Who Is Rep. Virginia Foxx, the Antigay, Conspiracy-Loving, Trump Supporter?

U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, who told a reporter to “shut up” during questioning of new House Speaker Mike Johnson Wednesday, is notorious for claiming that Matthew Shepard’s murder was not a hate crime, but there’s much more to her anti-LGBTQ+ record.

Foxx, a Republican, has represented North Carolina’s Fifth Congressional District, located in the northwestern part of the state, since 2005. She has received consistent zero scores on the Human Rights Campaign’s Congressional Scorecard.

Calling Matthew Shepard's Murder a Hoax

Her comment about Shepard came in 2009, when Congress was considering the bill named for him and James Byrd Jr. that expanded federal hate-crimes law. “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,” she said. “It wasn’t because he was gay. ... It’s really a hoax that that continues to be used as an excuse for passing these bills.”

She ignored the facts around Shepard’s 1998 murder in Wyoming, including antigay statements made by his killers and the attempt to use the “gay panic” defense, which was nixed by a judge. The bill passed despite her unfortunate statement, expanding the federal definition of hate crimes to cover those based on sexual orientation or gender identity, allowing greater resources for investigation, prosecution, and prevention of such crimes.

Foxx later said, “The term ‘hoax’ was a poor choice of words,” but Judy Shepard, Matthew’s mother, was unmoved. “It’s apologizing for semantics but not her sentiment, her insensitivity, or her ignorance,” Judy Shepard, who was present in the House when Foxx made the remark, told Rachel Maddow.

Anti-Marriage and Anti-Trans

Foxx’s anti-LGBTQ+ record goes on and on. In 2015, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled for nationwide marriage equality, she denounced the decision as a usurpation of state power. “I’m also extremely concerned about the threat this ruling poses to the conscience rights of people and organizations who believe that marriage is the union of one man and one woman,” she told Ashe Mountain Times, a North Carolina newspaper. "I will do everything in my power to defend these rights and protect the sacred institution of marriage.”

In 2021, she and fellow Republican U.S. Rep. Russ Fulcher of Idaho offered an amendment to an appropriations bill that would have prevented federal funds from being used to rescind a rule put in place by Donald Trump that allowed federal contractors a religious exemption from antidiscrimination policies. It did not pass.

This year, Foxx was one of the leading backers of the so-called Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, which would prohibit transgender girls and women from competing on female sports teams in schools and colleges that receive federal funding. It passed the Republican-controlled House but isn’t expected to even come up for a vote in the Democratic-majority Senate.

During a hearing on the bill in February, Foxx said, “I don’t know what a trans girl is.” One of her Republican colleagues, Thomas Massie, attempted to explain her remark. He “said Foxx was not denying the existence of transgender people but was instead ‘calling into question this fantasy that they could change their sex,’” The Hill reported at the time.

Foxx replied, “Correct. I do not deny the existence of people who say they are biologically one sex but identify as another; certainly, there are people in this country who say that. My point was one cannot change one’s biological sex. It has not been found to be possible.”

Foxx Told Rachel Scott to Shut Up

Her outburst Wednesday came when ABC News reporter Rachel Scott was asking Johnson about his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election — something Foxx supported. Scott noted that Johnson helped lead the move, then asked, “Do you stand by…,” but the Republicans appearing with him interrupted her with boos, and Foxx yelled, “No! Shut up! Shut up!”

Foxx’s outburst isn’t going over well, including in her home state.

“Foxx has lived for nearly eight decades but she behaved like an 8-year-old on the national stage,” opinion columnist Isaac Bailey wrote in The Charlotte Observer.“We are not sending our best to represent our interests, or to even uphold our democracy.”

“If Foxx had any political integrity, or integrity of any kind, she would not have shouted ‘Shut up!’” Bailey continued. “She would have answered the question. She would have [assured] the American public that she would support no one for House speaker, or any other position, if they did not support basic democratic norms, such as respecting the nonviolent transfer of power even when your preferred candidate loses. Instead, she joined in with fellow Republicans hissing, booing and unleashing childlike taunts.”