"In 2021, Virginia became the first and only Southern state to pass a law amending the Code of Virginia to curtail the use and effectiveness of the LGBTQ+ "panic" defense. The law defines circumstances that do not mitigate a homicide. Specifically, it states that "notwithstanding any other provision of law, the discovery of, perception of, or belief about another person's actual or perceived sex, gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation, whether or not accurate, is not a defense to any charge of capital murder, murder in the first degree, murder in the second degree, or voluntary manslaughter and is not provocation negating malice as an element of murder.""