This has the makings of a great LGBT film

Yes, it does. I can see it as a well-made TV movie.

...........Hate is the essence of weakness in the human mind...........

Especially if it does two things: take time to develop the characters and raise good questions rather than force a conclusion.

I totally agree and the casting of the two young women leads would be crucial. Please no super-cute modelly, pop star types to try to haul in an audience and hopefully not just using 'the gay angle' in a shallow novelty way.


...........Hate is the essence of weakness in the human mind...........

It would raise some very difficult moral or ethical questions and would pour gasoline on the contention that gays introduce minors to gay sex. I don't think the US is ready for this.

I definitely support Free Kate but let's also face it, she was 18 and her gf was 14. That's a pretty big age difference and any heterosexual relationship would have been prosecuted just the same.

I still don't understand why there hasn't been an Annie On My Mind movie or TV movie yet. :<

But yeah I'd definitely watch Kate's movie if it were made, and I hope she is exonerated.

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"Pride is not the opposite of shame, but its source. True humility is the antidote to shame."

Oh my God! Katrina, you mentioned Annie on My Mind! I completely forgot about that book! I bought it twelve years ago and now I'm trying to remember what happened to my copy.

But I'll have to disagree with you on the age difference thing. 18 and 14 is not a significant age difference. When I was 18, I still had the mind and physical characteristics of a 13-year-old. I hit puberty REALLY late in life. 14 is also a common age of consent in many developed countries. My point is that you don't magically cross a bridge into adulthood on your 18th birthday. We all reach adolescence and adulthood at varying rates. I've met plenty of 14-year-olds that can grow a full beard, look/behave like adults, and have been in three relationships already. On the flip side; there are 19-year-olds that are in the same stage in life as a typical 11-year-old.

It doesn't matter if the age difference isn't that great, or how mature the younger one may have been or how immature the 18 year old may have been, b/c in the end the law can only work on a general basis, there are just to many people, cases, etc to go through them each individually.. Lines have to be drawn somewhere and things like the age of adulthood, and the age of consent are included in that.

As far as this case goes, I think that Kate should have known not to start anything up with the younger girl. I mean even when i was in HS almost no senior would think about dating the lower class-men... It's also seems like Kate was probably using her seeing as she'd be leaving the younger girl after school year either by going to college or just not being around since the younger one would still have to be stuck in HS while Kate would be off wherever

I agree, Winchester. The law is not for us to pick and choose which laws to follow. Some people might choose to not follow arbitrary laws such as marijuana prohibition, but the next person might choose not to follow laws such as not raping me. If Kate and her gf were truly serious they could have waited until the girl was older.

I come from a small town and when I was 18 I barely knew any other gay people plus I had no experience. Would I have dated a 14 year old if the opportunity had arisen? Probably, considering my only other option was to let myself be picked up by some drunk 25 year old at a bar. 4 years is a lot less than 6, and I was still a sheltered teenager. But I certainly wouldn't have jumped into bed with some kid. We'd have to be dating for a good long while before that happened. Not sure what the age of consent is in Kate's state, but they could have at least waited that long.

That's the difference between a kid and an adult. As an adult we're expected to comprehend the consequences. Everybody knows the age of majority in the US. It's not exactly a secret. I have absolutely no doubt that Kate understood the risk she was taking. It's sad, it's unfortunate, and I hope Kate wins her case. But if you're breaking the law, you're accepting the potential risks.

July I completely agree with what you're saying, I just don't agree that the law should be open ended in that way. I myself was more of a kid than an adult at 18. However, my number one priority is protecting kids from being manipulated and abused. Since consent is such a difficult area to judge and regulate, the laws need to be pretty simplistic and straightforward in order for us to catch the monsters who are abusing teenagers.

Law is about hard choices, and if it really comes all down to it, and I have to make the choice: I would rather send people who were in amicable relationships to jail, than let that same number of child molesters go free. Why? Because people who skirt on the edges of legality regarding romantic age gaps, are consciously choosing to do so. It is completely, 100% within an individual's power to steer clear of tricky legal areas and keep themselves out of jail. But kids who are being molested don't have any other recourse, except vigilante justice. If we make the laws in this area lenient, more innocent people will be free, but there's no other way to stop child abusers. Whereas if we make the laws in this area hard, nobody has to go to jail, they have to choose to take the risk. One has an alternative, and the other doesn't.

Neither of these solutions is ideal. But the world isn't ideal and law has to reflect the real life situations rather than what could exist in a pure, honest society.

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"Pride is not the opposite of shame, but its source. True humility is the antidote to shame."