I have only skimmed the details of this... so talking off the top of my head

The "Gay" aspect of this case does not concern me at all.

The CRITICAL factor is AGE!!

It would be the same for a heterosexual relationship... either way, either player being the older one.

14 is CHILD!!

18/19 is NOT CHILD (despite what Traybots say)

14 V 18 is NOT the same as 24 V 28 for instance. The critical point here is a 14 year old child involved. And not involved with a fellow 14, 15, 16 year old.. but with an adult.
Age (especially age difference) is hugely important around these critical ages.

No matter if the 14 year old is "willing" or even promiscuous and initiating the encounter.. it is WRONG!

And to persist when the relationship was exposed and subject to legal proceedings is doubly wrong.

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Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

Kate messed up big time, but should she be classified in the same bucket as a 50 year old guy that molests his 5 year old neighbor?

If she lived next to me I wouldn't be keeping my kids inside. If the 50 year old one did, I would.

You can beg the question with hypothetical ages and age differences....there are "grey areas" where, for instance, a just legally under-age person is in fact "consenting"
But you have to draw the line somewhere , if only for legal purposes, and to me 14 is CLEARLY a child and 18 is CLEARLY an adult in a position to take advantage.

50 and 5 is different of course... try 50 and 14... IMO 18 and 14 is just as bad.

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

I just don't see it that way I guess. To me the things that are being said about her are as bad as people calling George a child killer. Yes sure technically he may be, but there were mitigating circumstances. Same thing with Kate. Sure she was older and sure she made some mistakes, but from everything I can see, the 14 year old was involved in this under her own will and it wasn't a rape, it wasn't a predatory crime, it was 2 kids who though they were in love and wanted to be together.

Trust me I have been just as upset when this happens to guys dating younger girls. Heck it could have been me. I was 16 dating a 14 year old. Now granted, she was part of my youth group and dating consisted of holding hands and going to the same events together, then after a while I was allowed to go over her house when her parents were there for dinner and such. There was no way either of us were going to do anything even remotely wrong. But, if we were in Florida and her parents decided to lie about me, I could have been put in jail. If I was in the same situation and we weren't both very religious, what could have happened? I mean, at that age with those hormones going, it would have been hard to say no if she was like the girls of today and been very aggressive.

Here in lies the rub. According to the laws in Florida, a girl under 16 can come on to a boy, who has zero control over his hormones and when all is said and done, he is in jail and labeled a sexual predator and a felon. Is that even remotely fair? Shouldn't there be differing degrees of the buckets we place these people in? Shouldn't we re-examine our laws in this day and age where kids have way more knowledge of sex than we had 30 years ago?

You reference your own experience... 16 and 14 As I said perhaps that is more of a "Grey area" the age difference is HALF what it is in this case. And in your example BOTH are under age. The Older age is 16 and not 18. All these factors put the Hunt case well outside any "grey area" in my mind.

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

It was much closer to 3 years though. She was just 14 and I was almost 17 when we started hanging out.

I replied on page 1 to your earlier post, too. I hope you reply.

Florida law does have different gradations of offense, as you suggest should be the case, iirc. She's not being treated the same as a 50 year old with a 5 year old. Again, she ignored a plea deal of zero jail time and zero sex offender registry so long as she didn't reoffend during her probation. Of course, as we know now, she wouldn't even abide by the court order while the case was pending.

It's not a crime if they're both under age, or as in your situation, are only two years apart in age. Four years difference, with one being a legal adult, is much different though, wouldn't you agree?

Boys who have zero control know better than to let themselves be in a position to go to jail, kwim? By age 18, boys and girls are expected to have some self control; they're able to enter into contracts, join the military, get married, etc. without parental consent. And very few of them are interested in a 14 year old.

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Very well said, all around, Rumpole - especially for someone who just skimmed.

Like you, I also don't see a gray area here at all. Kate was asked and told to stop by the minor's parents. Her response to that was to give the minor a lift to stay the night without the minor's parent's knowledge. Kate's continued behavior, her explicit knowledge that what she was doing was illegal per her own writing, her confession to everything she did, her refusal to stop even after court proceedings began, make this open/shut to me.

My biggest interest here is learning how good people can see a gray area, or support Kate.

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Since we have referenced personal experiences... I remember ME at age 18 and ME at age 14.

It would have been VERY weird for me at 18 to have been attracted to a 14 year old girl... and IMO WRONG to pursue a child that age.

At age 14 if a 18 year old woman had made sexual advances towards me... I can imagine I might well have welcomed them and been an active, consenting party to it. That is PRECISELY why it is wrong. A 14 year old child is vulnerable... to some extent at the mercy of their own sexual drives and EASILY coerced by an older (adult) person.

_________________
Do not go gentle into that good night.
___________ Rage, rage against the dying of the light

My thoughts exactly, Rumpole. Again, well said. And much, much, much more concisely than I could have ever pulled off!

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All posts are my own opinion and do not necessarily reflect the views of Random Topics. Differences are allowed here.

There is such a huge gray area in the early teens everyone matures at a a different rate. Some girls menstruate as early as 10 others not till 15. Not that that means they are mentally ready for sex. And quite a few teens experiment with sex. They make-out, pet, etc. But usually are near the same age. I also don't think this is a gay issue, as if that would make it okay!

What makes me think there is more to this is 1. She was told to stop and didn't. It seems the offender's parents even helped her. and 2. And this is a really really big one for me. The offender took it to a whole new level by including sex "toys". You have to be 18 or 21 to purchase these. I don't care if it was a boy or a girl, if I found out someone was using a OBJECT to penetrate my 14 year old daughter... well... I would be livid and if the law didn't prosecute them I would.

Exactly, BertaBlue. I think most of us would agree that children of about the same age doing things they shouldn't when briefly unsupervised, or sneaking off at school as in this case, is unfortunate, but shouldn't be criminal. But... To my mind, there is a huge difference between an 18 year old and a 14 year old. There just is. We don't see a lot of high school seniors hanging out with freshmen as friends, kwim?

That's a great point that physical maturity and mental/emotional maturity are rarely at the same rate. A 14 year old may "look" older, but they're still just 14 inside.

You bring up another good point about the age to purchase those items. Your suspicion is supported/expanded/explained by a post by Stacy McCain that I'll put up soon.

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You gotta see this rambling, often incoherent, seems-to-admit-client-is-guilty-as-sin-but-the-check-cleared-so-whatever, press release from Hunt's lawyer.


Read more at The Other McCain.

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Trayborg™ have nothing on the Hunt supporters - bunch of sick, sick people overall. The following are tame in comparison to much I've read.


Read more at The Other McCain.

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That lawyer is blaming the victim, LE and everyone else but Kate and her parents. And bondsmen can't just waltz into court to obtain an "off-bond" they have to show just cause.

Read more at The Other McCain.

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All posts are my own opinion and do not necessarily reflect the views of Random Topics. Differences are allowed here.

Hey, it's that family's modus operandi - that's how they roll. Blame literally everyone else.

Next up is the article that backs up your earlier prescience, BertaBlue.

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All posts are my own opinion and do not necessarily reflect the views of Random Topics. Differences are allowed here.

Be sure to click through to read more at The Other McCain - there is info there you want to read.

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All posts are my own opinion and do not necessarily reflect the views of Random Topics. Differences are allowed here.

Well I have gone through all that's been said and reported with regard to this case. For me it is being given more air time than I personally think it should be.

There are salient facts which cannot be underestimated. Firstly, for me it's not a matter of sexual orientation, I personally don't give a hoot what they are, what is at issue purely and simply is age. If one of the parties (the older) was a guy there would be an outcry, and yes, he'd be put on the sex offenders' register. I doubt very much if an 18 year old and a 14 year old truly know what love is, if they'd been in their 30s we wouldn't be discussing it at all, but if they had been in their 30s they are more likely to have known was love is - so I don't even take that aspect of them clearly wanting to be together into consideration.

Someone said a 14 year old girl is too naive to know what having sex meant - excuse me - not these days. Back when I was 14 that was more likely, but even then (the 50s) we had a fairly good idea.

So to sum up - the older girl should have known better (and probably did) and should not have even tried it. Hmmm. wonder how everyone found out about this in the first place!!

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Since we are destined to live out our lives in the prison of our minds, our one duty is to furnish it well~Peter Ustinov

Hiya, wroughead! Everyone found out because the accused's family went to the media, tried to play it as a homophobia thing, and now it's backfired. Did you see McCain's articles posted today?

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All posts are my own opinion and do not necessarily reflect the views of Random Topics. Differences are allowed here.