Florida teen Kaitlyn Hunt, 18, is seeing her young life turned upside down and her future jeopardized simply because
she fell in love. Unfortunately for her, she fell in love with a younger girl who has vindictive bigots for parents.
Hunt was a highly respected student at Florida’s Sebastian River High School with good grades and participation in cheerleading, basketball and chorus. She was even voted “most school spirit.”
All of that changed when she started dating a fellow student, a girl she met on the basketball team, at the beginning of the school year.
She was kicked off the basketball team because of the potential for "drama" her presence created. She's been vilified by fellow students, called “criminal,” “rapist” and “child abuser.” She was expelled from school. And far worse. She's facing a lifetime label of "sex-offender," because the other girl's parents brought criminal charges against her despite the fact that the relationship was consensual. What's more, according to Hunt's parents,
Hunt was 17 when the relationship began, but the other girl's parents waited until after she turned 18 to go to police.
Unbelievably, prosecutors have decided to press the criminal charge. Now Hunt is faced with two choices, either of which could ruin her life: an outrageous plea deal or taking a chance in her conservative community on a jury trial. The deal she's being offered is to plead guilty and be sentenced to two years of house arrest, being allowed only to go to work or school. A judge would then determine if she would have to register as a sex offender. Her alternative is to face jury trial in her conservative community, where she could face a 15-year prison sentence and be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of her life.
Because she and another girl fell in love with each other.
Please sign our petition asking the state attorney to drop this prosecution.
Thu May 23, 2013 at 10:29 AM PT: The public scrutiny of this case has brought to light problems with the initial reporting, and with the original story coming from the Hunt family. Previously, Hunt's parents said that the younger girl was 15, and Hunt 17 when the relationship began. The release of the arrest warrant made clear, as subsequent news stories report, that the younger girl was 14 and Hunt was indeed 18 when the relationship began.
These corrections, and the initial dishonesty of Hunt's parents, make this story much more problematic, and our original petition moot.
