In general provisions relating to offenses involving danger to the person, further providing for definitions.

Where it is in the process

Plain-English Summary

An Act amending Title 18 (Crimes and Offenses) of the Pennsylvania Consolidated Statutes, in general provisions relating to offenses involving danger to the person, further providing for definitions.

Source: OpenStates · fetched March 19, 2026

Who it affects

LGBTQ+ / Queer

via Fairness Pennsylvania: This bill prohibits the use of the LGBTQ+ Panic Defense in cases of violent crimes during court proceedings, which has been used to reduce charges or lessen sentencing on the basis of homophobia an…

Student / education borrower

via Pennsylvania Youth Congress: Prohibition of the LGBTQ+ Panic Defense

Parent / guardian

via Pennsylvania Youth Congress: Prohibition of the LGBTQ+ Panic Defense

AI-extracted

Who This Affectsvia advocacy orgs

LGBTQ+ / QueerdirectModerate impactMedium certainty
via Fairness Pennsylvania
This bill prohibits the use of the LGBTQ+ Panic Defense in cases of violent crimes during court proceedings, which has been used to reduce charges or lessen sentencing on the basis of homophobia an…
Student / education borrowerdirectModerate impactMedium certainty
via Pennsylvania Youth Congress
Prohibition of the LGBTQ+ Panic Defense
Parent / guardiandirectModerate impactMedium certainty
via Pennsylvania Youth Congress
Prohibition of the LGBTQ+ Panic Defense

What the Bill Does

The panic defense allows defendants to argue they were provoked to violence due to a victim's sexual orientation or gender identity. The bill would…
Prohibition of the LGBTQ+ Panic Defense

Votes

Read full bill text →↓ Why am I seeing this?

Want updates?

Get notified when PA HB1311 moves stage

Pick a channel below. Every option is opt-in, and we tell you exactly what we store.

Email

Identified

We store your email address and the bill ID. We'll send a confirmation link first; alerts only start after you click it. Every email has a one-click unsubscribe.

Coming soon

RSS feed· Atom 1.0 + JSON Feed per bill
Bluesky· follow a CivicRadar bot post per status change
Telegram· channel or DM via bot
Discord· channel webhook
WhatsApp· via WhatsApp Business
SMS· via Twilio