Time for "gay panic" to end

Time for "gay panic" to end

http://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticle...

Angie Zapata's killer claims that he simply "snapped" when he learned the woman he had begun to date was transgender. Thirty-six hours after the revelation, Zapata was dead, the victim of a brutal blunt-force beating with a fire extinguisher. She was 18 years old. The killer never disputed his culpability in the murder itself. The wealth of DNA and other evidence made an innocent plea impossible. Instead, his defense attorneys requested a reduced sentence on the ground that Zapata's gender was, in itself, a "provocation." This legal strategy, often referred to as "gay panic" or, in the case of Angie Zapata, "trans panic," is still depressingly common in American courtrooms. One part temporary insanity and two parts institutionalized bigotry, its very existence precludes the family members, friends and loved ones of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) murder victims the legal remedies others take for granted.

Society's attitudes on LGBT equality have changed, and it is time for the law to catch up. The legal profession must resolve to kill the gay panic legal strategy once and for all.

At its core, the gay panic tactic defines unwanted sexual advances or statements of one's identity from LGBT people as somehow more severe, or "provocative," than similar overtures between straight people. In our culture, most women, even before reaching adulthood, learn how to react to unwanted male attention: We simply say, "No." Our legal system offers no leniency to a woman who reacts violently to a pass from a man, no matter how undesirable she may find the offer.

Furthermore, any similar defense would be inconceivable in relation to other minority populations. Our legal system would not, for example, accept "race panic," as a legal strategy to someone accused of violence against people of color. In fact, the opposite is true. We often administer harsher punishments for violent acts that are directed specifically against other minority groups.

Yet in an LGBT-specific context, and only in this context, a sexual solicitation or a statement of one's gender is equivalent to an attack. Using this maneuver in court means that defense attorneys believe the victim's assertion of his or her orientation or identity is an actual threat. This is the very definition of discrimination.