Gay Panic, Gay Victims, and the Case for Gay Shield Laws by Kelly Strar, Molly Selv, Ldsey Hay :: SSRN

Contents:

• THE GAY/TRANS PANIC DEFENSE: WHAT IT IS, AND HOW TO END IT
• GAY AND TRANS ‘PANIC’ IS STILL BEG USED TO JTIFY ANTI-LGBTQ ATTACKS
• 'GAY PANIC' FENSE STILL ED VLENCE S MAY BE BANNED BY NEW FERAL BILL
• BEG AAID OF A GAY OR TRANS PERSON IS STILL A VALID MURR DEFENSE MOST OF THE US
• THE END OF THE GAY-PANIC LEGAL DEFENSE
• GAY PANIC, GAY VICTIMS, AND THE CASE FOR GAY SHIELD LAWS
• CRIMAL RPONSIBILY, DIMISHED CAPACY, AND THE GAY PANIC DEFENSE
• LEGIMACY OF ‘CTOMER’ SUPREME COURT GAY RIGHTS SE RAIS ETHIL AND LEGAL FLAGS
• BANNG THE USE OF GAY AND TRANS PANIC DEFENS
• GAY AND TRANS PANIC FENS NTUE TO BE ED URT S MANY US STAT

THE GAY/TRANS PANIC DEFENSE: WHAT IT IS, AND HOW TO END IT

The gay/trans panic legal fense legimiz and exc vlent and lethal behavr agast members of the LGBTQ+ muny.

GAY AND TRANS ‘PANIC’ IS STILL BEG USED TO JTIFY ANTI-LGBTQ ATTACKS

Over the urse of lbian, gay, or bisexual people's lifetim, one five will experience hate crim, and one four transgenr people will as dividuals at the tersectn of homophobia, transphobia, and racism, face worse statistics.

'GAY PANIC' FENSE STILL ED VLENCE S MAY BE BANNED BY NEW FERAL BILL

As of July 1, 2019, eight stat have passed legislative bans on the e of gay/trans panic as a legal fense: California, Illois, Rho Island, Nevada, Connecticut, Mae, Hawaii, and New York. It mt be noted that gay/trans panic is not an affirmative legal fense; is a tactic to strengthen the fense by playg on prejudice. Dpe bunkg "gay panic disorr, " and s removal om the DSM by the Amerin Psychologil Associatn 1973, legal fense teams ntue to e the 1954 murr of William T.

Simpson North Miami, FL, the fendants claimed that they shot Simpson, a gay man, while "ristg his advanc, " th utilizg the provotn fense.

Even though the fendants were crimals who equented that area of highway to rob drivers, and tentnally targeted homosexual victims, the fendants were nvicted of manslghter rather than first-gree murr. The fense aga utilized the provotn fense, cg that the nature of the note and Amre's homosexualy was enough to send Schmz to a panic and kill Amre. The gay/trans panic fense has not always been succsful.

BEG AAID OF A GAY OR TRANS PERSON IS STILL A VALID MURR DEFENSE MOST OF THE US

The gay/trans panic fense was emed admissible, not due to the illegimacy of the gay/trans panic fense, but stead due to Wyomg's statutory sany fense nstct. Currently, there are several other state legislative efforts to ban and nounce the legimacy of the gay/trans panic fense.

At the feral level, the Equaly Act, which bans the gay/trans panic fense, has jt been troduced. Help to end this discrimatn by supportg legislative bans on the gay/trans panic steps you n, and should, take are as follows:Contact legislators and ernors stat currently tryg to ban the gay/trans panic fense. Be sure to reach out to feral legislators as an advote stat where there is currently no proposed gay/trans panic ban your own policians know that equaly unr the law should apply to the victims of hate crim as well.

Gay And Trans ‘Panic’ Is Still Beg Used To Jtify Anti-LGBTQ Attacks. The area where Bond was shot was known as a gay cisg area, acrdg to a report Out Magaze. Wells’s statement shocked queer activists, who have e to ll the claim and others like the gay and trans panic fens.

THE END OF THE GAY-PANIC LEGAL DEFENSE

The gay and trans panic fens are not crimal legal fens on their own, like self-fense, but stead ed to argue provotn, dimished pacy, or sany, as well as self-fense, acrdg to Carsten Andren, a crimal jtice profsor at St. “There’s a hazardo byproduct of puttg out all the toxic ias about gay people and other LGBTQ+ people — this ia that they’re predatory. The Williams Instute at the UCLA School of Law recently found that gay and trans panic fens have appeared publicly reported urt opns roughly half of U.

Andren and other crics of the gay and trans panic fens said there is a signifint difference between claims of self-fense and crim that show an obv anti-queer bias. Rick Garcia, Equaly Illois’ polil director at the time, blamed the acqutal on the gay panic fense. “The gay panic fense is passe but, unfortunately, still works some plac, ” Garcia told the Chigo Tribune.

“It seems to me that this jury based s verdict not on the facts but on ep seated anti-gay sentiment.

GAY PANIC, GAY VICTIMS, AND THE CASE FOR GAY SHIELD LAWS

Kristen Brow, -chairperson of the Natnal Trans Bar Associatn, said the gay and trans panic fens particularly impact transgenr women bee of the disproportnate vlence they face.

“And that is what [the gay and trans panic fense] is sayg. In the face of adly vlence agast trans people, some legislators have ma efforts, wh varyg succs, to ban the gay and trans panic fens urtrooms across the untry.

Senator Ed Markey of Massachetts and Reprentative Chris Pappas of New Hampshire, both Democrats, troduced the Gay and Trans Panic Defense Prohibn Act.

CRIMAL RPONSIBILY, DIMISHED CAPACY, AND THE GAY PANIC DEFENSE

"We’re micians and all that kd of stuff, but I’m not a gay guy, " Miller told police later, The At Amerin-Statmen the trial, Miller explaed his actns g a "gay panic" fense that has been ed sce the 1960s more than half of U. However, a jury sentenced Miller to six months jail, 10 years of probatn and 100 hours of muny e of gay panic and "trans panic" fens ntu to be legal 47 stat, although three stat have outlawed sce two Massachetts lawmakers are tryg to prevent the fense om beg ed feral urts wh a bill troduced Congrs last Miller an undated County Sheriff's OfficeSen.

Joe Kennedy proposed the legislatn both ho of Congrs prohibg gay and trans panic fens. "Legal loophol wrten to our laws that seek to jtify vlent attacks agast our gay, lbian, bisexual, and transgenr neighbors should never have existed the first place.

"Dan Black, the prs secretary for Kennedy said that recent s volvg gay and trans panic fens have highlighted the need for a feral Ed Markey, D-Mass., om left, Sen. "One of the most high-profile s that ed a gay panic fense was the trial of the men who attacked gay llege stunt Matthew Shepard and left him to die. One of the two men who tied the gay Universy of Wyomg stunt to a fence, after torturg and beatg him, claimed that he was driven to vlence when Shepard allegedly touched him on the was also the se of Angie Zapata, a trans woman who was killed Colorado 2008.

LEGIMACY OF ‘CTOMER’ SUPREME COURT GAY RIGHTS SE RAIS ETHIL AND LEGAL FLAGS

Advot say the panic fens are rooted homophobia and trans fens are based on "the ia that vlent vic reactns to LGBT people are unrstandable bee there's somethg about that is so shockg and so horrifyg that a vlent reactn is to be unrstood, " acrdg to Jenny Pizer, the law and policy director of LGBTQ advocy group Lambda Legal. "A number of natnal legal groups and gay rights advocy groups support the proposed legislatn, cludg the Amerin Bar Associatn, Natnal LGBT Bar Associatn and GLAAD.

"Historilly we have seen panic fens ed as a Trojan horse to attempt to brg societal prejudic and hatred agast LGBTQ people, and pecially transgenr women and gay men, to urtrooms an effort to jtify typ of vlence that are simply never jtifiable, " Sue Yacka-Bible, munitns director at GLAAD, told ABC News a statement. Photograph by Barney Ste / New York Post Archiv / GettyThe se was one of the first high-profile stanc of a “gay panic” fense, which a person claims that his vlent act was a sudn emotnal rponse to an unwanted advance om a person of the same sex.

Sce the neteen-sixti, the gay-panic fense has been ed half the stat, but relatively few reported s, numberg the se that brought the fense renewed attentn was the killg, 1998, of Matthew Shepard, a gay stunt at the Universy of Wyomg, who was robbed, beaten, and set on fire by two men. He was sentenced to two life sentenc June, the New York State Assembly joed six other state legislatur that have passed bills banng gay-panic and trans-panic fens.

BANNG THE USE OF GAY AND TRANS PANIC DEFENS

) Also June, Senator Edward Markey and Reprentative Joe Kennedy, both of Massachetts, troduced feral bills to ban gay- and trans-panic fens for feral crim. People, and ncern that fens implicly blame gay and trans people for vlence agast them or imply that their liv are worth ls than others. What the bills leave place, however, is a fendant’s abily to claim that his own past trma n expla the extreme reactn to a victim’s gay-panic fense grows out of the tradnal legal doctre known as “provotn, ” which dat to sixteenth-century England and remas e Amerin urts.

But the homosexual-panic fense did not formally appear legal opns until the the middle of the twentieth century, progrsive crimal-law thkers lled for the expansn of the provotn ncept to acmodate fendants whose suatns didn’t f the narrow tegori that urts had veloped. Current efforts to ban gay- and trans-panic fens are unntroversial jurisdictns that embrace gay and transgenr rights.

GAY AND TRANS PANIC FENS NTUE TO BE ED URT S MANY US STAT

In a highly publicized “gay panic” se, Brandon McInerney shot and killed Larry Kg their middle school classroom. Kg was a self-intified gay stunt who sometim wore jewelry and eye makp to school and, acrdg to those who knew him, was possibly transgenr.

Drawg largely upon qualative empiril rearch, this article the Larry Kg murr se as a prism though which to view the doctral, theoretil, and policy bas of the gay panic fense while also examg broar issu ncerng vlence agast LGBTQ victims.

To prevent future gay panic s om evolvg to trials of the victims, we propose a “gay shield” le of evince: In s where the fendant asserts a gay panic fense, the law should lim the trial judge’s abily to adm evince signed to ce prejudicial rpons among jurors. Buildg upon the law and policy unrlyg rape shield statut, gay shield laws would seek to protect crime victims om beg re-victimized at trial. Keywords: Gay Panic, Crimal Law, Murr, Manslghter, Gay Rights, Transgenr Rights.