By GottaLaff
This was tweeted to me in response to my previous post, Christians claim Matthew Shepard hate crimes law "criminalizes the Bible":
You can't "license persecution":
Alan Shore (James Spader) of Boston Legal argues to cut down on freedom of religion.H/t: Nanotyrnns
By GottaLaff
A Christian group in Michigan has filed a lawsuit alleging that a package of hate crimes laws named after murder victim Matthew Shepard is an affront to their religious freedom.
Filed by the Thomas More Law Center -- which bills itself as the religious answer to the American Civil Liberties Union -- the complaint claims that protecting gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people "is an effort to eradicate religious beliefs opposing the homosexual agenda from the marketplace of ideas by demonizing, vilifying, and criminalizing such beliefs as a matter of federal law and policy."Thomas More chief counsel Richard Thompson:
"Of the 1.38 million violent crimes reported in the U.S. by the FBI in 2008, only 243 were considered as motivated by the victim’s sexual orientation," he wrote on the group's Web site. "The sole purpose of this law is to criminalize the Bible and use the threat of federal prosecutions and long jail sentences to silence Christians from expressing their Biblically-based religious belief that homosexual conduct is a sin."
So... silencing a life because of sexual orientation is okay. Laws making that illegal aren't. .sdrawkcaB
However, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act clearly stipulates that it does not apply to constitutionally protected speech.
See, what the actual act stipulates doesn't matter. Legalities don't matter. Justice doesn't matter. Bigotry, hatred, homophobia, and "belief" trumps law, decency, and ethics.
It's the naciremA yaw.
By GottaLaff
Never afraid of flying in my life. Never.
What seemed like a lifetime later, we landed in Denver, rushed off the plane to find other ways home, home to loved ones, open arms, hugs, love, safety.
Safety. That which we took for granted.
I looked up at a television screen in the gate. News was breaking.
*******
A young man had been found, tied to a fence in the sagebrush outside Laramie, beaten, and nearly dead.
A young man. Sagebrush. Laramie.
A young man. Fence. Sagebrush. Laramie.
*******
Numb I was. Numb. We'd been so low to the ground. So slow. Amazing no one had seen him.
******
My heart ached. Someone thought he was a scarecrow, I'd heard. Hate crime, I heard later.
Dead, I heard later.
*******
Not home. Not warm. Not safe.
The safety we take for granted.
The October day I won't forget. [...]
None of us can imagine what Matthew's last hours or days of life were like.
In those moments I find myself afraid, I think of Matthew. [...]
Matthew's mother, Judy Shepard, has been a tireless champion for hate crimes legislation since Matthew's untimely death that October day in 1998.
Please go read Kathy's gripping article here, in full.
Here is my liveblog of Judy Shepard, Matthew's mom, at the gay rights rally in D.C. yesterday. Here she is in a video that was produced earlier this year:
And here is the video of her remarks at yesterday's rally:
By GottaLaff
Speaking of "intolerance," I will not, cannot tolerate such bigoted idiocy, so the least I can do is expose it:
Today in an interview with Radio America/WorldNetDaily, Rep. Steve King (R-IA)–who has said that hate crimes legislation creates “sacred cows” and puts the “victimizer’s focus on someone else” — tried to argue that such a bill is unnecessary. His argument? Matthew Shepard himself wasn’t actually murdered because he was gay.What the Foxx? Does this ring a cracked, cacophonous, warped little bell? It should.
As Salon reported in November 1999:How can people like Steve King live with themselves? And exactly what century are they even living in?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. [...]
According to detectives who interviewed both of the convicted murderers, there is no evidence that Shepard made any sexual advances to the pair — and the detectives dismissed the idea that the murder was the mere result of a robbery gone bad. “Far from that!” scoffed Sgt. Rob DeBree, the chief investigator in the case. “They knew damn well he was gay. … It started out as a robbery and burglary, and I sincerely believe the other activity was because he was gay.”
Remember when "hating the troops" was just a Dem thang? Well, it seems dickwads Boehner and Pence hate teh gays more than they love the troops, since they were forced to vote against the defense bill.
WASHINGTON -- So-called "hate crimes" are rare in California's Central Valley, but they will be punished more severely under legislation passed Thursday by the House of Representatives.
The controversial measure tacked onto page 1,350 of a must-pass defense bill stiffens penalties for those convicted of committing violent offenses because of the "sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or disability" of the victim.
The provision expands an existing federal hate crime law, which covers race, religion and ethnicity. Now, hurting any member of these specially protected populations could lead to a 10-year federal prison sentence on top of other sentences.
"This law says it's no longer appropriate to treat gays as social pariahs," said Jay Hubbell, founder and treasurer of Fresno Stonewall Democrats. "I think it's important, because it will create momentum for full equality; it's saying gay people are entitled to the same civil rights as others."
Supporters and opponents, though, clash sharply over the prevalence of hate crimes as well as the wisdom of enhancing penalties to protect some populations more than others. On the one hand, the FBI counted a total of 7,624 hate crime incidents in 2007, the most recent year for which statistics are available.
(snip)
Advocates have been pushing for an expanded hate crimes bill for several years, under the name the Matthew Shepard and James J. Byrd Hate Crimes Act. Shepard was a 21-year-old student murdered in Wyoming in 1998, ostensibly because he was overtly gay. Byrd was a 49-year-old African-American killed in Texas in 1998.
By attaching the hate crimes measure to the $680 billion defense authorization package, lawmakers provided the legislation the momentum it lacked on its own.
By GottaLaff
Too much negative attention, MotherFoxxer? That second statement didn't quite give you the redemption you were looking for? Worried about losing that next election, huh?
[T]he Winston-Salem Journal reports that Foxx has written a letter of apology to Shepard’s mother, Judy.More:
Strike three, you're out.The Matthew Shepard Foundation confirmed that Judy Shepard received Foxx's note, but offered no comment on it.
"We are not commenting any further on Rep. Foxx's remarks on the House floor, or anything that was contained in a letter," Logan Shepard, the foundation's communications associate, wrote in an e-mail. "Everything that has been said already, is enough. We are trying to focus on the positive, which is, that the (hate-crimes bill) has been passed onto the Senate. We are looking to the future and our energy will be focused on putting the Matthew Shepard Act onto the President's desk."
Foxx declined to say in the WXII interview whether she now considers Shepard's death a hate crime.
Foxx's apology "shows that she doesn't necessarily understand what it was that she said wrong," said Becky Dansky of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. "It wasn't just her word choice, it was the sentiment she expressed. It was incredibly disrespectful, not just to the mother of Matthew Shepard but to the thousands of other hate-crime victims out there."
Is the real reason they are against a hate crimes bill just that they don't want to have to stop publicly hating? OTOH, I'd love to see those gay sacred cows. Via Think Progress.
This is the "ad" they put out in the fight against the Hate Crimes Bill aka The Matthew Shepard Act. You know, the one that Virginny Foxx is all aflutter over. What Pam said-
The fact is that during debate over this bill the GOP tried to add all sorts of demographic groups that also haven't been the target of hate crimes, like pregnant women, senior citizens, etc. in order to try to derail the legislation -- it didn't work. But you see, 2010 is coming up quickly and the party has no ideas to help out Congressional candidates.
Considering the party's history of enabling and even promoting the pedophiles, rapists, serial adulterers, and sexual predators in its midst, all while projecting piety, it would be refreshing to see the Republicans to actually try to win on the issues. However, this level of desperation shows that they don't think they can sell their ideas to anyone, so it's back to the tried-and-true, garden variety extremist scare-tactic, fear-and-smear lies.
By GottaLaff
To refresh your memory...
This woman is Foxxed-up beyond repair. Here she goes again:
Here's what Matthew Shepard's mother said:[L]ocal Winston-Salem TV station WXII12 News released an exclusive interview with embattled Rep. Virginia Foxx, whose malicious comments about the circumstances surrounding the murder of Matthew Shepard have caused scorn and anger, and, according to her office, ten death threats. [...]
“In the heat of trying to handle the rule on the floor, anybody can use a bad choice of words. Saying that the event was a hoax was a poor choice of words,” Foxx said. “I’ve apologized for that. I never meant in any way to harm the family or offend the family or anybody else for that matter.”
Hardly a change from yesterday’s statement:
“The term ‘hoax’ was a poor choice of words used in the discussion of the hate-crimes bill,” Foxx said in a statement. “Mr. Shepard’s death was nothing less than a tragedy, and those responsible for his death certainly deserved the punishment they received.”
One non-apology is bad, two demonstrates not only a lack of remorse or decency, but a total lack of understanding of the important and sensitive issues that confront out country.
Another indication?
“It is very unfortunate that these calls have come in. I would say 99 percent of them are from outside the district and it is unfortunate that people have taken this position.”
[...] Rep. Foxx is under the mistaken concept that she is the Representative for her district. She does not grasp the fact that she is a United States Congresswoman who may be elected by a portion of the citizens of North Carolina, but she represents every American.
“What I hope my constituents know is that I’m in Washington ever day that I’m required to be there, working hard for them, doing the best to make sure that the federal government doesn’t take away their rights and their money.”
We’re thrilled she goes to work every day. She’s lucky to have a job.
On Thursday, Judy Shepard reacted to Foxx's comments. "She's apologizing for semantics," Judy Shepard said.Nothing can make up for the message that this motherFoxxer put out there. Nothing. But at least she could make a sincere attempt at a real apology. She could start and end with the words "I'm sorry."
By GottaLaff
You will recall that Matthew Shepard was the young gay man in Colorado who, a decade ago, was tied to a fence, Jesus-like, pistol whipped in the head some 50 times, then left for dead in the cold fall night, only to be found a day later clinging to life. Shepard died five days later. Even though Shepard's murderers admitted that they killed him because he was gay, the far-right bigots who control the Republican party couldn't resist the opportunity to gay-bash Shepard one last time. Now by referring to his brutal murder as a hoax. [...]I just called and registered a very emotional complaint on behalf of my twins, myself, and every American who cares one iota about equal rights, gay rights, civility, humanity, and electing officials who aren't ignorant, sick bigots.
Belittling the brutal murder of a 21 year old college student? And Republicans wonder why their angry, hateful, pathetic party is now only 20% of the US population.
Watch the video for yourself. Then feel free to call this sorry excuse for a human being and tell her what you think of her bigotry.
Phone:(202) 225-2071
Phone:
Phone:
I wonder where Virginia Foxx stood on letting blacks swim in our pools fifty years ago. Actually, I think I already know.
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