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On Monday, Illinois will become the second state to ban the so-called gay panic defense in cases in which a murder defendant tries to justify his violence as a reaction to learning that the victim was gay.

California banned the defense tactic in 2014, a year after the American Bar Association called for its prohibition.

 reports, there is no single standard for the circumstances leading to the defense:


Activists for LGBTQ rights often point to the 1998 case of Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old college student who was beaten to death by two men, one of whom claimed the victim had made sexual advances toward him.

, which was approved by Illinois lawmakers in May and signed by Gov. Bruce Rauner in August, will provide momentum toward passing similar measures in other states.
"This new law ensures LGBTQ people are not blamed for the violence perpetrated against them simply because of who they are," Brian C. Johnson, CEO of Equality Illinois, 

 by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, gay panic and trans panic defenses have been used in courts in about half of the states in the U.S., even though no state penal code recognizes it as a free-standing defense.


Some opponents of the ban say that the "gay panic defense" is rarely used and is not a reliable defense argument.


One critic, Cynthia Lee, a law professor at George Washington University law School, 

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LGBTQ activists say they hope lawmakers in other states will also ban the legal defense, which blames a victim's sexual orientation for an attacker's violent reaction.

Illinois to ban 'gay panic defense' in new year

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