End the 'Gay Panic' defence

Eligibility - Queensland residents
Principal Petitioner:
Phil Carswell
10/19 Dudley Street
HIGHGATE HILL QLD 4101
Total Signatures - 433
Sponsoring Member: Hon Jackie Trad MP
Posting Date: 24/5/2016
Closing Date: 31/8/2016
Tabled Date: 1/9/2016
Responded By: Hon Yvette D'Ath MP on 4/10/2016
TO: The Honourable the Speaker and Members of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland

Queensland residents draws to the attention of the House the discrimination faced by LGBTIQ+ people in Queensland through the use of the provocation defence, section 304 of the Criminal Code, colloquially known as the "Gay Panic Defence". This partial defence allows for a charge of murder to be downgraded to manslaughter if it is alleged that an unwanted homosexual advance was made by the deceased towards the defendant. Such an interpretation of this law is completely archaic, has no place in our legal system, and affects the way LGBTIQ+ people live their lives day to day by curbing freedom of expression and association in the public sphere with the threat of violence. It is impossible to articulate just how offensive, dangerous and destructive it would be to allow this defence to remain unaddressed in our Criminal Code, upholding the precedent that a person can be panicked enough by a LGBTIQ+ person to justify murder.

 

Your petitioners, therefore, request the House to remove the potential for provocation to be used in defence of an individual who has committed an act of murder, by enshrining in legislation that an alleged unwanted homosexual advance cannot be used as an application of the provocation defence.