A new study by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law on instances where gay and/or trans panic defenses have been used indicates that, in many cases, defendants in those cases where neither surprised nor panicked to learn their victims were transgender. In fact, the study shows, such cases often involve robbery or a pre-existing relationship between victim and defendant.
Gay and trans panic defensed first began appearing in court cases in the 1960s, according to a press release on the study, and continue to be used today, and in some cases, those defendants either receive unacceptably light sentences or are exonerated completely.
In a 2018 Texas case, after James Miller of Austin was convicted of stabbing his neighbor, Daniel Spencer to death. But Miller was sentenced to only 10 years’ probation, six months jail time, 100 hours of community service and almost $11,000 in restitution to Spencer’s family after telling the court he killed his neighbor because Spencer made a pass at him.
Transgender women are frequently attacked by men who get angry because the woman they are sexually attracted to is transgender.
Twelve states and the District of Columbia have passed legislation eliminating the use of gay and trans panic defenses, but the defenses remain available in most states.
The new Williams Institute study examines current research on violence against LGBTQ people in the U.S. and the use of the gay and trans panic defenses over the last six decades. The study also provides model language that states may use to ban the gay and trans panic defenses through legislation to address “disproportionate exposure to violence, including interpersonal violence, for LGBTQ people.”
Christy Mallory, legal director at the Williams Institute and lead author of the study, said, “In many cases where the gay and trans panic defenses have been raised, we see that the victim and the defendant had a relationship prior to the homicide or the homicide occurred in the course of robbery. These findings suggest that defendants were not surprised or in a state of panic when the homicides occurred.”
The study’s key findings included:
• LGBTQ people were about four times more likely to experience serious violence, including rape or sexual assault, robbery and aggravated or simple assault, than are non-LGBTQ people. LGBTQ people were more likely than non-LGBTQ people to experience violence at the hands of someone well-known to them.
- A separate Williams Institute study found that transgender people were more than four times more likely to experience violent victimization compared to cisgender people.
- The 2015 U.S. Transgender Survey found 47 percent of transgender respondents reported that they had been sexually assaulted at some point in their lives. One in 10 had been sexually assaulted in the prior year.
- A 2017 analysis of 2,144 incidents of LGBTQ intimate partner violence by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs found the majority (59 percent) of survivors were people of color, including 21 percent who were Black and 27 percent who were Latinx.
- 2020 research by W. Carsten Andresen, associate professor at St. Edwards University, found that the gay and trans panic defenses were used at least 104 times across 35 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico between 1970 and 2020.
- Charges were reduced for defendants who used the gay and trans panic defenses about one-third of the time (33 percent of cases).
- More than half of the murders (54 percent) were committed in the course of theft or robbery.
- Of the 80 cases where the relationship between defendant and victim was known, the victim and defendant had a pre-existing relationship prior to the homicide in 30 of them.
Read the full report report here.
— Tammye Nash
