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MIAMI - An 18-year-old girl is facing felony charges that she had sexual contact with her underage, 14-year-old girlfriend, leading gay rights advocates to say the teen is being unfairly targeted for a common high school romance because she's gay.

The criminal case against Kaitlyn Hunt is unusual because it involves two females, not an older male and a younger female. But advocates say older high schoolers dating their younger counterparts is an innocuous, everyday occurrence that is not prosecuted — regardless of sexual orientation — and not a crime on par with predatory sex offences.

Hunt played on the basketball team with her younger girlfriend and shared the same circle of friends, said Hunt's mother, Kelley Hunt Smith. The two had a consenting relationship that began soon after Kaitlyn Hunt turned 18, and Hunt Smith said she assumed the younger girl's parents knew that.

But Hunt was kicked off the basketball team near the end of last year after the coach learned of the relationship because players were not allowed to date each other, her parents said. Then, in February, she was charged with lewd and lascivious battery on a child 12 to 16. The day before she was arrested, police and the younger girl's parents secretly recorded a phone conversation in which the two girls discussed kissing in the school bathroom, said Hunt's father, Steve Hunt.

"It's horrible. For my daughter's sexual preferences, she's getting two felony charges. It could possibly ruin her future," Steve Hunt told The Associated Press in a phone interview Tuesday.

The alleged victim is identified only by her initials in court documents, and her parents have not been publicly identified. The AP does not identify alleged victims of sex crimes.

Kaitlyn Hunt, who hopes to become a nurse, declined to be interviewed and is scared, her father said. However, the family has received support from all over the world, with messages coming from as far away as New Zealand, the Netherlands and Canada, Steve Hunt said. He said he reads them to her to keep her spirits up, but she feels like she has let everyone down, he said through tears.

Prosecutors have offered a plea deal to Kaitlyn Hunt that would allow her to avoid registering as a sex offender if she pleads guilty to lesser charges of child abuse. State Attorney Bruce Colton said he would recommend two years of house arrest followed by one year probation if she takes the deal.

If she is found guilty, it's also possible that Hunt could apply to not have to register as a sex offender under a "Romeo and Juliet" law because the girls were no more than four years apart in age, Colton said.

Colton said the victim's family is not pushing for prison but wants Kaitlyn Hunt to be held responsible in some way. However, the Hunt family said they would accept a plea deal only if the charges are dropped to a lower level misdemeanour.

"One of the reasons this case has gotten people's attention is because it's being publicized as a person being persecuted because she's gay, and that has nothing to do with the case, nothing to do with the law, nothing to do with the sheriff's office filing the charges," Colton said. He said the law is designed to protect younger children from older children who might be more aggressive in starting a relationship.

"The law doesn't make any differentiation. It doesn't matter if it's two girls or two boys, or an older boy and a younger girl or an older girl and a younger boy. Whatever the combination, it doesn't matter."

However, gay rights advocates aren't buying that. The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida said Kaitlyn Hunt is being criminalized for behaviour that "occurs every day in tens of thousands of high schools across the country, yet those other students are not facing felony convictions ... and potential lifelong branding as sex offenders."

Her support extends beyond the ACLU. A "Free Kate" Facebook page has generated more than 30,000 followers so far, and an online petition urging that the charges be dropped crashed at one point because it got so much traffic. It now has more than 100,000 signatures. And during a press conference Monday, dozens of supporters showed up outside of the Indian River Sheriff's Department, many wearing T-Shirts that read "Stop the Hate, Free Kate" with rainbow hearts.

The family said Kaitlyn Hunt had been demonized by some, and they disabled her personal Facebook account to protect her from negative comments. At school in February, her 17-year-old sister spent a half-hour cleaning a mirror where someone had written a slur against women and other words including "rapist" and "disgusting," Steve Hunt said.

In the meantime, Kaitlyn Hunt has been attending an alternative school since her expulsion and will be allowed to walk with her class at graduation in June. Her mother said she was expelled by the school board even though a judge ruled she could stay.

Sebastian River High School's principal and assistant principal did not immediately respond to emails sent Tuesday.





http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/teen+ ... z2TxsS54dd

   

Well if it was a guy and a younger girl, or a guy and a younger guy there'd be holy hell to raise. Excusing this behaviour because the predator is female, would set a bad precedent.

   

That doesn't tend to happen when they start dating when it's legal and then she happens to get a year older and making it illegal.

   

I thought I read in another article that the young girl was 15 and they had a relationship BEFORE the older one turned 18, and no one bitched about it. When the older one turned 18, all of a sudden it became a problem for the parents, resulting in charges.

Although imho, it does not matter which sexes are involved with each other, and statutory rape is exactly that, and should be applied equally, don't make this a statutory rape case the day the older one turns 18, when what you actually want, is your daughter to be straight.

   

Weird rule, since it's an all-girl team... makes you wonder if the rule would exist if it was a mixed sex team.

I'm having a bit of a problem deciding what I feel about this one. There would have been trouble if my girls had dated an 18 year old boy when they were 14.

   

I read the exact same thing a couple days ago.

   

I'll be blunt.

This would never have made the news if the couple was straight.

It is, literally, much ado about nothing. Florida has a law, that can be used when they are in court, that will clear this up in one sitting. It is currently being used by many straight couples, but, apparently is not good enough for the media whores.

If you assume that the term 'media whores' applies to the girls...well, then I got nothing for you.

   

This is what I heard as well.

   

These stories make the news all the time with respect to boys and girls.

   

14 and 18..that's the 8th grade and the 12th grade. If it was an 18 year old male there would be a lot fewer people defending him.

   

International news? About States that have laws addressing the 'high school issue'?

I don't think so. You see them pop up from local sources fairly often (and rehashed on blogs), but from another country's news sources...not so much.

If this was an article from a Florida paper, I would not be calling people media whores.

   

What about "slow news day for the Calgary Herald, lets go online and find news"?

   

Strange because I didn't read that. I read that she was already 18 and then started a relationship with the 14 year old which has nothing to do with gender and everything like you said to do with statutory rape.



So does Florida have a law where a consenting relationship with a minor takes precedence over statutory rape?

I'm guessing that if it's anything like Canada the parents can't consent to their child having that type of a relationship because the Crown of in this case the States Prosecutor makes all the decisions.

It may seem petty or that people are picking on them because they're lesbians but the fact remains that she was an adult who had a relationship with a minor and unfortunately will likely feel the full force of the law just like any dumb male teen because she made a mistake.

   

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/1 ... ostpopular

   

Well, the commentors in the huffpost seem to have figured out that it's "without a doubt homophobia".

Although there is a decent chance that it's the gay aspect that made the younger girl's parents most uncomfortable, the fact is an 18yo with a 14-15 yo is illegal in that state, it's statutory rape. Gender has nothing to do with it.

   

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