New York Becomes 7th State to Ban Gay Panic and Trans Panic Defenses

New York’s state legislature approved a bill banning gay panic and trans panic defenses in court, making it the seventh to do so. Governor Andrew Cuomo has said he’ll sign the bill.

The NYT reports on the heinous and hateful legal strategy: “Since as early as the 1960s, defense lawyers have introduced the idea that people accused of murdering lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people had acted in a state of temporary insanity caused and justified by their victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity.”