The Oregon House of Representatives on Thursday passed Senate Bill 704, which bans the LGBTQ+ panic defense. The bill now goes to Gov. Kate Brown to sign into law.
The bill states that the “discovery of a victim’s actual or perceived gender, gender identity, gender expression or sexual orientation does not constitute reasonable explanation for extreme emotional disturbance for purposes of affirmative defense to murder in the second degree.”
Oregon will be the 14th state to prohibit the “gay panic” defense, which typically argues for diminished capacity because of a defendant’s supposed fear of or disgust over a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
“No one should be able to use a person’s identity to justify or excuse acts of violence against them,” Sen. Kate Lieber, a Democrat from Beaverton, said last month as the legislation was working its way through the legislature. Lieber was one of 10 sponsors of the bill in the House and Senate.
The advocacy group Basic Rights Oregon, which championed the legislation, has stated that the new law “will make it clear in statute — and across Oregon — that violent acts are not justified because of a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.”
“The importance of this legislation can’t be overstated,” Basic Rights Oregon fundraiser Mikki Gillette said in a statement Thursday from the group.
The American Psychological Association removed “gay panic disorder” from its list of legitimate mental disorders nearly 50 years ago, the American Bar Association pointed out in a 2020 editorial calling for panic-defense bans across the country.
“It is harrowing,” the editorial stated, “that, currently, one’s sexual orientation or gender identity can still provide even an inkling of a legal defense in their murder trial.”
— Douglas Perry
