LGBT News Kaitlyn Hunt Jailed

The parents of the younger daughter may have done it because they were gay, but that's not really the issue in terms of the law.

I'm not saying I agree with the law, but I dont think it's discriminatory based on sexual orientation

 

No matter the intent behind what happened, fact is, the girl did break the law. She had sex with a minor when she was not a minor.

It's quite possible the 14 year old's parents reported her because she was female, but that's not the issue. The issue is she broke the law.

I don't necessarily agree with it, but that's how it is.

 

Don't touch jail bait, lest you want to get burned.

 

Thing is as usual the facts are being misconstrued. She was 17 while her girl was 15. That's not having sex with a minor especially when consent is 14-years-old. When she turned 18 and her girlfriend 16, then yes there's a bit of an issue there but still it's ridiculous.

 

This is something that worries me, because I see it as an issue that we're going to have to face a lot more in the future. It isn't something we really had to deal with much in the past, because no one in their right mind came out as teenagers. Yet, with a more accepting world, we're seeing more LGBT Teens come out earlier and earlier.

Yet, they're faced with a slight problem that doesn't impact straight teens to the same degree (though it impacts them as well). That problem is a limited dating pool. A teen doesn't have the same flexibility as we do as adults, and there is still a very natural desire to try and live a life like your other classmates - to date, to go to dances, to go to prom, etc. A more limited dating pool (basically: those who are out or semi-out at your school) is probably going to lead to a larger age gap in teen dating for some LGBT Teens.

This may be a problem we have to confront in the future, and it's a problem that also impacts straight teens.

Basically, you have a situation where two individuals are in the same peer group - they go to school together. They develop feelings for each other and start dating, one of the minors parents dislikes the relationship, and decides to retaliate using the law once one of the teens becomes a legal adult. We've sometimes seen this used against straight guys as well.

It's not unreasonable to imagine the following scenario: a 14 year old Freshman in High School meets a 17 year old Junior during a Gay-Straight Alliance meeting, they develop a romantic relationship that continues for more than a year. That'd make the Freshman a 15 year old Sophomore, and the Junior an 18 year old Senior in High School - normal age ranges for those classes.

Of course, the law is completely blind to this fact. Once you hit the 18 year old mark, you're an adult and the other individual is a minor - whether or not they're in the same peer group, and that they've both been dating for over a year (when they were both minors) is completely irrelevant. The law doesn't take that into account... and of course, all you need is one angry parent of the minor to fuck over the other kid in that case.

LGBT Teens are also at a distinctive disadvantage in this regard, not only due to a limited dating pool, but because I think they're more likely to be targeted in this way, as well as a lack of institutional memory. We're minorities, and we carry the stigma that some believe that we can "turn" other people gay. We're going to see LGBT Teens prosecuted and treated in this regard in disproportionate numbers to their straight counterparts. The lack of an institutional memory is also devastating, and one of the reasons a place like EC is so valuable to LGBT teens.

If you look at say, an African-American Household, another minority group - there was a time when a black teenage male dating a white teenage girl could have possibly gotten him killed. So, if his parents suspected that their son was dating a white teenage girl, they could speak to him about why it was a bad idea, and the danger that he was putting himself in - it's not fair, but it was reality and it was dangerous. That's institutionalized memory. On the other hand LGBT Teens are raised by straight people, who may or may not know that their child is gay, and even if they did may not be supportive of that fact. Then, even if they are supportive, they may not be aware enough of the issues that LGBT Teens face to give proper and good advice. So, effectively there is no one there to say, "Hey this is a bad idea." Instead, the teen sees straight people in the same situation as them, and assumes that they can get away with the same behavior - which, unfortunately, is just not the case.

We've known about this unintentional use of the laws for some time, because as I said - they've been used in this way against straight males in the past, but I think we're going to begin seeing them used more frequently against LGBT Teens as more and more come out. These laws were setup to protect minors from adults, not to protect minors from other individuals in their peer group around their same age.

 

So while obviously black people had to deal with slavery...we have to deal with as teens without help from any parents...I wouldn't say we have it worse but in some ways we do. Depends how you look at it.

 

The point of judges is not to enforce the law, it is it interpret the law. The girls went to high school together and there was a small age difference between them. If this were a heterosexual couple this would never have been brought to court. Kaitlyn also got a ton of charges that will damage her life; it will be hard to get a job, she is a registered sex offender and therefore can't work with kids or live near a school among other things. For the "crime" she committed she doesnt deserve this treatment. This is not justice.

 

She was 18 when she was 15, which is violating Florida law.

Ages of consent in North America - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The exemptions only go to 16 to 17. Not 15.

I have no idea where you're getting the idea the girl was 15 when kaitlyn was 17. Every single site says 14. Thus, when Kaitlyn turned 18, her girlfriend was 15, and they should have stopped until she turned 16. Plain and Simple.

They knew the law. They broke it.

 

First article I ever read about this I could swear it said she was 17 and and the girlfriend 15 then it was changed to 17 and 14...I'm saying it keeps changing and it's difficult to keep track of when the media can't get it straight. There's no need to bite my head off.

 

I'm not going to have a stupid conversation about the law, because frankly, I don't care about the law. I care about what's ethical.

How is it that we live in a country where you can rape someone, and if you're on the football team, get less time for it than Ms. Hunt may get for having sex with her girlfriend? Our consent culture is completely fucked up. The conversation we should be having is not "well, it's the law, and it is what it is," but rather "what kind of fucked up people dreamed this up and thought it would be a good idea?"

 

I agree largely with what you wrote, though I would point out that I don't think those who wrote the laws envisioned them being enforced in this manner. It's a spirit of the law vs the letter of the law issue. It's the same situation where teens take nude pictures of themselves with their cellphones now and can be arrested for possession of child pornography. That's not the spirit in which the laws were created or how anyone envisioned them being enforced.

Laws like this one - dealing with age of consent - were designed to protect minors from predatory adults. When enforced in the spirit in which they were created they are good and decent laws. A 25+ year old shouldn't be seeking to have a sexual relationship with a 15 year old for what I hope are obvious reasons.

Yet, when you're dealing with a situation like this - two girls who go to high school together and are thus in the same peer group - this is not how enforcement of the law was envisioned. She may have violated the letter of the law, but she did not violate the spirit of the law.

What this amounts to is an exploitation of the law to punish a young lady, Kaitlyn Hunt, because her girlfriends parents didn't approve of the relationship. They likely believe that Kaitlyn turned their daughter into a lesbian, and therefore if they could break up the relationship their daughter would become straight again. Alternatively, it could just be vengeful punishment.

We have occasionally seen the age of consent laws used in this way against straight guys. I don't recall them ever being used this way against straight females, but they are equally vulnerable if someone seeks to abuse the letter of the law in this manner.

What is likely to happen to Kaitlyn is that she will go to prison and spend the rest of her life on a sex offender registration list. Her future is pretty much ruined as a result.

Really, the only thing that can be done at this point is to reform the law in such a way that it can't be used in this manner. Then in the process of reforming the law, set things up so that we can retroactively undo the damage we've already done to people prosecuted under its previously unjust implementation. Sadly, I don't think there is any hope for Kaitlyn or those in her situation until the law is reformed.

As I said previously, as LGBT people come out at younger and younger ages now, we're likely to see laws like these used against LGBT Teens with increased frequency.

 

I find myself being a bit more torn on the issue. Honestly, as an 18 year old, she probably didn't have a clue that she was breaking the law by sleeping with someone in her peer group. However, once she was caught and was in trouble, she did know what she was doing when she texted the girl while she had a restraining order. That being said, I'm also inclined to think that she is a teenager and she was probably concerned about the other girl and got caught up in things and then when the other girl responded, she continued to speak with her.

Additionally, like other people said, I do understand that she broke the law. I don't think, though, that this is how the law was intended to be taken. I don't understand something like this being put on the same level as someone who forces sex on someone else. This was consensual, and both girls are teens, and frankly are not all that far from each other in age. I don't think anyone would have written this law thinking a young girl, or boy for that matter, could be arrested and tried as a sex offender for having sex with someone just a few years younger than them who was in their high school. In the end, all of this leaves me feeling sympathetic for her, and feeling like although I don't think she's being treated unfairly because of her sexuality, I do think she (and others in similar situations) are being treated unfairly.

 

Poor girl, she is locked up for loving someone who is a couple of years younger she is. Her age is a technicality.

 

I agree. This happens all the time between heterosexual couples and no one gets arrested. So I think she was targeted for her orientation.

 

It's illegal for minors to engage in sexual activity (it depends where you live) and the older minor tends to receive the blame. She should be jailed but for different reasons of course. Where I live a minor can have sex with an adult and the latter does not get arrested provided that

- the minor is not younger than twelve
- it was consensual
- the sexual acts were not performed in a public place
- parents / guardian did not press charges

Even if the police get to know, they need the parents' authorization to proceed to arrest. Otherwise they can do absolutely nothing.

---

More to the point, every country has its own viewpoints, and you have to consider that America is split into states and each state has different perspectives in terms of law.

 

In cases like this, it's almost always due to the parents pressing charges.

 

Most straight cases of this are given a tap on the wrist to the older partner. If she's given a proper punishment for sleeping with her girlfriend of a very similar age, then that's not the purpose of the law. As far as I'm aware, most rape cases are dismissed in the US, but this is going to be taken to court because a pair of homophobic parents want to punish both for being gay.

 

I don't know about this. I've seen lots of cases in the media with guys who just turned eighteen having their lives ruined because their girlfriend's parents had it in for them. One such case even ended with the guy killing himself. Parents don't usually like it when their daughters date older boys either, and I bet they're more aggressive in those cases than they'd be if their daughter was dating another girl.

 

I do agree that the law is the law and that she did break the law, but it shouldn't be called "Statutory Rape." Rape by definition is not consensual, and if the two are having a consensual sexual encounter, then by definition, it's not rape. Now of course, you're going to have the Dr. Phils of the world saying, "The child cannot consent to sex, they're incapable. Therefore it's rape, and it's on the same level as having sex with someone who's unconscious."

Someone who's unconscious doesn't know what's going on. But someone who's 15 does know what sex is and what's going on, unless of course you were very sheltered as a child. I lost my virginity at 15. I'm pretty sure I knew what I was doing.