APR 1, 11:34 AM

Virginia Has Outlawed The LGBTQ+ ‘Panic’ Defense

Jenny Gathright https://twitter.com/jennygathright

Gov. Ralph Northam has signed legislation that bans the use of what’s commonly known as the LGBTQ+ or trans “panic” defense — which means that people accused of violent crimes in Virginia will no longer be able to use the victim’s gay or trans identity as a defense in court.

The law, which Northam signed on Wednesday, makes Virginia the 12th state (including D.C.) to ban this kind of legal defense.

Defendants tend to use this defense a few different ways. In some cases, they claim that a victim’s gay or trans identity led them to a state of temporary insanity, which then drove them to commit an act of violence or murder. In others, the trans panic defense is used to bolster a claim of provocation — also known as a “heat of passion” defense — where a person accused of murder claims that they were so upset to discover that their victim was gay or trans that they completely lost self-control.

The most prominent use of the defense occurred in the case of the murder of 21-year-old Matthew Shepard, who was beaten to death by two men in 1998. The men charged in Shepard’s killing claimed that he made sexual advances that led them to a temporary state of insanity.

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