On May 23, openly bisexual Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat representing Oregon, signed Senate Bill 704 into law, banning the LGBTQ “panic” murder defense in the state. This bill is particularly relevant to Oregon as just last year, Aja Raquell Rhone-Stevens, a 32-year-old openly trans Black woman was killed in the state. Her sister, Dana Spears, gave a statement after the Oregon House passed the bill last year. As reported by LGBTQ Nation, Spears said in part: “When we finally see justice for Aja’s murder, we can ensure that, when we show up to the courtroom, her memory won’t be insulted by someone trying to use the panic defense to justify her death.”
In specifics, SB 704 states in part that “discovery of a victim’s actual or perceived gender, gender identity, gender expression or sexual orientation does not constitute reasonable explanation for extreme emotional disturbance for purposes of affirmative defense to murder in the second degree.” This should be blanket common sense, of course, but thanks to decades of homophobia and transphobia infiltrating the court system, it’s sadly no surprise that we now need to legislate these horrifying defenses out of the system.
Prior to Brown signing SB 704 into law, state Sen. Katie Liebert, who is openly gay, described the law as a “relic of hate” against LGBTQ+ people and stressed that “No one should be able to use a person’s identity to justify or excuse acts of violence against them. Legal protection for bigotry is absolutely unacceptable and repealing this antiquated and hateful law is long overdue.”
So, what’s up with these horrendous laws, and how many are still on the books? Right now, only 14 states have banned gay panic defenses, including California, Illinois, Nevada, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Hawaii, Maine, Washington state, Colorado, Virginia, Vermont, New Jersey, New York, and Washington, D.C. The American Bar Association (ABA) approved a resolution calling for an end to this defense strategy back in 2013, and states have been gradually banning them since then. Gay panic defenses have been common since the 1960s, however, when being LGBTQ+ was considered a mental illness.
While panic defenses could certainly be used to defend people committing crimes against any marginalized group—say, based on race or ethnicity, in addition to gender identity—LGBTQ+ panic defenses have a disturbingly strong history of working on behalf of defendants in the court system. According to research, we know that more than 25% of transgender people will experience a hate crime in their lifetime, and one out of five lesbian, gay, or bisexual people will, as well. Trans folks of color, and especially trans sex workers, are particularly vulnerable. In the big picture, we need far more legislation protecting all marginalized folks—LGBTQ or not—and far fewer legal loopholes that essentially justify fear, hate, and othering from the point of view of those in power.
