[Greens-Media] Outdated 'Gay Panic' Defence Must Go

[Franks, Office]

May 2, 2013

Outdated 'Gay Panic' Defence Must Go

A Bill to do away with the homosexual advance defence - a defence which can reduce a murder charge to manslaughter - was introduced in Parliament late yesterday (Wednesday) by Greens Gender & Sexuality spokesperson, Tammy Franks.

"The homosexual advance defence, commonly called the 'gay panic' defence, is an archaic law with dangerous consequences that sends all the wrong messages in the year 2013," Ms Franks said.

The defence can be employed as a partial defence to murder under common law, reducing a murder sentence to manslaughter.

"This defence was applied in the case of Green v The Queen in 1996. In that case, a man, Green, stabbed his friend to death with a pair of scissors after an apparently unwanted, non-violent sexual approach. Although Green was initially sentenced to murder for a crime that involved hitting the victim 35 times, banging his face against a wall and stabbing him 10 times with scissors, this charge was able to be downgraded to manslaughter because of the existence of the 'gay panic' defence," Ms Franks said.

"What the existing law does is effectively suggest that homophobia is okay; it suggests that a non-violent sexual advance directed by one man towards another man, or one woman towards another woman, is somehow deserving of a special defence to murder, while an advance directed by a man towards a woman or a woman towards a man is not.

"Of course there are situations where a defence of provocation should be applied, including in situations of long-term domestic violence, but a non-violent, gay advance should not be akin to a horrific, violent act under the law," Ms Franks concluded.
The introduction of the Greens Bill follows the recommendations of a NSW cross-party committee that the 'gay panic' defence should be struck down in that state.

Tasmania became the first Australian jurisdiction to abolish the provocation defence in 2003. It has also been abolished in Victoria (in 2005) and Western Australia (in 2008), while the Northern Territory and the ACT have amended the defence to exclude non-violent sexual advances like the 'gay panic' defence.

Media enquiries: Lauren Zwaans ph 0457 549 938

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