There’s a movement under way demanding the resignation of Virginia Foxx, the ignorant Republican congressperson from North Carolina who last week enraged millions of Americans with her comments on the House floor regarding proposed hate-crime legislation named after Matthew Shepard, the young gay man who was murdered in Wyoming 10 years ago by two loathsome, cowardly rednecks. Here’s what Foxx said:

“The hate crimes bill that’s called the Matthew Shepard Bill is 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 a robbery.  It wasn’t because he was gay.  This – the bill was named for him, hate crimes bill was named for him, but it’s really a hoax that continues to be used as an excuse for passing these bills.”

The callousness of Foxx’s comment is so breathtaking, it’s hard to fathom. She calls this heinous act a “very unfortunate incident.” Here was a 21-year-old college student, all of 5′ 4″ tall and 100 pounds, pistol-whipped, tortured and tied to a ranch fence, where he was left for dead. (Shepard was found in a coma by a cyclist the next day and died in a hospital less than a week later.) To call it a robbery gone awry is to maliciously ignore reality. It was nothing less than the lynching of a gay man. Think about it: Wasn’t tying Matthew to a fence by the side of a road the equivalent of “stringing him up”?

I remember well when it happened, as I’m sure do many of you. It was one of those stories that left you numb, nauseous and depressed for days, unable to comprehend the capacity for cruelty and hate which exists in our world. I recall wondering what this poor young man’s last moments were like, whether he tried to reason with his tormentors, whether he begged for his life, whether he tried to fight back or escape against impossible odds, whether he thought about his mother or family before losing consciousness while bound to a fence as the thermometer dropped to the low 30s that night in Laramie. It’s the kind of grisly fate nobody deserves. I also wondered whether Russell Arthur Henderson and Aaron James McKinney were laughing it up during the course of their despicable deed, egging each other on and competing to outdo each other’s savagery, and whether they basked in the glow of their “accomplishment” as they drove off, riding their hate high and discussing to whom they could safely brag about their macho act of frontier “justice.”

And to have an elected official, a member of the U.S. Congress, trivialize this hate murder as a political stunt, a “hoax that continues to be used as an excuse for passing these bills”… well, that’s really the money quote, isn’t it?  Because Virginia Foxx wants to deny that acts of violence against the members of society she and her ilk historically view with revulsion and disdain — gays, lesbians, African-Americans and other minorities — are motivated by anything more than garden-variety greed and opportunism. Essentially, they want the rest of us to believe bigotry-based violence against homosexuals and minorities doesn’t exist, even as the history books are filled with countless examples going back to the early days of our country.

But it’s more than that. The real fear of the hate-crime deniers is that hate-crime legislation somehow will 1) infringe on their right to continue fomenting hate through speech, and 2) make them at least indirectly responsible for hate crime. I couldn’t express it any better than what I came across recently in A Good Choice…, a bizarre and disturbing blog whose tagline reads, “America is in the midst of a raging cultural and spiritual war. Forces of Good, Light, Conservatism and a Judeo-Christian Worldview daily battle the forces of Evil, Darkness, Socialism and False Religions and Philosophies. A Good Choice is on the frontlines exposing evil across America’s political and social spectrum.” Here’s what these Godly Christians say about hate-crime legislation:

So-called “hate crimes” and “anti-discrimination” laws would have ultimate two-fold effect of elevating homosexuality to not only a protected status, but also setting in motion the silencing of true Christians’ free expression of absolute Biblical truth in regard to the basic immorality of homosexuality, as well as other sexual perversions. This silencing of all opposition is also part of the homosexual agenda.

So you can see it’s very important for gay-hating Christian extremists and their loyal legislators to oppose hate-crime legislation, or even the very notion of hate crimes. Otherwise the rights of people like the unhinged Rev. Fred Phelps to pickets funerals with signs such as “Matthew Shepard rots in Hell” and “God Hates Fags” would be endangered. And what kind of sick, perverted country would we be if one of His humble servants were prohibited from doing the Lord’s work?

Virginia Foxx’s presence as a national representative is an affront to decency. The effort to shame her out of office is being led by David Badash, creator of the blog The New Civil Rights Movement. David is a gay rights activist, an intelligent, articulate and impassioned writer whose uncompromising commitment to social justice is inspiring and humbling. I’m proud to call myself one of his followers on Twitter and fully support the FireFoxx movement.

Sadly, though, even if Foxx is successfully forced from office, it’s unlikely her replacement will be any better. The 5th Congressional district of North Carolina, bordering Tennessee and Virginia, is one of the most conservative in this blood-red state. Since the 1994 election, it has been represented by Richard Burr, now a U.S. senator, and Foxx, both extreme right-wingers. Among other things, Burr is pro-death penalty and supports a Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

Foxx, in addition to her adamant opposition to hate-crime legislation, was one of only 11 members of Congress in 2005 to vote against aid to victims of Hurricane Katrina. Maybe she thought the pictures of thousands of homeless African-Americans huddled in the Superdome and on the street were a hoax. She also voted in 2006 against extending the Voting Rights Act.

Foxx easily has won reelection twice since taking office in 2004, so it’s clear the majority of voters in N.C.’s 5th District like their politicians a certain way. Hopefully the unwanted attention generated by Foxx’s foolish and vile comments will cause enough of them to rethink their beliefs. It’d be a nice way for some good to come out of what so far has been a sorry display of intolerance and insensitivity.