Florida Senate - 2024                                     SB 156
       
       
        
       By Senator Book
       
       
       
       
       
       35-00321-24                                            2024156__
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to gay and transgender panic legal
    3         defenses; providing a short title; providing
    4         legislative findings; creating s. 900.06, F.S.;
    5         defining terms; prohibiting individuals from using a
    6         nonviolent sexual advance or specified perceptions or
    7         beliefs about another individual as a defense to a
    8         criminal offense, to excuse or justify an individual’s
    9         conduct, or to mitigate the severity of an offense;
   10         providing an effective date.
   11          
   12  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
   13  
   14         Section 1. This act may be cited as the “Gay and
   15  Transgender Panic Legal Defenses Prohibition Act.”
   16         Section 2. The Legislature finds that gay and transgender
   17  panic legal defenses raised in criminal proceedings characterize
   18  sexual orientation and gender expression or gender identity as
   19  objectively reasonable excuses for a perpetrator’s loss of self
   20  control, and that these defenses thereby illegitimately attempt
   21  to mitigate the responsibility of the perpetrator for harm done
   22  to lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender individuals.
   23         Section 3. Section 900.06, Florida Statutes, is created to
   24  read:
   25         900.06 Use of gay and transgender panic legal defenses
   26  prohibited.—
   27         (1) As used in this section, the term:
   28         (a) “Gender expression” or “gender identity” means gender
   29  related identity, appearance, or behavior, regardless of whether
   30  such gender-related identity, appearance, or behavior is
   31  different from that traditionally associated with a person’s
   32  physiology or assigned sex at birth.
   33         (b) “Sexual orientation” means an individual’s actual or
   34  perceived heterosexuality, homosexuality, or bisexuality.
   35         (2) A nonviolent sexual advance or the perception or
   36  belief, even if inaccurate, of the sex, sexual orientation,
   37  gender expression, or gender identity of an individual may not
   38  be used as a defense to a criminal offense, to excuse or to
   39  justify the conduct of an individual who commits a criminal
   40  offense, or to mitigate the severity of a criminal offense
   41  during sentencing.
   42         Section 4. This act shall take effect July 1, 2024.