Homophobia Drove Statutory Rape Charge: Mom

A Florida teen has been charged with statutory rape and kicked out of school, and her mother says the case hinges on homophobia, the Raw Story reports. The parents of the alleged victim—some three years younger than suspect Kaitlyn Hunt, 18—"are bigoted, religious zeolites (sic) that see being gay as a sin and wrong, and they blame my daughter," says Hunt's mother, Kelly Hunt Smith, in a Facebook post. Hunt and the other teen had "a mutual consenting relationship," Smith says.

But the younger girl's parents pushed for Hunt's expulsion from school—she's now finishing the school year at another school—and she faces two years' house arrest and a year's probation under a plea deal, Smith says. "They were out to destroy my daughter; they feel like my daughter ‘made’ their daughter gay." Now, a Facebook group supporting Hunt has nearly 20,000 members, while an online petition on her behalf has some 53,000 signers. (More homophobia stories.)