Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx said during debate in the House that Matthew Shepard's 1998 death wasn't a hate crime and shouldn't be invoked by supporters of a bill to expand the definition of such crimes to include violence motivated by sexual orientation.
"We know that young man was killed in the commitment of a robbery. It wasn't because he was gay," Foxx said during debate. "The bill was named for him, the hate-crimes bill was named for him, but it's really a hoax that continues to be used as an excuse for passing these bills."
Shepard died several days after he was found tied to a remote fence in Wyoming, severely beaten and robbed of $20. Prosecutors said he was lured from a bar by two men, including one whose defense attorney said reacted violently after Shepard made a sexual advance.
The House approved the bill Wednesday despite Foxx's comments. On Thursday, after Foxx drew heated reaction from several gay rights groups and others upset by her comments, she said her words didn't convey what she meant to say.
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WTF – “Didn’t CONVEY what she meant to say”?
posted by jupiter57
I sometimes don't convey what I mean through my words but I am not in the public light and am not dealing with issues like she is.
She knew what she was saying the first time round.
The gay and lesbian rights groups are a vocal group (and necessarily so) that hold those like Foxx's feet to the fire...and I say, right on.
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posted by feywon
Things that make you go HUH? Not a hate crime, but the defense one of them used was he was enraged by an unwanted advance. True those young men were hunting trouble that night (tried to pick a fight with a couple of young hispanic males earlier), but Shepard's sexual orientation is part of what made him their target at the bar, that was clear.
As someone who lives in Laramie and did at the time of the murder...i have more than a passing interest in this case. When the trial was taking place my then mid-teens daughter came home from the library in tears one day. She had passed the courthouse where that hateful minister from out of state and his minions were carrying signs saying Matt deserved it because he was gay. Even IF the original motivation had not been antigay hatred...that is what the case became about the moment someone tried to argue that the victim's sexual orientation made him undeserving of justice. It was her first real life, up close exposure to how utterly reprehensible supposedly adult human beings can be.
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posted by Announcer
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