Undisguised indifference to bigotry and suffering.

May 1, 2009 by Pastor Dan.

I followed his story closely. I became emotional when he died. I made memorial gifts in his name.  I have written about him. But I never met Matthew Shepard. There was something so tender, so shy in the few photos of him that have been published. Maybe the heart-strings that his murder tugged upon was that I could have been just as easily victimized at that age.  Skinny, shy, not very masculine, uncertain of my gay self in a hostile world.  The only thing different was I don’t have blond hair.  But that innocent 21 year-old could have been me.  Since I was that young, and even since his senseless death, I have met countless gay kids.  And too many of them have sad stories, if not horror stories, to tell about parental rejection, being bullied, feeling too hungry for a little sympathetic company while sitting all alone on a bar stool. Too many of us still experience real queer bashing.  In my own neighborhood (liberal Silverlake in Los Angeles) there are still fearful, frightening episodes of queer bashing and mugging.Of course I am gratified that the House of Representatives has now passed the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes bill (and who knows, will there be an uphill battle in the Senate?). Yet since Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) called this hate crime a “hoax”, I am outraged all over again. (Huffington Post’s headline, “Virginia Foxx: Story of Matthew Shepard’s Murder A ‘Hoax.’“)

For one thing, I must surmise that she didn’t follow his story, when Matthew was discovered tied to a Wyoming fence in the freezing cold, his skull already crushed. Everyone (except people like Foxx) was horrified. And within hours he was dead. Rep. Foxx has simply “bought into” the flimsy defense argument that those scumbags who murdered him had only robbery on their minds; and therefore she could argue that to classify his murder, and to name this bill after him, is a hoax. 

That is almost like suggesting that Hitler only incidentally murdered six million Jews, and all he meant to do was to rob their bank accounts, seize their art collections and remove their gold dental fillings!

I certainly agree with Keith Olberman (MSNBC Countdown) that if Foxx cannot fully and appropriately apologize for her calloused remarks (now indelibly written into the Congressional Record to document her indifference to bigotry, homophobia and suffering in 21^st Century America), she ought to resign.

Of course, Rep. Foxx sort of apologized soon after for her poor choice of words, as if it were only a matter of language. Language is the servant of thought, Rep. Foxx. The language you chose reflects your thought, and it made clear that you really trivialize Matthew Shepard’s brutal torture and murder as a mere robbery, and so you trivialize the reality of brutal, relentless hate crimes in America.

Gay and lesbian people aren’t the only ones who suffer hatred. But like African Americans, Muslims and those who resemble one, Jews, transgender persons, physically-challenged individuals, and women of all states and conditions, violent hate crimes against such people are violent hate crimes. Robbery is a convenient sequel to the evil within the heart of those whose real intent is to hate, to reject, and to destroy people. If Ms. Foxx had followed the trial, read the transcript, or even watched the news, it might have tested her to see if she has any genuine human emotions. I am completely disgusted by her comments because I can tell how she measures the whole matter in her “heart.”

—Pastor Dan Hooper, Los Angeles

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