That's one way to suck up to bigots, ma'am.

Not many politicians would feel it necessary to actually lie about the nature of Matthew Shepard's, or really, anyone's, death, to score a political point for the benefit of people who believe that their bigotry and homophobia, should they ever happen to lead to murder, mind you, should be treated just the same as robbers. Rep. from NC, Virginia Foxx, possibly channeling Jesse Helms, does. I do not know if she has an "anti-gay potential hate-crime" lobbyist that parks himself outside her door. I don't really want to know what the anti-gay potential hate-crime constituency looks like either, although I bet they look a little like the anti-black, anti-Jew, anti-atheist, and anti-intellectual potential hate-crime lobby. If she believes that is a significant and well-regarded part of her constituency, well, I just guess she's welcome to play to them. It isn't the most principled stance, but it is, however odious, political. I'd love to know if she ran an internal poll about this stand to determine the numbers on the "anti-*minority to be named later* potential hate crime" voter.

In other words--exactly why is she saying this young man died in the commission of a "mere" robbery when we all know that was secodary to what happened, after? When the girlfriends of the men who were sentenced of this crime admitted they were specifically planning to rob a "gay man", for whatever reason probably floated their boat--such as the suspicion he'd be easier to take out, get alone, and if they failed to beat him to death, well, more scared to report the crime. That wasn't some ordinary robbery attempt, and the brutality they showed wasn't, ultimately, about robbing somebody. After all--a robbery victim needn't necessarily be killed. It got ugly because of their hate--and he died from it.

That's the thing about hate--it acts as an accelerant to the flame of violence. To be opposed to the idea of a crime being specifically about hate of a group, you have to absolve people of being haters of specific groups in the first place--you have to mentally be at a place where you accept some other people as--

Deserving it?

Asking for it?

Acceptable targets?

No, there is such a thing as hate crime, and acknowleging it is a step in people being aware that it is uniquely wrong, and should be seen that way, for any individual to be targeted based on racial or gender affiliation. Not all transgressions are created equal. Virginia Foxx--what you implied was wrong factually and unnecessary. I hope emails and letters change your mind.