New Legislation

For the first time I am not involved with the current proposed bill, the bill will ban unsinf trans/gay panic defense in criminal trials.

Leader seeks to end “gay and transgender panic” defense
CT Post
By Emilie Munson
January 18, 2019

HARTFORD — Several Democratic lawmakers have filed bills to ban “gay and transgender panic” as a criminal defense.

Senate President Pro Tempore Martin Looney, D-New Haven, introduced this legislation, as did Rep. Raghib Allie-Brennan, D-Bethel, and Rep. Jeff Currey, D-East Hartford. Allie-Brennan and Currey are the General Assembly’s only openly gay lawmakers.

Looney, an attorney who practices criminal law, wants state statutes to be amended so a criminal defendant may not claim the “shock” of learning that a person was gay or transgender to justify or excuse the violence perpetrated against that person.

California was the first to ban the defense in 2014, followed by Illinois.
Looney said Thursday he was unaware of the number of occasions the defense has been used in Connecticut.

You know even one is one too many and the idea of the legislation is to prevent it from being used for the first and letting a killer walk free of murder and I think that trans/gay panic defense has been tried once in the state when a trans woman was murdered in New Haven back around twenty years ago. She was stabbed multiple times and her body set on fire.

Okay back to why I am not involved in this legislation…

[RANT]
There was a loose coalition of many non-profits that worked to pass LGBTQ+ legislation that was called the Anti-Discrimination Coalition and that morphed in ctEQUALITY to pass trans protections. The non-profits came together each time we wanted to pass legislation.

We it was decided that ctEQUALITY should become more formalized and incorporate as 501(c)4, so planning meetings were held, and held, and held. It been a year and a half and still talks are being held. But now it has morphed from a lobbying organization to an umbrella organizations for all things LGBTQ+.

We held meeting around the state to learn what the community wants, the town hall meeting were a great idea and I learned something from them… that many of the people at the meetings didn’t know what laws we do have now. Some wanted laws to protect LGBTQ+ students! A law that has been on the books for eight years.

But mainly what I saw was moving away from the original idea of providing a PAC to lobby for legislation and to help LGBTQ+ friendly legislators to something entirely different.

I know that several smaller non-profits are worried that they will lose their identities and funding as ctEQUALITY expands and starts to compete with their corporate funding. I worry that it will become another “GAY Inc.” that is funded by national gay foundations that will control the purse strings.

Back in November I started hearing rumors that a trans/gay panic defense bill was going to be introduced and also some published news article about a group of women who ban trans athletes. They were upset that trans athletes are competing on the teams of their gender identity, even though only a small fraction of the trans athletes were winning and most were losing they still wanted a law forcing us to compete in our birth gender. The articles stated that they were looking for a friendly legislator to introduce a bill for them and I imagine there are a lot of Republican legislators who will be more than will to introduce a bill or an amendment for them.

I brought up my concerns about the legislation and was met the first time by silence, when I brought it up again I got a reply from one person saying these are the bills that they are supporting this session, all the bills that were mentioned I support whole heartily such as paid family leave and $15 minimum wage none of them were LGBTQ+ legislation.

So for the first time in almost 20 years the coalition is not supporting any LGBTQ+ legislation and is letting others take the lead.

I will testify for the bill at the hearing and I will continue to contact my legislators for the bill.

There have been signs that the coalition was falling apart last year with the passage of an amendment to…

Sec. 8. (NEW) (Effective July 1, 2018) Any inmate of a correctional institution, as described in section 18-78 of the general statutes, who has a gender identity that differs from the inmate's assigned sex at birth and has a diagnosis of gender dysphoria, as set forth in the most recent edition of the American Psychiatric Association's "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders", shall: (1) Be addressed by correctional staff in a manner that is consistent with the inmate's gender identity, (2) have access to commissary items, clothing, personal property, programming and educational materials that are consistent with the inmate's gender identity, and (3) have the right to be searched by a correctional staff member of the same gender identity, unless the inmate requests otherwise or under exigent circumstances. An inmate who has a birth certificate, passport or driver's license that reflects his or her gender identity or who can meet established standards for obtaining such a document to confirm the inmate's gender identity shall presumptively be placed in a correctional institution with inmates of the gender consistent with the inmate's gender identity. Such presumptive placement may be overcome by a demonstration by the Commissioner of Correction, or the commissioner's designee, that the placement would present significant safety, management or security problems. In making determinations pursuant to this section, the inmate's views with respect to his or her safety shall be given serious consideration by the Commissioner of Correction, or the commissioner's designee.

I never heard a word about the passage of this amendment, I heard about it in an “Oh by the Way” there is new legislation that passed that you might be interested in.

Some of the laws the coalition passed…

• Adding gender identity and expression to the hate crime law (2004)
• Passing the gender identity and expression non-discrimination act (2011)
• Passing the birth certificate law (2015)
• Blocking a law stripping our insurance coverage (2015)
• Passing a law to stop conversion therapy for minors (2017)

And now will it come to an end in 2019”
[/RANT]