10 years later, and media still can't get it right on hate crimes
http://mediamatters.org/columns/2009050800245/8/09
For all the progress, though, debate over enhancing the current federal hate crimes law by including gay, lesbian, and transgender people among its protected classes rages on -- race, color, religion and national origin have been protected for years.
How can it be that 10 years after Shepard's brutal, bias-motivated murder we still find ourselves caught up in the same tired debate?
Witness Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina. During a debate over hate crimes legislation that recently passed the U.S. House of Representatives, she said : "The hate crimes bill was named for [Shepard], but it's really a hoax that continues to be used as an excuse for passing these bills." Foxx's "hoax" comment was made in an effort to bolster her apparent belief that Shepard's murder was the result of a robbery gone wrong. Where on Earth could she have come up with such an idea?
