Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she has no words for Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), who earlier Wednesday called it “a hoax” that Matthew Shepard was murdered because of his homosexuality.
Foxx made the remarks on the House floor during the debate on a hate-crimes bill that bears Shepard’s name.
“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 the young man was killed in the commitment of a robbery. It wasn’t because he was gay,” Foxx said during Wednesday’s House debate of hate-crimes legislation.
Shepard, a 21-year-old gay student at the University of Wyoming who was murdered in 1998, is often linked to hate-crimes legislation since his widely publicized killing was viewed as an anti-gay attack.
But Foxx said it is “a hoax” to use Shepard’s name for today’s hate-crimes bill, which includes new protections for gays and lesbians. She argued Democrats are only using it “as an excuse for passing these bills.”
Top Democrats appeared stunned by Foxx’s remarks.
“It is really beneath comment,” Pelosi said.
“I think it’s tragic that she thinks that. ... I can’t even comment,” Congressional Black Caucus Chairwoman Barbara Lee (Calif.) said. “Matthew Shepard is dead. The world knows that this was not a hoax. All I can say is that it’s really tragic. It’s very sad and tragic.”
The House approved the hate-crimes measure, 249-175. Seventeen Democrats opposed it, while 18 Republicans voted for it.
Pelosi was reviewing the vote tally outside the House chamber shortly after the vote.
Rep. Bill Cassidy has his blood drawn by Alesha Barbour during a free hepatitis screening in the Rayburn House Office Building hosted by the Congressional Viral Hepatitis Caucus to recognize "National Viral Hepatitis Testing Day."
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