When I first heard of the “panic defense,” I was shocked. A legal defense that asserts that feeling panicked at an LGBT person’s romantic advances justifies assault or murder? And it’s legal? It turns out that it is a permissible defense in 49 out of 50 states, and has been used to fight or reduce many people’s charges.

I heard about it in the 2008 murder case of 15-year-old Larry King in California. He had asked Brandon McInerney to be his valentine. McInerney came to school later that day and shot King two times in the back of the head. When McInerney went to court for his crime, he used the gay panic defense. Because of this, McInerney received only a lesser second degree murder sentence.

The panic defense is anti-LGBT, anti-civil rights, and anti-American. Please join me in calling on Utah state lawmakers to ban the panic defense, in hopes that other states follow suit.

And young Larry King was just one of many victims whose murders didn’t get the justice they deserved because of this grossly prejudicial defense. We can’t let this go on in a free country. California recently made good on a promise not to let such a miscarriage of justice happen again. In 2014, it became the first (and only) state to officially ban the “panic defense” in court. It’s time for the other 49 states to follow suit. Please call on Utah state officials to ban the panic defense in Utah courts. We must not stop fighting this travesty of justice until it is outlawed in all 50 states.