Laws against underage sex need to have more realistic exemptions.

[Psykhronic]

I think it's odd that they're trying to charge her for battery. This is a case of statutory rape, not a violent criminal act.

Rape is often considered a violent crime, but battery is still a bullshit charge.

[Praetorian]

Rape is often considered a violent crime, but battery is still a bullshit charge.

Legally, they have a case for statutory rape, which is just rape by technicality. Being under 18, since you're not legally an adult, it's rape by lack of the ability to consent.

It's not aggravated, forced sexual contact, and it's not drug or alcohol induced, unless they have evidence of that. They don't have a case for battery. I'm surprised they can even hold her for it.

[Violet]

there has too be a line somewhere....a 17 year old can't have sex with a 3 year old, and a 50 year old (as you mentioned) shouldn't have sex with a 15 year old so where is the line???

Does there?

Why? What are the UNDERLYING REASONS for this?

there's also the matter of this "criminal" being the "victim" of a false accusation, let's say they broke up at one point couldn't the 15 year old hold this 18 year old accountable for rape after they break up just as a matter of spite??? what would hold up in court? the testimony of the 15 year old perhaps.........are love notes now considered evidence? if so then there are plenty of teens in relationships with middle aged men (and women) who have such love notes and wouldn't be considered rapists????

so where is the line?

Funny, isn't that what legal adults do and sometimes manage to land their former lovers in prison for? Sounds to me like if they don't have solid evidence, they shouldn't be accusing anyone of rape. The day that testimony itself holds up in court is a sad day for all of us.

Those seeking but lines and blind to their reasons... sigh.

---

well than u shouldn't be fucking 15 year olds??? theres no reason for someone to be in that kind of relationship with a minor without the parents permission and expect it to be "alright" there are age restrictions this specific case may tread the line "a little closely" but they are still over the line if it's that important to be together they can wait too have sex or get involved in a polygamous relationship....that or they can just go fuck themselves

...



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ejvcd-JeVCQ

Or, yknow... they could just keep having sex, like civilized human beings.

---

because the law says no..........some countries says you can fuck a 9 year old but im sure your precious ass thinks that's horrible so............again ................i ask where is the line.....36 months fuck it i really don't care......but follow the laws of your country or face the reprecussions....... simple as that.....unless you wan too be a civil rights leader of the "we want to fuck people 3 years younger than us when they are still in high school" movement

"Because the law says no"?

Argument from authority... really? Cute.

[Gilgamesh]

because the law says no.

'Kay, and why do the laws say no? I want reasoning.

[cratehorus]

Her Uncle Andrew Gay apparently released the following statement:

"Many 18-year-old men have also been unjustly prosecuted for dating underage girls in their high schools. We are arguing that it is unfair to expect high school students in the same school not to fraternize. It certainly shouldn't be grounds for criminal prosecution."

From Examiner:

Kaitlyn was a senior and her girlfriend was a freshman. Gay says the family isn’t claiming the age difference isn’t significant; however, the younger student was “enrolled in courses with upper classmen, and played on the same Varsity basketball team as Kate. They were peers in the same social circle with the same friends. I'm not sure age ever entered into either of their minds.”

Finally, it has incorrectly been reported that Kaitlyn Hunt was arrested on her just after her 18th birthday. She actually turned 18 around the same time they began dating and the girl’s parents didn’t press charges until several months later.

If people want to donate to her legal fund, you can do so here: http://www.gofundme.com/2yz5ts

It's all cultural

Afghan Mullah Marries, Kills 8-Year-Old Girl on Wedding Night
http://frontpagemag.com/2013/dgreenfield...ing-night/

A 70-year-old man in Saudi Arabia is disputing claims his new bride is 15 years old, and says her family has ripped him off for the large dowry
http://wqad.com/2013/01/08/70-year-old-m...-year-old/

An 8-year-old boy marries a 61-year-old woman :South Africa
http://thechive.com/2013/03/12/ummm-whaaaa-6-photos/

An Indonesian Muslim cleric who allegedly married a 12-year-old girl and plans to wed another aged 7 and one aged 9
http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/129...r-old-girl

Are these marriages okay?

Really? Just because the law says so? You don't bend over to authority that easily do you? I wouldn't really want to screw a 15 year old, because I like my women a bit more mature... like a good whisky, but I wouldn't be one to tell someone else that they can't.

I have to have a good reason to follow a law, not just because the government says so.

because the laws used too say children could marry old men, we changed that if you want too sponsor some kind of global sex movemnt lowering the 24 month requirement in america feel free but state what that age limit should be.....not just well the kid was really intelligent and they loved eachother so just let it happen.... lalalala

there has too be a line somewhere....a 17 year old can't have sex with a 3 year old, and a 50 year old (as you mentioned) shouldn't have sex with a 15 year old so where is the line???

Does there?

Why? What are the UNDERLYING REASONS for this?

because baby fucking isn't cool buddy....its not cool at all

there's also the matter of this "criminal" being the "victim" of a false accusation, let's say they broke up at one point couldn't the 15 year old hold this 18 year old accountable for rape after they break up just as a matter of spite??? what would hold up in court? the testimony of the 15 year old perhaps.........are love notes now considered evidence? if so then there are plenty of teens in relationships with middle aged men (and women) who have such love notes and wouldn't be considered rapists????

so where is the line?

Funny, isn't that what legal adults do and sometimes manage to land their former lovers in prison for? Sounds to me like if they don't have solid evidence, they shouldn't be accusing anyone of rape. The day that testimony itself holds up in court is a sad day for all of us.

Those seeking but lines and blind to their reasons... sigh.

they do? you can't accuse someone of rape without a medical examination...statutory rape is different which can just be a confession or evidence of a sexual act

Or, yknow... they could just keep having sex, like civilized human beings.

no they shouldn't without changing the laws first

because the law says no..........some countries says you can fuck a 9 year old but im sure your precious ass thinks that's horrible so............again ................i ask where is the line.....36 months fuck it i really don't care......but follow the laws of your country or face the reprecussions....... simple as that.....unless you wan too be a civil rights leader of the "we want to fuck people 3 years younger than us when they are still in high school" movement

"Because the law says no"?

Argument from authority... really? Cute.

yes this argument from authority....in this case it means i win.... this is not an lgbt issue anymore than nambla or preist fucking

because the law says no.

'Kay, and why do the laws say no? I want reasoning.

because a bunch of people got together one day and said should the limit be 12 months?... and one person said "no that's too short".... another person stood up and said 36 months .....and someone else said no that's too far apart.... so they settled on 24.....it's called lawmaking and there is a lengthy decision process involved.... c'mon fellas ....the supreme court just legalized sodomy in the US in 2003 can we atleast take baby steps before have official court judges deciding who truly "loves eachother" and who doesn't??

if you guys all want to legalize 70 year old men marrying 6 year old girls that's your opinion........ but good luck getting that passed in any modern court....plenty of countries where this realtionship is perfectly legal....(although since it is a homosexual relationship there might also be some problems with those countries involving decapitation and such)

[Gilgamesh]

because a bunch of people got together one day and said should the limit be 12 months?... and one person said "no that's too short".... another person stood up and said 36 months .....and someone else said no that's too far apart.... so they settled on 24.....it's called lawmaking and there is a lengthy decision process involved.... c'mon fellas ....the supreme court just legalized sodomy in the US in 2003 can we atleast take baby steps before have official court judges deciding who truly "loves eachother" and who doesn't??

So it's just subjective, then. A group of people made a law based on their opinions - and this law effects everyone in the country. Huh, just as I thought.

Is there any objective reason why a 15 year-old can't have sex with a 19 year-old in ALL cases? If not, the law needs changing, obviously.

By the way, your presence in this thread has gone thusly:

"These laws make no sense. They need to be changed."
You: "No, the scenario that this law deems crime is bad and so the law deems it crime, justly so"
"Why is the scenario bad?"
You: "Because the law says so."

... Serious, brah.

if you guys all want to legalize 70 year old men marrying 6 year old girls that's your opinion........ but good luck getting that passed in any modern court....plenty of countries where this realtionship is perfectly legal....(although since it is a homosexual relationship there might also be some problems with those countries involving decapitation and such)

Why is what is (or what chance something has to be) law relevant? It's not. I want to argue what's objectively right or wrong. Once we've decided if something is right or not, then the question of whether or not it should be law is a pretty simple one to answer.

[Praetorian]

Cultural subjectivity is a murky subject. I'll go ahead and say that a cleric marrying a 9 year old is wrong. I could say it's wrong because she hasn't even hit puberty yet...

But the Koran says that a girl should have her first period in the house of her husband. Since this is the law in places like Saudi Arabia, does that make them justified in doing so? I'd say no, but I'd be hard pressed to give you a solid qualifier for when it is ok.

It's legal, in my state, to get married at 14 with parental consent. So if you're 50 and can convince a girl's parents to sign off on it, it's perfectly legal. I don't think that's ok, but this is the American southwest, and we have some laws that harken back to the frontier days.

Unfortunately, there is no magical sign that shows up on your forehead that says, "I'm ready for sex." when you're finally ready for it. It's a complex and deeply personal issue that probably shouldn't be handled in a courtroom unless signs of coercion or intoxication exist.

[Aractus]

The story: http://www.lgbtqnation.com/2013/05/flori...ationship/

What makes me annoyed isn't the fact that this girl is gay and is clearly being targeted for her sexual orientation, but that she could even be arrested in the first place.

Underage sex, or even underage relationships should not be a black and white issue, because they aren't always so simple. Yes, a 50 year old man having a relationship with an underage girl should be cause for both concern and for criminal action. However, when you have teenagers who are separated by only a few years, and the elder of the two becomes a legal adult, he/she should not be treated in the same way as the 50 year old would.

It should be common sense, but these laws aren't based on common sense at all. They are based on arbitrary age limits which should not be applied generally. It pisses me off to no end.

If you want to help out the girl in the article, there is a petition here: http://www.change.org/petitions/indian-r...lationship

However this kind of thing will only end when stupid laws are rewritten to account for what happens in reality.

This is why in-principle I don't believe in age-of-consent laws. In Australia the parents can't just have the girlfriend/boyfriend charged and convicted. They can report it, sure, but unless the "victim" is willing to testify that they were raped, the charges will be dropped and nothing will come of it. The only real benefit to these laws is that it does make it easier to charge those who do the wrong thing - but it's by no means perfect.

[Tiberius]

if you guys all want to legalize 70 year old men marrying 6 year old girls that's your opinion

None of us are arguing that; you are creating a strawman.

You seem to think that laws should be absolute, that there are never any exceptions to the law. I disagree. I think that a young couple should not have to be punished if one of the couple suddenly becomes an adult.

[Minimalist]

I see your point, Divi Tiberio, I just think you are giving law waaaayyy too much credit to handle nuance.