Gov. Andrew Cuomo renewed his push Friday for lawmakers to eliminate what are known as the “gay panic” and “trans panic” defenses, which allow those facing murder charges to say their actions were driven by an emotional disturbance incited by a victim's sexual orientation or gender identity.

Lawmakers have three weeks left in this year's legislative session to act on the bill, which hasn't moved in the Assembly since it was introduced earlier this year.

The State Senate, meanwhile, could take the bill up at any time after it was passed out of committee in recent months. A vote on the legislation hasn't been scheduled in the chamber, where it's sponsored by State Sen. Brad Hoylman, D-Manhattan.

When asked about the bill earlier this week, Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, D-Westchester, expressed optimism that it would pass her chamber.

“There's a lot of things that we all think we can get to and I don't see why there would be any reason not to do that,” Stewart-Cousins said.

Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, D-Bronx, said Democrats in his chamber have yet to discuss the measure. Lawmakers routinely meet behind closed doors to decide which bills will come to the floor. Legislation to end the “gay panic” and “trans panic” defenses hasn't come up yet, Heastie said.

“I haven't brought that up to the conference,” Heastie said. “It's something we haven't talked about yet.”

Cuomo, during a press conference on Monday in Manhattan, criticized Democrats who control the Legislature for not yet bringing the bill to the floor for a vote. It's the first time in nearly a decade that Democrats have controlled both the State Senate and Assembly.

“This is what we elected them to do,” Cuomo said. ”If you're not going to stand up for the LGBTQ community, then why did we need you?”

Cuomo's presence on the issue is significant. He rarely holds events to highlight his legislative priorities without planning to make them a major sticking point in negotiations with state lawmakers.

He was joined at the press conference by Kristen Prata Browde, the board president of the LGBT Bar Association of Greater New York. Browde is a divorce attorney from Westchester. The LGBT Bar has long supported eliminating the defense from state law.

“Would it be OK if I said I lost my mind because I found out you were Jewish, or Catholic or Irish?” Browde said. “It's an absurdity.”

There are two versions of the bill that approach the issue differently. Both are sponsored by Hoylman in the Senate, while Assemblyman Daniel O'Donnell, D-Manhattan, and Assemblyman Brian Barnwell, D-Queens, carry them separately in the Assembly.

The Barnwell bill would not eliminate the ability for a defendant to say they were influenced by an extreme emotional disturbance in general, but it would set certain parameters on that defense. It would be prohibited when the defendant acted in response to the victim's sexual orientation, sex or gender, according to the bill.

That version is the one that's moved in the Senate. The O'Donnell version, as of yet, has not moved in either chamber.

O'Donnell's bill would approach the issue in a different way, by saying that a nonviolent sexual advance or discovery of a person's sexual orientation or gender identity does not constitute a “reasonable explanation or excuse” for an extreme emotional disturbance.

Cuomo included language to eliminate the defense in his executive budget earlier this year, but it dropped out of negotiations before the spending plan was passed at the end of March. His budget language more closely reflected the Barnwell bill than the O'Donnell version.

O'Donnell and Hoylman have been pushing the legislation since 2015 and were credited by Cuomo last year for bringing attention to the issue. He first included it in his executive budget last January.

If lawmakers want to pass either version, they'll have to move a bill in the next three weeks. The Legislature is scheduled to leave Albany on June 19.

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