Lawmakers considered a measure this week targeting what’s known as the LGBTQ+ panic defense – where accused attackers claim that shock over a victim’s gender identity or sexual orientation should mitigate their actions.

House Bill 637, which passed through the Judiciary Committee on a party-line vote Wednesday, updates state law to clarify the defition of “serious provocation” as it relates to homicides and other violent crimes to say:

“The term does not include the discovery, knowledge or potential disclosure of a victim’s actual or perceived gender identity or expression or sexual orientation, including circumstances in which the victim made an unwanted nonforcible romantic or sexual advance toward the defendant or if the defendant and victim had a romantic or sexual relationship.”

“Across this country and in this Commonwealth, there is a pattern, practice, and disgusting regularity of folks being targeted for their actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, and there’s a necessity to make sure that folks cannot use that perceived sexual orientation or gender identity as a defense for violence against our communities,” said Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, D-Philadelphia, in support of the bill.