Fourteen Will Get You Twenty

Just about every young man has heard some variation of this caution against statutory rape. Having sex with a 14 year-old could land you a prison sentence of 20 years, or so the saying implies. The age of consent for sex in the USA varies by state, but I think it ranges from 18 in some states (like here in California) to 16 in some other states. In some states, parents can sign off on someone under the age of consent marrying, and statuory rape laws would no longer apply.

I have seen many Leftists, especially those who advocate the neutering of marriage, express outrage over a criminal case in Florda. Here is an Associated Press report by Kelli Kennedy.

An 18-year-old Florida cheerleader 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.

Wrong. She's being unfairly defended because she's homosexual.

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 offenses.

The law says otherwise, and we must have equal application of the law, right?

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.

When you're dealing with someone else's minor child, you can't assume. Oh, if only modern humans had some ability, some technologies, that would allow them communicate with each other.

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.

Yeah, convicted child molestors get letters of support from all over the world, too. There was a time a parent would have been ashamed of what their child was doing in cases like this.

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.

I wonder how many heterosexual males get that generous offer?

"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."

Ain't equality grand?

However, gay rights advocates aren't buying that. The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida said Kaitlyn Hunt is being criminalized for behavior 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."

What the ACLU is saying is that because some parents are derelict in their duty to protect their minor children, all parents should be. Because some parents let 18 year-olds do their 14 year-olds, every parent should!

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.

All of these people  apparentlysupport statutory rape. Remeber this the next time someone experesses outrage that someone else seems to be linking homosexuality advocacy with pedophilia.

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.

Is that all? That's rather tame.

Is there any reason why a Kaitlyn Hunt shouldn't be prosecuted as strongly as a Mike Hunt for having sex with a girl?

Never forget that ACLU and other groups are spending time, money, and effort trying to decriminalize an adult having sex with a 14 year-old.