A petition by a Catholic priest that has gained nearly 300,000 signatures has been the catalyst for Queensland to finally get rid of the "gay panic" defence for murder, which is still on the books and still being used. The gay panic defence is that a man can claim a gay person came on to him and he panicked and therefore killed the gay. The murder charge can then be dropped to manslaughter.
You'd think this was a no brainer to get rid of such an anachronistic and discriminatory law, but incredibly the Australian Christian Lobby has made a submission wanting to keep it. How the hell getting rid of it would be discriminatory to women as the ACL asserts is completely beyond my comprehension.
The defence has been used by people accused of murder to claim they were provoked by an unwanted gay sexual advance, reducing their criminal responsibility to manslaughter, and allowing the perpetrator to avoid life in jail.Honestly, What The Fuck? What is wrong with these people?
But Australian Christian Lobby Queensland state director Wendy Francis said that if the partial defence was removed it would mean we were saying "groping a woman is OK" as the legislation was already gender neutral.
"We are actually removing something that at the moment, groping a woman is not OK," she said.
"I think there are unintended consequences."
Mrs Francis, speaking at a parliamentary committee hearing on Wednesday, said the ACL opposed the changes to the legislation, saying they were dangerous, particularly for women. Brisbane Times
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