Colorado on Monday became the 11th U.S. state to ban the LGBTQ “panic defense,” meaning defendants can no longer blame their own violent actions on a victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
Gov. Jared Polis, the first openly gay man in the country to be elected governor, signed the new law at the LGBTQ Center in Denver, flanked by advocates and lawmakers who carried a bill at the statehouse this spring.
“We’ve come a long way here in Colorado since our days as the Hate State. We really went from a place where discrimination was legalized in the 1990s to where we are today, where Colorado is a leader,” said Polis, who used words like “absurd,” “outdated” and “insidious” to describe the “panic defense.”
Polis signed a handful of other LBGTQ-friendly bills into law, including one simplifying the requirements for people younger than 18 to change the gender on their birth certificates.
Read the rest from our partners at The Denver Post.
