Delaware has officially banned the so-called “gay and trans panic” defense, becoming the 17th state in the nation to do so.
The panic defense is a legal defense strategy used to justify violent crimes against LGBTQ+ people due to a perpetrator “panicking” over discovering their victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
According to the Movement Advancement Project, no state allows the defense to be used on its own, but it is often used alongside other defense strategies as a way to advocate for leniency.
Attempting to use that defense should immediately up the charges to a hate crime
Yeah, it’s hard to read it as anything other than a confession. WTF.
If you can’t be trusted to be nonviolent around nonviolent strangers, then you are not fit to participate in society. You belong in confinement for the sake of everyone’s safety.
But he tried to touch my peepee! And I was scared because I liked it! I had to kill him to suppress the gay in me! /s of course
Is that what they mean by “gay panic”? I think I like the tumblr version better.
If it is defensible that people panic over other’s sexuality, then it is defensible that people may panic over someone’s religious affiliation.
Well, the overlap of anti lgbt folks and antisemites is not small.
How varied… their lunacy.
Form anyone interested, this wikipedia page has a list of all the States which have had bills to consider the matter, or have successfully outlawed this sickening excuse of a defense.
Every time a article says it banned in a certain number of state I want to know what other states have it. This should have been included and thanks for sharing this
Same here – my first question was “has MY state banned this practice too?”
Yeah. I was disappoint that it wasn’t where I lived but had a bill in 2021 to make it illegal
I would like to thank the editor for using Trans TM colors on this map
The panic defense is a legal defense strategy used to justify violent crimes against LGBTQ+ people due to a perpetrator “panicking” over discovering their victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
Home of the brave eh?
Fuck me. I forgot this even existed.
I’m a straight man in Florida. Good to know I can beat the shit out of any given gay man and skate in court.
The law applies to religion also. What religion do you profess to be?
None.
Yours is the best religion.
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Halp! I’m skayord uff winkys and vaginios. Halp, panic, halp!
What laws even permit this as a defense? Or have judges just been legislating on their own?
Like a judge cant just say a robbery doesnt count because the victim is vegetarian or some shit.
The narrative of these defenses is basically something like this: “And then I went to bed with her, intending to initiate a sexual relationship. As she undressed, I suddenly noticed her genitals not being what I expected. I realized it was a man trying to force me into gay sex under false pretenses, so I got scared, panicked and as a matter of self-defense against this devious attempt to sexually assault me, I took my gun and shot them. I was under stress and in shock, so I was not thinking clearly.”
The idea is that you’re so scared that “a man” is trying to “trick” you into “having sex with a man” by “lying about being a woman”, that in that moment of panic and helplessness, you would be allowed physical, up to lethal self-defense, like in any other rape case.
The entire narrative hinges on the idea that trans people intend to mislead people into having sex with them by “pretending to be a different gender than they really are”, and that they seek out “normal” people to deceive into sex, for their fetish. Which is, by the way, also the origin of the slur “trap”.
The actual defense being used in these cases is one of diminished mental capacity. Gay/trans panic is just a specific example of such a defense.
