Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont, a Democrat, on Friday signed legislation banning use of the “gay or trans” panic defense in criminal cases.

Criminal defendants who use the controversial defense claim that a violent act was triggered by the revelation of a victim's actual or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.

Lamont said that the claim suggests the lives of LGBT people are valued less than others.

“Claiming that meeting or interacting with someone who is gay or transgender elicited some type of temporary insanity that is supposed to justify a violent crime is ludicrous, and quite frankly it is absurd that this tactic has ever been successfully utilized in the court system,” Lamont said. “The strategy also implies that the life of a gay or transgender person is valued less than others. We will not allow homophobia and transphobia to be legitimate reasons that justify violent crime.”

States with similar laws include California, Illinois, Nevada and neighboring Rhode Island, which banned the defense last year.

New York lawmakers have approved a similar bill and Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, is expected to sign it into law.