"California Becomes 1st State to Abolish Gay Panic Defense"

Colin Miller has this post at EvidenceProf Blog. In part:

Some defendants, such as Brandon McInerny, have been able to claim that learning about the gender or sexual orientation of their victim constitutes sufficient legal provocation.

Last month, however, the California legislature passed Assembly Bill 2501, which provides in relevant part that

that for purposes of determining sudden quarrel or heat of passion, the provocation was not objectively reasonable if it resulted from the discovery of, knowledge about, or potential disclosure of the victim’s actual or perceived gender, gender identity, gender expression, or sexual orientation, including under circumstances in which the victim made an unwanted nonforcible romantic or sexual advance towards the defendant, or if the defendant and victim dated or had a romantic or sexual relationship.