Framing Legislation Banning the "Gay and Trans Panic" Defenses

This Article, prepared for the University of Richmond Law Reviewsymposium commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall Riots of 1969, uses the Stonewall Riots as an opportunity to analyze and theorize the political dimensions of legislation banning the gay and trans panic defenses. As a moment of resistance to state violence against LGBTQ people, the Stonewall Riots are a useful platform to examine the historical and current relationship between the state and the gay and trans panic defenses. Drawing on original readings of medical literature, this Article brings the historical role of the state in the growth of gay and trans panic to the surface and discusses how gay and trans panic ideas blur the distinction between state and private violence. As explained below, prominent psychiatrists who created and honed gay and trans panic ideas over time worked for and conducted research in state-run hospitals and prisons.