While Republican-controlled legislatures across the country are passing a flurry of bills aimed at limiting transgender rights and medical care, Virginia is going the opposite way.
This month, the state became the first in the South to ban the “trans panic defense,” which has historically allowed those charged with homicide to receive lesser sentences after they argue in court that they panicked when they learned of a victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
Eleven other states have passed similar legislation, and Danica Roem, the Virginia legislator who introduced the bill there, hopes more states will follow.