Washington State Legislature Passes 'Nikki's Law'

The passage of the Nikki Kuhnhausen Act has the state of Washington poised to become the tenth one to ban the trans and gay panic defenses.

It was named for Nikki Kuhnhausen, the Vancouver, WA trans teen who was murdered after a June 6 date with David Bognadov,  but whose remains weren't  found until December 7. 

The 25 year old Bogdanovwas arrested on December 17, and is now awaiting trial for her murder.

Nikki's Law was originally introduced in 2019 by then state Rep. Derek Stanford (D-Bothell) , but stalled in the House Rules Committee that year.   After Kuhnhausen's disappearance and the finding of her remains, the bill was revived, with an amendment from Rep. Sharon Wylie (D-Vancouver) naming it for her.

Stanford is now a member of the Washington Senate.

“Just finding out someone’s gender or sexual orientation should never be a justification for attacking that person,” Stanford stated in a press release. “Sadly, this excuse is still used sometimes to try to justify violent assaults. This bill will make sure that it can’t be used by people who commit violent acts.”

Washington State Senator Annette Cleveland (D-Vancouver) noted that while Nikki's death was a catalyst for the bill passing, the tremendous need for this legislation predates Nikki's date.

“The terrible truth is that vicious assaults have been perpetrated against transgender people, as well as others in the LGBTQ community, for far too long,” Sen. Cleveland’s statement read. “This bill is a start. It is long overdue, and we must still do more.”

It passed out of the Democratically controlled Washington House on a 90-5 vote last month and just passed out of the Washington Senate by a 46-3 margin a few days ago.

The bill is now awaiting Gov Jay Inslee's (D) signature to become law.  . 

Past Time To Ban The Trans Panic Defense

When I talk about the trans panic defense, it is a shock to judges and even attorneys who have been practicing law for decades.

So what is the trans panic defense?   It is a reprhensible legal strategy used by defense attorneys working for clients who have killed trans or gender non conforming (GNC) people.  It asks juries to find that the victim's gender identity or secual orientation is to blame for the defendant's loss of self control and violent reaction that led said defendant to harm or kill that trans or GNC person.

Yeah, it's BS, but since the trans panic defese plays upon transphobic 'deception' meme and taps into the transphobia that may be present in a jury, it unfortunately works.   

We saw it being deployed by Dallas defense attorney Andrew Wilkerson in Dallas last October to get his client Edward Thomas off on a lesser charge.   Thomas was the person who viciously beat down Muhlaysia Booker in a videotaped fight last April. 

Thomas was convicted on a misdemeanor asault charge instead of the felony aggravated assault with a deadly weapon one.

But it exists, and there is now a movement to ban it.

There is a US Senate bill, S 1721, that has been filed to ban the trans and gay panic defense on a federal level.   The American Bar Association (ABA) and the LGBT Bar Association supports its elimination. 

We are now up to nine states in which the trans panic defese is banned.   Those states are California (2014), Illinois (2017), Rhode Island (2018), Nevada, Connectitcut, Maine, Hawaii and New York (2019), and New Jersey (2020)

The District of Columbia (2017 and 2019), Minnesota and Pennsylvania (2018), Texas, Massachusetts, New Mexico, and Wisconsin  (2019), Washington (2019 and 2020), Maryland (2020)  and Gerogia (2020) 

The one in Washington state is called the Nikki Kuhnhausen Act in memory of the trans teen who was murdered there, and is now being debated by their state legislature, 

It will interesting to see if more states join the movement to ban the trans panic defense.  It's something that should have been done a long time ago.

Edward Thomas Defense Attorneys Attacking Muhlaysia Booker's Femininity

Damn, we Black trans women can't get any respect in life or in death.

The news out of Dallas is that Edward Thomas, the waste of DNA who violently put his hands on the late Muhlaysia Booker back in April, will be going to trial in October for that assault in the 195th District Court of Texas.

Thomas was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.   Even though Booker was murdered back in May, that video of the April 12 assault is still around on The Net along with all the witnesses to that violent attack on her.

So what do you do when you're faced with mounting evidence that your client attacked a trans woman?  Go for a cynical variation of the 'trans panic' defense and attempt to strip the trans woman of her femininity.

 The transphobic defense attorney in this case are objecting to the fact that prosecutors are asking Judge Hector Garza (D) to rule that the indictment can use Muhlaysia's name even though she hadn't changed it legally or on any identification documents.

The defense attorneys are using her dead name and disrespectfully referring to Muhlaysia as a man

"Pierre Booker is legally a male by gender. To name him 'Muhlaysia' Booker could have the jury wrongfully conclude that Pierre is female...This is prejudicial against our client ,who is male."

The defense attorneys are trying a variation of the trans panic defense to strip Muhlaysia of her femininity.  They hope they can stir up transphobia in the jury pool and get potential jurors to not see Booker as the woman she is.

It also feeds this dangerous for us and patently false meme that trans women are just 'men in dresses'.

The Edwards defense attorneys also fear that if Booker is seen as the woman she is, it won't go well for their client.   Society usually takes a less charitable view of any man who puts his hands on a woman, and the defense attorneys know that.

It is a despicable legal tactic by the defense attorneys.  Here's hoping that Judge Garza sees the same thing I see and rules in favor of Dallas County prosecutors when the defense motion has a hearing next week.

If he doesn't, I predict that Judge Garza is suddenly going to find himself being primary challenged in March 2020