rejected by the judge presiding over the case, is known as the "homosexual-panic" or "gay-panic" defense. According to the Harvard Law Review, this defense, a manifestation of the temporary insanity plea, is "premised on the theory that a person with latent homosexual tendencies will have an extreme and uncontrollably violent reaction when confronted with a homosexual proposition" (Stryker 2). The homosexual panic defense-based on the premise that internal homophobia justifies cold-blooded murder-is
of gay people is known as homophobia. Homophobia comes in varying degrees, from stereotyping the gay community to thinking that gay people are evil. These varying cases of homophobia result in stereotyping, bans on gay marriage and adoption, and hate crimes and bullying which are all very harmful to the gay community as a whole. Minorities have stereotypes that are widely believed, regardless of the actual validity of the thought. “The majority culture’s attachment to its stereotypes of gay men
Created Equal, Treated Lesser: LGBTQ+ Rights in America The Right¬¬s of the LGBTQ+ Community are continually being considered unjust by a large amount of religious organization and groups. These groups claim that their holy law allows them to be the highest authority on the rights of those around them. Though the world may stand against them, they do not appear to be backing down anytime soon. Since the stonewall riots of the late 1960’s, America has had a strong fixation on the constant debate of
the United States of America allowed for something called the panic defense to be viable in a courtroom setting (with California being the first to outlaw it). The panic defense allows for an individual that has assaulted or murdered a transgender or queer individual to say that they panicked upon discovering the person’s gender or sexuality and reacted violently, in order to get a lighter sentence. As absurd as this sounds, this defense has actually been used in court, and successfully, nonetheless:
It was the night of October 6th, 1998, and Matthew Shepard was simply enjoying himself at the local Fireside Bar. Little did he know that the two men who claimed they were gay were actually executing a plan to kidnap him and bring him to a desolate fence at which they would brutally beat and leave him alone to die in freezing weather. The Laramie Project, by Moises Kaufman, contains a series of interviews of various people from Laramie, Wyoming, discussing the tragic death of Matthew Shepard. The
As our society is beginning to more frequently exhibit “callout culture”, where individuals publicly denounce others for engaging in oppressive activities or language, it is no surprise that speculation of transphobia was portrayed in a UK television show. The encounter is discussed in Jonathan Griffin’s “India Willoughby: Is it Discriminatory to Refuse to Date a Trans Woman?” published by BBC News. Specifically ,Griffin describes a celebtiry transgender woman asking another contestant whether or
When questioned about Albus Dumbledore’s, the fictional headmaster of Hogwarts, sexuality J.K. Rowling stated, “My truthful answer to you... I always thought of Dumbledore as gay.” (qtd. from Edward par 4). Rowling attended Carnegie Hall in New York City on October 19, 2007 to read an excerpt of her seventh book (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows), sign some autographs, and answer fan’s burning questions. After outing Dumbledore, Rowling received an ovation at the event, but not everyone reacted
One example is the “gay panic” strategy, where inaccurate reports of crime imply that “a gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender victim shares responsibility for being attacked, or that an attack was justified because of an unwanted romantic or sexual advance. ("GLAAD Media Reference Guide - In Focus: Hate Crimes." GLAAD. 2011. Web.). This strategy has been used during the Matthew Shepard case, in which a judge barred defense lawyers from it as a defense. During the mass interviews done
Matthew Shepard met Aaron McKinney (22) and Russell Henderson (21) of Laramie in a local bar called Fireside Lounge. McKinney and Henderson had been drinking. The two led Shepard to believe they were gay and lured Shepard to their truck. McKinney pulled out a gun and said, Guess what- we’re not gay and you’re gonna get jacked. McKinney then told Shepard to give him his wallet. When Shepard refused, McKinney hit him with the gun. With Henderson behind the wheel, McKinney continued to strike Shepard
murder to manslaughter is provocation. Charges of manslaughter have lenient sentencing as opposed to murder, which is a mandatory life sentence. The ‘gay panic defence’ is a legal argument used by defence lawyers to decreased murder charges on the basis that the defendant was ‘provoked’ into homicide by a sexual advance from the victim. The gay panic defence is the result of common-law in Australia; the High Court precedent was set in 1997 in the case of R v Green. In 2010, the legal argument was
the world. An epidemiologist, Don Francis learns about a very rare epidemic outbreak among gay men known as AIDS. A disease that bought 4,123 cases and was given little importance caused 2,917 deaths. Dr. Francis joins the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to find the cause of the disease and afterward a cure. Working with less money and old equipment Dr. Francis also has to deal with politicians and the gay community. Furthermore, he has to reason with the CDC who thinks the disease is transmitted
Completely understanding the transgender community can be difficult if one is not part of, or know someone within, the community. Today 's society and mainstream media has very little to no accurate representation of the transgender community for those unaware of its existence. This oversight is mainly due to years of systemic discrimination, erasure, and oppression by both society and its governing bodies. Although there has been a dramatic upswing in support for the transgender community and
On February 12, 2008, 15 year old Larry King was shot in the back of the head by 14 year old Brandon McInerney in a middle school classroom in Oxnard, California. King was sitting in his seat, completing his work, and McInerney shot him. Prior to the incident, McInerney expressed on many occasions to his peers that he disliked the compliments that King relayed to him on his physical appearance and also had a profound hatred for King’s feminine gender expression. King was kept on life support for
of the same name and both productions are based on a real-life brothel in La Grange, Texas known as the Chicken Ranch. The films controversial aspects, prostitution and overt sexuality (sometimes interpreted as gay symbolism), reflected the pressing political issues of the 1980s Moral Panic. In 1982 the number of prostitution arrests, both male and female, in the United States increased by 13%. The increased
“Sometimes it does not seem Santa Barbara anymore—the new houses and strange people and hotels. Some of us have little to do now, and our own town is no longer beautiful or gay. Even our houses are being pulled down, as you cans see, and in a few years, I think, there will be no Spanish town.” ( Chicanos in a Changing Society pg. 117) Albert Camarillo Albert Camarillo, the author, decided to include this quote to support his argument and explain how many of the Mexican immigrants felt like foreigners
female sex hormones.(IBID, 211) the second one is the genetic theory. The genetic theory states that people are born gay and society only helps their homosexuality advance. Researchers announced that there is even a "gay gene".(Nardo, 66) The last Biological theory is the brain theory. The brain theory states that a person who has a smaller brain is most likely going to be gay.(Thio, 211) The Psychiatric theory has evolved through many different thoughts about what is homosexuality. At first
was twenty years junior than his husband and also his second wife. Sigmund was his mother’s former child of seven and he had two ageing halves brothers. At the age of four, his relations transported towards Vienna whereas he lived most of his life. (Gay, 1988) Freud was a silver child and eventually went towards medical institute - which was one of the many feasible alternatives for a Jewish boy within Vienna. Freud was very thriving with his innovation, specially neurophysiology, and inven...
collapsed under the power of Germany and was defeated promptly at the start of the invasion. Poland was invaded from east Prussia and Germany, attacking the North, Silesia, and Slovakia in the South. 2,000 tanks and over 1,000 planes penetrated Polish defenses along the borders and persisted onto Warsaw in a massive besiegement attack, encircling Polish forces. After massive shelling and bombing, Warsaw promptly surrendered to the Germans on September 27, 1939. After
Defense mechanism, in psychoanalysis, any of a variety of unconscious personality reactions which the ego uses to protect the conscious mind from threatening feelings and perceptions. Sigmund Freud first used defense as a psychoanalytic term (1894), but he did not break the notion into categories, viewing it as a singular phenomenon of repression. His daughter, Anna Freud, expanded on his theories in the 1930s, distinguishing some of the major defense mechanisms recognized today. Primary defense
Freedom writes about dilemmas of sexual freedom that young women face. Bell also discusses how media spreads contradictory messages about women sexuality and how it influences young women. She introduces the term “splitting,” which is a psychological defense that women unconsciously make to solve their problem of contradictory lifestyle choices. Malcolm Gladwell,