LGBTQ advocates welcome end of ‘gay panic’ defense in Illinois, look to other states
Los Angeles Times
When 21-year-old Matthew Shepard was punched, pistol-whipped, tied to a fence and left to die in 1998, his killers’ attorneys said the attackers were triggered by Mr. Shepard making sexual advances toward them.
Fordecades, LGBTQ people have been brutally attacked or killed and then blamedfor their own deaths in cases where attorneys attempt, sometimes successfully, to use a “gay panic” or “transpanic” defense.
Starting Monday, attorneys in Illinois will be barred from using the approach after a state law passed — without a single “no” vote in either the state House or Senate — making it the second state in the country to ban the defense in the courtroom.
Anthony Michael Kreis, who drafted the Illinois legislation, said the passage of the “gay panic” defense law has boosted efforts in other statesto enact similar bans.
Mr. Kreis has heard from advocates in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Jersey, among others, asking for help pushing their own bills. Similar legislation has been discussed by lawmakers in New Jersey and Pennsylvania.Other states where thedefense has been allowed include, Maryland, Texas andWashington.
Mr. Kreis said because the LGBTQ community is at higher risk for violence, the law comes at an important time.
This year marked the deadliest year on record for the transgender community, with at least 28 people shot and killed across the United States, according to the Human Rights Campaign.
There isn’t an exact definition, but a gay or trans panic defense is essentially when someone doesn’t realize they’re interacting with an LGBTQ person and becomes so overcome with rage when they realize it that they physically attack the person in the heat of the moment.
It’s estimated that gay and trans panic defenses have been used in at least 23 states since the 1960s, according to the Williams Institute, a think tank at the UCLA School of Law.
Gay and trans panic defenses have allowed people accused of killing LGBTQ people to receive lesser sentences, and in some cases, avoid any punishment, according to the institute.