(This post is about hate murders, and therefore could be triggering.)
From Pandagon, the Governator signs legislation prohibiting the Gay Panic defense, in the name of a woman whose murderers defended themselves via the Trans Panic defense:
The Gwen Araujo Justice for Victims Act directs the Office of Emergency Services to create training materials for district attorneys on best practices to address the use of bias-motivated defense strategies in criminal trials. The bill also requires the Judicial Council to adopt a jury instruction that tells jurors not to consider bias against people because of sexual orientation, gender identity or other characteristics in rendering a verdict.
The gay panic defense has a long, infamous history, but didn’t really gain national prominence until the Matthew Shepard trial:
Several observers had predicted the defense team might resort to a “gay panic” defense later in the trial, if it could not convince the jury that drugs and alcohol diminished McKinney’s ability to understand the severity of the crimes he committed. But no one in the stunned courtroom seemed prepared for the risky defense outlined in Tangeman’s opening statement. Nor were they prepared for the follow-up development: Tangeman argued that McKinney erupted “savagely” not because he was some sort of country hick who’d never crossed paths with a gay guy, but because of his own homosexual experiences.
At the age of 7, McKinney was forced to suck another boy’s penis, Tangeman announced. “Aaron will tell you this humiliated him. He did carry it with him.” At 15, McKinney willingly engaged in a homosexual act one time with a cousin, according to the lawyer. And not long before the murder, he inadvertently entered a gay church with his girlfriend and fled sobbing from the sight of men kissing.
Reaction from the gay community was swift and severe. Jeffrey Montgomery, spokesman for the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, staggered out of the courtroom, collapsed in a chair and gasped, “I’m almost speechless. I never thought they’d be so blatant.” He said he’d observed more than a dozen “gay panic” defenses, including the “Jenny Jones” trial — a highly publicized murder case using the controversial defense strategy, which suggests that a defendant is thrown into a panic by a sexual advance from a person of the same gender — but had never seen any so extreme. “Everyone thought it was going to be subtle,” he said. “He’s put [Shepard] on trial. It’s a scoundrel’s defense, it’s a bankrupt defense, but it’s all they have left.”
Unfortunately, not everything passed:
But it was a mixed bag for LGBT rights, as the Governator signed some bills and vetoed others:
* AB 2800, Civil Rights Housing Act of 2006 (signed). California housing laws are amended to include all of these categories in its anti-discrimination policy: race, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, disability, sex (and gender identity), marital status, sexual orientation, familial status and source of income.
* AB 606, The Safe Place to Learn Act (vetoed). This would have required the withholding of state funds from school districts that did not adopt an anti-discrimination policy that included sexual orientation and gender identity.
* AB 1056, Tolerance Education Pilot Program (vetoed). The anti-bullying measure would have required funding this program to strengthen existing state law prohibiting LGBT harassment.
And then the discussion in comments turns to the question of whether or not it’s wrong to deceive your partners about your trans status, and…I just can’t. I’m too tired.