GOP Rep. Virginia Foxx Dishonored Matthew Shepard's Death, Saying it Was a Hoax

Less than one month after she used the term "tar baby" on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) has managed to offend another group of Americans: gay people.

Speaking on the House floor Wednesday while a hate crimes bill – known as the "Matthew Shepard bill," after the gay 21-year-old who was brutally murdered in 1998 -- was being debated, Foxx called the University of Wyoming student’s association with the legislation "a hoax" because, she said, Shepard was not killed because of his sexual orientation.

"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," Foxx said. "It wasn’t because he was gay… 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."

Foxx’s belief in this "hoax" may stem from a 2004 episode of ABC’s 20/20 program, which included interviews with both the men convicted of murdering Shepard. One of the men, Aaron McKinney, said his motivation for the murder was robbery, not hatred of gay people. Gay and lesbian advocates challenged the report’s credibility.

During a 1998 hearing prior to the trials of McKinney and Russell Henderson, a police investigator testified that one of the men -- just before beating him with a pistol butt – told Shepard, "it’s Gay Awareness Week."

Brad Luna, a spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, a gay-rights group, Wednesday said that Foxx "should be ashamed of herself."

"It is no longer acceptable in this day and age to just come right out and say you don’t like gay people. Instead, extremist opponents of equality must resort to these types of malicious and twisted lies," Luna said.

The bill, officially called the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act, passed the House over conservatives’ objections. If also approved by the Senate, it would provide grants for investigation and prosecution of hate crimes to state and local authorities, the Associated Press reported.