimed at enforcing harsher penalties for people who commit crimes motivated by an ideology of hate like this.

I cannot imagine what she must have felt, but more, I cannot imaging what possible motivation Rep. Foxx could have had in being so cruel, so disingenuous as to try to rewrite history which I certainly remember as happening, and in doing so, add just a little more intolerance and hate to the world.

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