Florida Senate - 2021                                     SB 718
       
       
        
       By Senator Book
       
       
       
       
       
       32-00204A-21                                           2021718__
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to gay and transgender panic legal
    3         defenses; creating s. 900.06, F.S.; providing a short
    4         title; providing legislative findings; defining terms;
    5         prohibiting individuals from using a nonviolent sexual
    6         advance or specified perceptions or beliefs about
    7         another individual as a defense to a criminal offense,
    8         to excuse or justify the conduct of the individual who
    9         commits a criminal offense, or to mitigate the
   10         severity of a criminal offense; providing an effective
   11         date.
   12          
   13  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   14  
   15         Section 1. Section 900.06, Florida Statutes, is created to
   16  read:
   17         900.06 Use of gay and transgender panic legal defense
   18  prohibited.—
   19         (1) SHORT TITLE.—This act may be cited as the “Gay and
   20  Transgender Panic Legal Defense Prohibition Act.”
   21         (2) LEGISLATIVE FINDINGS.—The Legislature finds that gay
   22  and transgender panic legal defenses, which continue to be
   23  raised in criminal proceedings, characterize sexual orientation
   24  and gender expression or gender identity as objectively
   25  reasonable excuses for the loss of self-control, and thereby
   26  illegitimately attempt to mitigate the responsibility of a
   27  perpetrator for harm done to a lesbian, gay, bisexual, or
   28  transgender individual.
   29         (3) DEFINITIONS.—As used in this section, the term:
   30         (a) “Gay and transgender panic legal defense” means a legal
   31  strategy that asks a judge or a jury to find that a victim’s
   32  sexual orientation or gender identity is the cause of the
   33  defendant’s violent reaction and commission of a criminal
   34  offense.
   35         (b) “Gender expression” or “gender identity” means gender
   36  related identity, appearance, or behavior, regardless of whether
   37  such gender-related identity, appearance, or behavior is
   38  different from that traditionally associated with a person’s
   39  physiology or assigned sex at birth.
   40         (c) “Sexual orientation” means an individual’s actual or
   41  perceived heterosexuality, homosexuality, or bisexuality.
   42         (4) PROHIBITION ON GAY AND TRANSGENDER PANIC LEGAL
   43  DEFENSE.—A nonviolent sexual advance or the perception or
   44  belief, even if inaccurate, of the sex, sexual orientation,
   45  gender identity, or gender expression of an individual may not
   46  be used as a defense to a criminal offense, to excuse or to
   47  justify the conduct of an individual who commits a criminal
   48  offense, or to mitigate the severity of a criminal offense
   49  during sentencing.
   50         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2021.