National Youth Advocacy Coalition

Rep. Foxx: the Shepard family deserve an apology for your remarks!

On April 29, 2009, in a speech on the House floor, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) claimed that Matthew Shepard's death was merely the result of a robbery gone bad. While his killers Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson did rob him, they also admitted that they were well aware of his sexual orientation and pretended they were gay to lure him away from the bar he was in at the time. The most striking feature of the case, of course, is that during the course of a normal, simple robbery, the victim is not generally beaten, tied to a post, and left for dead. (Source: Media Matters Action Network)

Rep. Foxx: "The bill was 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 robbery. It wasn't because he was gay. The bill was named for him, the hate crimes bill was named for him, but it's, it's really a hoax, that that continues to be used as an excuse for passing these bills." (Source: House Floor Speech, 4/29/09)

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February 09, 2010

Subject:
The Shepard family deserve an apology for your remarks!

Representative Foxx:

I am joining the National Youth Advocacy Coalition (NYAC) and thousands of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning (LGBTQ) youth and their allies in calling on you to apologize to the Shepard family and the LGBTQ community for your offensive and inappropriate comments on the floor of the House of Representatives on April 29, 2009.

I am aware of your explanation that you were not calling the murder a hoax, but rather the evidence suggesting it was a hate crime.  The Dateline report which you cited has been held up as a prime example of advocates of hate distorting the truth.  It is offensive to me that as an elected official you would repeat such hate filled and deceptive rhetoric on the floor of the House of Representatives.

The "Robbery" myth was debunked during the trial of Matthew Shepard's killers. As reported by Slate a few weeks after the Shepard murder trial: "Speculation has persisted for the past year that Matthew Shepard, rather than being the victim of gay-bashing, might really have been nothing more than a hapless robbery victim who was exploited by gay activists to reap unwarranted sympathy and advance their own agenda to enact hate-crimes legislation. Statements made by one of the convicted killers, which were revealed for the first time Thursday, reveal these accounts to be false. [...]  The most significant revelations emerged from the secret confession of Henderson, obtained just three days after his plea bargain. Henderson debunked the portrayal of Shepard that has gained currency the past few weeks. Had he testified in court as scheduled at McKinney's trial, he would have blown apart the watered-down 'gay panic' defense pursued to the end by McKinney's legal team."

Regardless of your political agenda, this deceptive tactic is beneath our nation's standards.  You owe it to the citizens you represent and the integrity of our democratic process to apologize to the Shepard family and LGBTQ community for your remarks.

Sincerely,

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