The North Carolina congresswoman who called Matthew Shepard's murder a "hoax" is hearing it from all sides, including the mother of Matt Shepard, who was actually in the room when the hateful remarks were made.
Judy Shepard appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show to discuss the remarks as well as the landmark passage of the Federal Hate Crimes Bill (HR 1913).
Victoria Foxx's Bungled Matthew Shepard Comments Make People Want to Kill Her
Saying she used a "poor choice of words," Rep. Victoria Foxx is backtracking over yesterday's assertion that Matthew Shepard was not the victim of a hate crime. But the damage is already done: "A spokesperson for the congresswoman said Foxx's office has received hate mail over the past 24 hours, including death threats."
Matthew's mom Judy, who was sitting in the House gallery when Foxx spoke, and has been campaigning for the past 10 years to pass federal hate crime legislation. Judy told Rachel Maddow last night: "It's apologizing for semantics, not for her sentiment or actually what she said, her insensitivity or her ignorance."
Not All of Congress Is As ______ As Rep. Virginia Foxx
Democratic New Jersey Rep. Rush Holt delivering what will likely be the best soundbite to arise from the victorious passage of the hate crimes bill: "This is no more about criminalizing thought than the anti-lynching laws were about criminalizing knot-tying."
Adds Holt: "It is patently false to say we are criminalizing thought. … And to say that pedophilia somehow belongs in here represents such uniformed illogical and irrelevant thinking as to say kleptomania, drug abuse, school truancy, parking violation, and road rage belongs here. This bill is about hate crimes."
No comments:
Post a Comment