Ban “LGBTQ+ Panic” Defenses
Year by year, lesbian, gay, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) people grow more comfortable with who they are and embrace their identity publicly. So much so that roughly one tenth of Americans identify as LGBTQ+. While LGBTQ+ people’s existence, acceptance, and inclusion pose no threat to society, some Republicans have argued otherwise. Some of them construe LGBTQ+ people as sexual offenders. Others use transgender people as scapegoats for gun violence. Regardless of whether Republicans bash about LGBTQ+ people on X or the news, they negatively affect LGBTQ+ people in the real world.
Online hate speech against LGBTQ+ people can lead to hate crimes or crimes rooted in identity-based bias. Even though hate crimes have recently decreased overall, they have increased against the LGBTQ+ community. Within the past five years, anti LGBTQ+ hate crimes have risen by 70%, with the number of transgender people murdered doubling. Nearly a quarter of hate crimes are directed towards LGBTQ+ people, with LGBTQ+ people being five times more likely than the general population to be victims of violent crime. Even scarier is that, on average, these hate crimes are more violent than those perpetrated against other demographics. The Trump Department of Justice has even stopped collecting data on certain types of LGBTQ+ hate crimes. LGBTQ+ people in America are in clear and present danger.
Circumstances for LGBTQ+ people in Georgia are even more bleak. Currently, the community is in a double bind between violence and the law. Even though LGBTQ+ people are at a considerable risk of being victims of a hate crime, the law leaves a loophole supporting hate criminals in court. This loophole is known as the gay or trans panic defense. The crux of the defense is that the disclosure of a victim’s LGBTQ+ identity can diminish the hate criminal’s culpability for their actions by causing them emotional distress. Defendants in murder trials use it to persuade a jury to find them guilty of manslaughter instead of murder. While this does not excuse an offender from punishment, it reduces the severity of the crime they are convicted of. This leaves violent criminals unpunished.
While some juries can see through the so-called ‘defense,’ that is not always the case. LGBTQ+ panic defenses have worked in Georgia before. In 2001, a man admitted to beating Ahmed Dabarran to death to ‘protect’ himself from a nonviolent romantic advance. The gay panic defense prevailed, and a jury acquitted the killer despite his confession. These defenses let criminals off the hook by exploiting homophobic and transphobic biases of conservative and religious jurors. More people in Georgia identify as conservative than liberal, and a supermajority are religious, which leaves juries susceptible to an unjust defense. The likelihood that a jury could accept an LGBTQ+ panic defense leaves people uniquely vulnerable to a miscarriage of justice in Georgia.
Beyond the potential for injustice, the fact that such defenses are licit in the state of Georgia sends a message. It excuses violence against the comparatively higher proportion of LGBTQ+ people in Georgia than in other states. It says that LGBTQ+ people are second-class citizens. It says that certain marginalized people deserve violence. Where is the wisdom, justice, moderation, or courage that Georgia stands for in that?
LGBTQ+ people deserve what the constitution promises everyone: equal protection under the law. Georgia must ensure this by banning the LGBTQ+ panic defense. The defense relies on the notion that disclosure of LGBTQ+ identities can induce intense emotional distress or diminish one’s capacity, thereby justifying violence. To ban it the criminal code must be updated to reflect that sexual identity and gender expression are not causes of emotional distress or diminished capacity. 21 other states have done this, with a number of them doing so unanimously, or with bipartisan support. Georgia legislators have tried to ban the defense before, but the bill died in committee without a single vote on it. Georgia must not fail LGBTQ+ people again; legislators must ban the LGBTQ+ panic defense.
Hate crimes remain a threat to LGBTQ+ people. When they are victims of a crime LGBTQ+ people, like everyone else, deserve justice. However, the law allows for hate criminals to use the LGBTQ+ panic defense to avoid accountability. Lawmakers must act before the LGBTQ+ defense is used to help another violent criminal escape punishment. Only when Georgia bans this LGBTQ+ panic defense can it claim to protect all of its citizens equally.
Joey Briggs is a third-year at the University of Georgia studying political science and international affairs. He is a member of our civil rights group.