Florida Senate - 2022                                     SB 374
       
       
        
       By Senator Book
       
       
       
       
       
       32-00443-22                                            2022374__
    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 an 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 defenses
   18  prohibited.—
   19         (1) SHORT TITLE.—This act may be cited as the “Gay and
   20  Transgender Panic Legal Defenses 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 reaction and commission of a criminal offense.
   34         (b) “Gender expression” or “gender identity” means gender
   35  related identity, appearance, or behavior, regardless of whether
   36  such gender-related identity, appearance, or behavior is
   37  different from that traditionally associated with a person’s
   38  physiology or assigned sex at birth.
   39         (c) “Sexual orientation” means an individual’s actual or
   40  perceived heterosexuality, homosexuality, or bisexuality.
   41         (4) PROHIBITION ON GAY AND TRANSGENDER PANIC LEGAL
   42  DEFENSES.—A nonviolent sexual advance or the perception or
   43  belief, even if inaccurate, of the sex, sexual orientation,
   44  gender identity, or gender expression of an individual may not
   45  be used as a defense to a criminal offense, to excuse or to
   46  justify the conduct of an individual who commits a criminal
   47  offense, or to mitigate the severity of a criminal offense
   48  during sentencing.
   49         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2022.