Colorado on Monday became the 11th state in the United States to ban the use of the LGBT “panic defense” in criminal cases.

Democratic Governor Jared Polis, the nation's first openly gay man to be elected governor, signed the new law at the LGBTQ Center in Denver, The Denver Post reported.

Surrounded by the bill's authors and LGBT rights advocates, Polis said that passage of the bill proved that Colorado had turned a corner since “our days as the 'hate state,' referring to Amendment 2, the 1992 ballot measure which prohibited lawmakers from enacting LGBT rights and sparked boycotts of the state. Four years later, the Supreme Court in Romer struck down Amendment 2 as unconstitutional.

“We've come a long way here in Colorado since our days as the 'hate state,'” Polis said. “We really went from a place where discrimination was legalized in the 1990s to where we are today, where Colorado is a leader [on LGBT rights].”

States with similar laws include Washington, New Jersey, New York, California, Hawaii, Connecticut, Maine, Illinois, Nevada, and Rhode Island.

Polis also signed bills that simplify changing a minor's gender on their birth certificate and allow pharmacists to prescribe HIV prevention therapies such as Truvada and Descovy and require insurance companies to cover the medications.

Democratic Representative Brianna Titone, a co-sponsor of the bill and Colorado's first transgender state lawmaker, said that the bill is about protecting vulnerable communities.

“For me, what this bill really means is protecting black trans women, who are the most vulnerable of the communities we're trying to protect here,” Titone said at the bill signing ceremony.