Sorry, gay-bashers: Your bogus defense may soon be outlawed!

For years, criminals have used a homophobic "gay panic" defense to mitigate their sentences. That may change soon

BY JOSH EIDELSON

Should criminal punishments be reduced if a perpetrator (of, say, a murder) claims he was simply reacting to being hit on by someone of the same sex? It might sound crazy, but it’s a decades-old defense known as “gay panic.”

This legal concept includes defenses rooted in the traditional criminal law principles of “adequate provocation” (basically, something so egregious and recent that it would reasonably inspire rage) or “diminished capacity” (basically, something that at least temporarily would hamper self-control). It’s a contentious concept.

Following the alleged murder of 69-year-old Ever Orozco in Queens, New York City activists and a City Council member are urging an end to the so-called gay panic defense.

“Sometimes even the juries are infected with this idea that gay panic defense is OK,” council member Daniel Dromm told Salon, and “that a heterosexual man in particular needs to protect himself from the advances of a gay male.”

full article:
http://www.salon.com/2013/09/26/sorry_gay_bashers_your_bogus_defense_may_soon_be_outlawed/