Michigan has become the 20th state to ban the gay and trans “panic” defense, a legal defense that has been used across the nation to justify criminal actions against members of the LGBTQ+ community. Michigan’s Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed House Bill 4718 into law last week, putting an end to the legal defense and helping strengthen protections for the LGBTQ+ community.
The gay and trans “panic” defense was most notably used in the 1998 killing of Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old gay student who attended the University of Wyoming. On the night of October 6, 1998, Shepard was cornered by two men at a Wyoming diner. The men, who were also in their early 20s, offered to give Shepard a ride home but would go on to drive him to a remote location where they pistol-whipped and brutally beat him before robbing him. Shepard was tied to a fence where he would be found eighteen hours later by a cyclist. The beating was so brutal that the cyclist had mistaken Shepard for a scarecrow. Shepard would succumb to his injuries six days later in a nearby hospital.
The two men were arrested, and defendant Aaron McKinney's defense counsel argued that McKinney entered into his violent rage after Shepard allegedly made a sexual advance at him. This defense downplayed McKinney’s violent actions, attempting to shift some of the blame onto Shepard. The case would go on to shine national and international light on crimes against individuals who identify as LGBTQ+. While these “panic” defenses are not freestanding, they are often used in conjunction with other legal defenses and can help reduce the charges and sentencing a defendant faces.
Democratic state Rep. Laurie Pohutsky was the primary sponsor of the Michigan bill and believes that this new law will help dispel the rhetoric that members of the LGBTQ+ community are somehow less deserving of justice because of their sexual orientation. She highlights that the gay and trans “panic defense” paints members of the LGBTQ+ community as being less human, which subsequently minimizes crimes against them.
Pohutsky shares that the passage of this bill was “a huge step toward securing a safe and inclusive state for all Michiganders.”
The American Bar Association has also weighed in on the LGBTQ+ “panic” defense with a 2013 resolution that urged federal, tribal, state and local governments to “take legislative action to curtail the availability and effectiveness” of such defenses.
In a press statement announcing the new law, the Michigan governor's office shared that “this bill significantly expands legal safeguards for the LGBTQ+ community by protecting them from violent acts of discrimination, prejudice, and hate crimes.”
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