James Polchin Talks with Oxygen about Gay Panic and Queer True Crime

“The “gay panic” defense did not die off in U.S. courts after Stonewall, or even into the 2010s, as the full spectrum of sexualities and gender identities became widely accepted in mainstream society, however, according to Polchin.

“Straight panic is still a legal defense in most states,” he said.

According to a 2016 analysis by the UCLA School of Law’s Williams Institute, such defenses have been documented in court opinions in about half of the states, although the defenses are not enshrined in penal codes.

“The gay and trans panic defenses are rooted in irrational fears based on homophobia and transphobia, and send the wrong message that violence against LGBT people is acceptable,” the study’s authors wrote.

The act of gay sex itself also remains a misdemeanor, punishable by a $500 fine, in Texas, according to the Texas Observer.

And, the LGBT Bar Association says that the defenses have been used successfully as recently as 2018 to mitigate murder charges down to criminally negligent homicide. Even if juries are told not to listen to the “panic” defenses, the “implicit homophobic bias of hearing the defense at all can still influence the jury’s decision,” according to the association. “For example, in cases where perpetrators are not acquitted as a result of a gay and trans ‘panic’ defense, the jury may still deadlock because it is unable to shake the inherent homophobia of the defense.”

Read more at Oxygen.