On the same day that yet another New England state, New Hampshire, inched closer to allowing same-sex marriage, a representative from another state, North Carolina, reminded us of the ugly bigotry that still pervades our great country. Rep. Virgina Foxx took to the floor of the House of Representatives during a debate on the expansion of hate crimes legislation and said the following: "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." Not only were her statements patently untrue, and not only was her use of the term "we" a glaring reminder of how and why the Republican brand has become synonymous with intolerance and ill-conceived rhetoric, but Foxx performed her obscene, cruel and pathetically out-of-touch diatribe in front Shepard's mother, Judy Shepard. The perpetrators of the "very unfortunate incident" of Shepard's brutal murder admitted that they killed the gay 21-year-old in 1998 because he was homosexual, and for that they were sentenced to life in prison without parole. As Salon's Joan Walsh said on Hardball with Chris Matthews last night: It's Rep. Foxx that's the hoax.