I was reading the news on the internet this morning and one of the news headlines that caught my attention was from Human Rights Watch,
There is an online petition to ask the prosecutor to drop the charges against her.
Cameroon: Drop Charges Against 2 Transgender YouthWe think that this cannot happen here, this only happens in third world countries…
Prosecution Based Solely on Bias, Not Evidence
May 17, 2013
(Yaoundé) – The Cameroonian authorities should drop the charges against two transgender youth rather than appealing their case to the Supreme Court, five human rights organizations said today. Jonas K. and Franky D. are being prosecuted on what the appeals court has already ruled were trumped-up charges of homosexual conduct, the groups said in a letter to the Yaoundé prosecutor today.
[…]
The two transgender youth, who identify as women, were arrested in July 2011 by police who stopped their vehicle and saw that they were dressed in women’s clothing. Police claimed that Jonas, Franky, and a third person were “groping each other’s genitals” in the car, which the accused denied. The prosecutor did not present any eyewitnesses and relied on confessions that Jonas and Franky made in police custody and later said were coerced.
A trial court convicted them of homosexual conduct in November 2011 in what defense lawyers described as a legal charade. The judge suggested that because they testified that they were drinking Bailey’s liqueur the night of the arrest – which the judge considered a “women’s drink” – they must be homosexual.
Florida Teen Arrested, Expelled for Same-Sex RelationshipIn Raw Story the article about her said,
There's a witchhunt against Florida teen Kaitlyn Hunt, her parents claim.
The Advocate
BY Neal Broverman
May 18 2013
Kaitlyn Hunt was a popular student at Sebastian River High School, participating in everything from cheerleading to basketball. Hunt began dating another female student and the latter girl's parents became enraged, according to Hunt's parents. Kaitlyn was 17 at the time the relationship began, while her girlfriend was 15. Upon Kaitlyn's 18th birthday, her girlfriend's parents sent the police to the Hunt home and the teenager was arrested.
Hunt was charged with two felony counts of lewd and lascivious battery on a child. Then, weeks before her graduation, Hunt was expelled from school.
The parents of the younger girl also pressured the Indian River County School Board into expelling Kaitlyn, she added. The teen is now attending an alternative school.Do you think she would be expelled if she was dating a boy? Do you think this case would be prosecuted if the relationship was a heterosexual relationship?
“Those parents have forced the State Attorneys office to go thru [sic] with felony charges and are trying to ruin my daughters life,” Kaitlyn mother’s continued. “This is insane. This should have never been a legal matter, it is a family matter. They are trying to send an innocent young girl to prison because they are full of hate and bigotry. These girls are teenagers in high school, who had ONE mutual consenting sexual experience. My daughter isn’t a criminal, she isn’t a predator.”
There is an online petition to ask the prosecutor to drop the charges against her.
If this had been an 18 year old male having sex with your 15 y/o daughter, how would you feel? Is this not the Equality Under the Law you advocate?
ReplyDeleteOr do gay's get a "special pass"?
First off, teenagers who are less than 3 years apart do not get charged with sex offenses. They are charged with a misdemeanor, not a felony.
ReplyDeleteSecond, the parents waited until she turned 18 before they had her arrested and they knew about the case almost a year earlier when she was 17.