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Gay/trans panic defense ban introduced in Congress

National
By Tom Wray
Congress
The United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. (Image by MotionStudios from Pixabay)
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Congress
The United States Capitol in Washington, D.C. (Image by MotionStudios from Pixabay)

WASHINGTON — The Gay and Trans Panic Defense Prohibition Act of 2019 was filed this week in the U.S. Congress.

The Matthew Shepard Foundation said in a statement that the bill was introduced by Senator Edward Markey (D-MA) and Congressman Joe Kennedy III (D-MA) in the Senate and House.

Gay panic was actually used as a defense by the men convicted of killing Matthew Shepard in 1998.

Only four states ban gay/trans panic as a defense: California, Illinois, Nevada and Rhode Island. Illinois banned it in 2017.

If passed, the bills will prohibit the justification or mitigation of a violent offense based on the gender, gender identity/expression, or sexual orientation of a victim. The bills also contain requirements that the Attorney General submit a report annually to Congress, detailing prosecutions in federal court involving crimes committed against the LGBTQ community that were motivated by these factors.

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Tom Wray is the founder, editor and publisher of the Illinois Eagle. His writing has been in The National Provisioner and the Windy City Times. He's also served as an editor at the Post-Tribune of Northwest Indiana and the Kokomo Tribune. He lives in Springfield.

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