Gay Panic Defense

The gay panic defense is a legal defense, usually against charges of assault or murder. A defendant using the gay panic defense claims that he or she acted in a state of violent temporary insanity because of a little-known psychiatric condition called homosexual panic. Trans panic is a similar defense applied towards cases where the victim is a transgender or intersex person. This defense often fails, and has been ruled inadmissible in many jurisdictions because of a complete lack of scientific research to support it.

Read more about Gay Panic Defense:  Details

Famous quotes containing the words gay, panic and/or defense:

    Whan that the firste cok hath crowe, anoon
    Up rist this joly lovere Absolon,
    And him arrayeth gay at point devis.
    But first he cheweth grain and licoris,
    To smellen sweete, er he hadde kembd his heer.
    Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)

    Panic and emptiness! Panic and emptiness!
    —E.M. (Edward Morgan)

    The cliché organizes life; it expropriates people’s identity; it becomes ruler, defense lawyer, judge, and the law.
    Václav Havel (b. 1936)