US Senator Ed Markey and Congressman Joe Kennedy III have introduced national legislation that would ban “gay or trans panic” as a legal defense for committing a violent act. Many states have passed similar legislation but on a statewide level, including Rhode Island, whose House of Representatives recently overwhelmingly passed its version of the law by a 68–2 vote in late May 2018. (The RI bill’s next move is with that state’s Senate, but RI Governor Gina Raimondo is expected to sign it into law if approved by both houses.)
If passed, a defendant on trial for committing a violent act would not be able to claim as a defense the sexual orientation or gender of the victim. In other words, the crime could not be blamed on the victim just for being LGBT.
“Sexual orientation or gender identity cannot ever excuse violence, and our courtrooms should not be used as chambers of hate,” Markey stated in a press release. “Gay and trans panic legal defenses reflect an irrational fear and bigotry toward the LGBTQ community and corrode the legitimacy of federal prosecutions. These defenses must be prohibited to ensure that all Americans are treated with dignity and humanity in our justice system.”
“Murdering or assaulting anyone because of their sexual orientation or gender identity is not a defense, it is a hate crime,” said Kennedy, also in a press release. “Legal loopholes written into our laws that seek to justify violent attacks against our gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender neighbors should never have existed in the first place.”
As reported in metroweekly:
“The LGBT Bar has been working to end gay and trans ‘panic’ defenses for over a decade and is hopeful that the Gay and Trans Panic Defense Prohibition Act of 2018 will bring an end to these heinous defenses,” D’Arcy Kemnitz, the executive director of the National LGBT Bar Association, said in a statement.
“Gay and trans ‘panic’ defenses have long stood as a symbol of dangerous and outdated thinking. An individual’s sexual orientation or gender identity/expression should never justify a violent attack or murder. To say otherwise sends a message to the LGBT community that their lives are inherently less valued. The continued allowance of these defenses is a failure of the justice system.”
The American Bar Association also praised the introduction of the legislation, calling the use of such defenses “remnants of a by-gone era” when anti-LGBTQ discrimination was tolerated and even accepted.
“Gay and trans ‘panic’ defenses deprive LGBT Americans of the blessing of liberty because they enshrine in law the idea that murder is a justifiable response to a life lived freely,” the American Unity Fund said in a statement. “This is a dishonor to LGBT people’s right to life and an egregious blot on the American justice system.”
