Gay and Trans-Panic Defense Strategies Still Being Tried

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Scott Amador's family sued the Jenny Jones show, arguing that the show was partly responsible for his death. They were awarded $25 million, but the decision was later reversed. In gay panic cases, typically the defendant is a man who has killed a gay man. Gay and trans-panic defense strategies are still being attempted by lawyers across the country.

In 1995, two men filmed an episode of the daytime talk show, The Jenny Jones Show. A few days later, one of the men was dead. The shooter later claimed he’d committed the murder “in a panic that he was being falsely accused or identified as a gay person.”

We speak with Cynthia Lee, Carsten Andresen, and Paul Howard about so-called “gay panic” and “trans panic” defenses, and we discuss the murders of Scott Amedure, Islan Nettles, Larry King, Ahmed Dabarran, and Matthew Shepard.

Thanks to Thomas Curry, who helped co-produce this episode.

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