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Michigan Latest State to Ban 'Gay And Trans Panic' Legal Defense

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Michigan is the latest state to ban the “gay and trans panic” criminal defense, making it unlawful to use “the discovery of a person’s actual or perceived gender identity, gender expression, or sexual orientation as justification for the commission of a crime.” States increasingly have outlawed the defense in recent years, starting with California in 2006. It is still lawful in most states. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (

signed the bill Tuesday, reports the Washington Post. Advocates for outlawing the defense point to high-profile cases such as the 2015 murder of David Spencer in Texas, who was stabbed by a friend who said he tried to kiss him. James Miller was sentenced to six months in prison after his murder charge was downgraded to criminally negligent homicide following a “gay panic” defense argument from his attorney.

The American Bar Association supports legislative action to “curtail the availability and effectiveness” of the defense, saying that “successful gay and trans panic defenses constitute a miscarriage of justice.”


The legal defense is used when a defendant charged with a violent crime attempts to use the victim’s sexual identity as a mitigating factor in his culpability, with the goal of acquittal or reduced charges. A man accused of killing another man or trans woman might argue that the victim had either indicated interest in him, tried to sexually assault him or engaged in sexual behavior with him without disclosing their sexual identity. W. Carsten Andresen, an assistant professor of criminal justice at St. Edward’s University in Austin, has compiled a database of gay and trans panic defense cases from media articles, legal transcripts and academic writing. He found more than 700 instances of the defense being used in murder cases between 1970 and 2024 in the U.S., including 18 in Michigan. It was an effective tactic in reducing charges about a third of the time.Twenty states and the District of Columbia have some form of legislation prohibiting an LGBTQ+ panic defense: California, Illinois, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, New York, D.C., Colorado, New Jersey, Washington, Maryland, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Delaware, Minnesota and Michigan, according to the National LGBTQ+ Bar Association.

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