New Zealand officials made progress today with efforts toward eliminating the Gay Panic Defense, as well as a burgeoning movement for adoption equality, according to Pink News.

The Parliament voted unanimously to move a bill forward that would rescind the right of a person accused of murder to argue that they were provoked into the attack, a defense that has some history of success. The Gay Panic Defense, as it’s often called, is often used to argue that a defendant, distressed when confronted by homosexual attraction, can be considered temporarily insane and thus not as responsible for his or her actions.

In an earlier case, provocation was successfully used as a defence by Ferdinand Ambach, who killed Auckland man Ronald Brown.

Ambach argued he lost control and rammed the stem of a banjo down Mr Brown’s throat because the older man was coming on to him strongly and Ambach feared he would be raped.

An openly gay MP in New Zealand is also pushing through legislation that would allow gay couples to adopt. It may be a tough road to passage, but the legislation has the support of the Family Court’s head judge, who argued in favor of the bill. As it stands now, a single gay person may adopt, but that person’s partner can make no legal claim to parental rights.

The acting head judge of the Family Court has called for gay and lesbian couples to be given rights to adopt children, just as a private member’s bill on the issue goes into the ballot for Parliament’s order paper today.

Paul von Dadelszen says New Zealand is lagging behind many other countries and should allow both homosexual couples and de facto heterosexual couples to adopt children.