Kaitlyn Hunt, 18, Faces Criminal Charges for Being a Lesbian?
Kaitlyn Hunt was expelled from school on top of the criminal charges against her for dating another female student, The Examiner reports.
According to those who's close to Kaitlyn, the 18-year-old student at Florida's Sebastian River High School is a diligent and active student. She has good grades, active in cheerleading, basketball and chorus. The students had even voted her for the "Most School Spirit" award.
But all these went down the drain as police arrested her at her home in February and charge her with two felony counts of lewd and lascivious battery on a child 12-16 years of age.
Kaitlyn's parents said that their daughter's only mistake was that she has fallen in love with another girl in school and that the girl whom Kaitlyn has fallen in love to has parents who cannot accept their daughter's gender preference.
The court is pushing for Kaitlyn to accept a plea deal of house arrest for two years, plus a year of probation.
This means that Kaitlyn has to stall her plans for college for another two years. And that she will carry a permanent adult record which will scar her for the rest of her life.
The Love Story
Kaitlyn met "her" through the basketball team in which both of them were members. Kaitlyn began dating her at the beginning of the schoolyear.
Kaitlyn was a senior in high school and her girlfriend was only 15 and in lower grade.
Their basketball coach expresses his strong disapproval of the relationship and decided to kick Kaitlyn out of the basketball team.
Kaitlyn accepted this but pursue her relationship with her girlfriend. Her parents accept this. However, her girlfriend's parents pressed charges and had Kaitlyn handcuffed from their home in February.
Steven R. Hunt Jr., Kaitlyn's father said that the relationship was doomed from the moment the basketball coach kicked her out of the team "because the coach feared a same-sex relationship will bring drama."
Kelly Hunt Smith, Kaitlyn's mother, said that Kaitlyn had to suffer this ordeal just because her girlfriend's parents abhor the fact that their daughter preferred same-sex relationship.
As Kelly puts it, "They are out to destroy my daughter, because they feel like she made their daughter gay. They see being gay as wrong and they blame my daughter. Of course, I see it 100% differently. I don't see or label these girls as gays. They are teenagers in high school experimenting with their sexuality - with mutual consent. And even if their daughter is gay, who cares? She is still their daughter."
The misery for the Hunt family never stops even if Kaitlyn is compelled to stop attending school. Kaitlyn's younger sister, also a student as Sebastian River High School, is tormented as she sees vandalism on bathroom walls at school, calling Kaitlyn "criminal", "rapist" and "child abuser".
The Petition
Kelly and Steven have acted to stop all this torment by starting a Free Kate Facebook Group to "stop the hate, free Kate."
The group aims to acquire significant number of members to help them with their petition against the punishment of the state attorneys.
To date, the petition through change.org has already 20,000 signatures. According to reports, the large number of people who are willing to give their signatures has temporarily crashed the site.