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Gay teen expelled and arrested in US

Prior to her expulsion, Kaitlyn Hunt was voted the student with 'Most School Spirit' by her peers. She was a cheerleader, a basketball player, a camp counselor and cheering coach. Photo: Facebook/Save Kate
Prior to her expulsion, Kaitlyn Hunt was voted the student with 'Most School Spirit' by her peers. She was a cheerleader, a basketball player, a camp counselor and cheering coach. Photo: Facebook/Save Kate

A US teenager has been expelled and arrested over her same-sex relationship with a fellow high school student.

Kaitlyn Hunt was 17 years old when she began dating a 15-year-old member of her basketball team.

While Kaitlyn's parents supported the relationship, they say her girlfriend's parents were against it from the start.

Kaitlyn was asked to leave the school's basketball team for fear of causing "drama", her father, Steven Hunt says.

Then, a few months after her 18th birthday, her girlfriend's parents pressed charges. Kaitlyn was arrested for two felony counts of lewd and lascivious battery on a child 12 – 16 years of age after police recorded a phone call between the couple.

"[The parents] are out to destroy my daughter, because they feel like she ‘made’ their daughter gay," Kaitlyn's mother, Kelley Hunt Smith told Examiner.com.

"They see being gay as wrong and they blame my daughter. Of course, I see it 100 percent differently. I don’t see or label these girls as gay.

"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.”

Kaitlyn has been offered a plea deal of house arrest for two years, plus a year of probation.

After two judges ruled that Kaitlyn could finish her senior year with her peers, her girlfriend's parents appealed to the Indian River County School Board, who expelled Kaitlyn and sent her to an alternative school, Kaitlyn's mother claims.

While Kaitlyn's family believe her girlfriend's parents' decision to press charges related to sexuality, they clarified that the law in their state would be the same for a heterosexual couple with the same age difference.

According to the family, Kaitlyn's girlfriend is adamant that their relationship is entirely consensual. Photo: Facebook/Save Kate
According to the family, Kaitlyn's girlfriend is adamant that their relationship is entirely consensual. Photo: Facebook/Save Kate

"The law is [the same] but the law is unjust," Kaitlyn's uncle wrote on a Facebook page set up to garner support for his niece.

"It is unfair to expect high school students in the same school not to fraternise. It certainly shouldn't be grounds for criminal prosecution...

"They were peers in the same social circle with the same friends. I'm not sure age ever entered into either of their minds."

Kaitlyn's family set up the Facebook group Free Kate and a petition on Change.org. They hope to change the law and warn young couples who may find themselves in a similar position.