> New York state lawmakers on Wednesday passed a bill to ban the use of "gay panic" or "trans panic" defenses in murder cases.
In such defenses, defendants justify their crimes by saying the victim's sexual orientation or gender identity caused an extreme emotional reaction. The new legislation aims to make it so that "a non-violent sexual advance or the discovery of a person's sexual orientation or gender identity does not constitute a 'reasonable explanation or excuse'" to commit a crime.