GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — A bill was passed last week in Lansing, Michigan, that could make it illegal to use the “LGBTQ panic defense.”
A defendant can no longer use the victim’s “real or perceived sex, gender identity, gender expression, or sexual orientation” as proof of reasonable provocation or diminished mental ability in state court if they find out about it, know about it, or disclose it. This is because of House Bill 4718.
A person could try to make the claimed violence seem more reasonable to the court as part of this type of defense.
The bill’s author told 13 ON YOUR SIDE in March that she had heard from people in the community how important they think it is to ban its possible use.
Laurie Pohutsky, D-Livonia, who wrote the bill, said, “There have also been people who have reached out to talk about why this is important and how, you know, they fear that if something happens to them, the person who attacks them or even worse will be able to use this defense.” “And then they will have to argue for their humanity in front of either a judge or a jury.”
It has now been passed by both houses of the legislature.
In the House, the vote to pass the final form of the bill was split down the middle, with Democrats voting in favor. The bill did get some votes from Republicans in the Senate.
Senator Jim Runestad (R-White Lake) offered an amendment because he thought the bill’s text could be taken too literally to include times when an attacker feels trapped or under a lot of pressure.
That change, which was meant to make this new language only apply when a finding, knowledge, or disclosure was the “sole or exclusive basis for the use of force,” did not pass in the Senate.
The bill is now on its way to Governor Gretchen Whitmer to be signed.