Like actions, words have consequences. That’s something that North Carolina’s Republican representative, Virginia Foxx, needs to learn… and here’s hoping the voters teach her the lesson next time election season rolls around.
Virginia Foxx, hoaxmonger
During debate regarding a new hate crime bill — named after murdered gay student Matthew Shepard — the politician described his heinous death as a “hoax” and went on to say that he had died as the result of a robbery which had nothing to do with his sexuality. “I also would like to point out that there was a bill,” said Foxx, “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 young man was killed in the commitment of a robbery. It wasn’t because he was gay.”
An “unfortunate incident” indeed.
Whether one agrees with hate crimes legislation or not, what is truly unfortunate here is that Foxx apparently is unaware of the facts surrounding Shepard’s death. Both police reports and court testimony made it clear that his sexuality was a factor in the circumstances leading up to his death.
Worse, Shepard’s mother was in the gallery as Foxx made her hurtful, misinformed statements.
Shepard's mother, Judy, will tell you her son's death was no hoax.
Today, Foxx would have us believe that “hoax” was simply a poor choice of words on her part. She now claims that her version of the events leading to Shepard’s death were based on a 2004 ABC 20/20 episode on the young man’s death.
Really? Out of all the news coverage on Shepard’s death and the fact that it was a hate crime, Foxx expects us to believe she formed her opinion on a single 20/20 episoce from 2004? Has she been storing it on her TiVO all this time, just waiting for a chance to break it out?
Sorry, but it’s much more likely that as media outlets around the country reported on — and the angry republic respond to — her disturbing rhetoric, Foxx had her staff scour coverage of Shepard’s death for anything she might use to back up her words. That’s right… Foxx went looking for a scapegoat.
The problem is that whether her claim of basing her beliefs on a single 20/20 broadcast are believable or not… whether she made a “poor choice of words” or was guilty of purposeful obsfucation, Virginia Foxx is now on the record as having declared one family’s pain and a nation’s outrage a “hoax.”
The lesson to be learned here? A simple one that has been spoken by practically every parent on the planet: Think before you speak. Because ironically, once words leave your mouth… you own them.
And in this case, they bought Representative Virginia Foxx of North Carolina a permanent spot in our Rude Hall Of Shame.
