Curious what Dopers think the appropriate punishment/charges are for the 18yr old girl. Do you consider this rape? IF not why not? Would you feel differently if it were an 18yr old boy and 15 yr old girl? 18yr old girl and 15yr old boy?
The articles I had read stated that the relationship started when she was 17. The parents of the 15 year-old waited until she turned 18 and then dropped the hammer.
That’s all kinds of shitty.
If I were the parent of the younger girl I would want to feel she was pretty secure in her sexuality before I would want her dating an older girl who may or may not have some influence over her decisions. I would proably have put the brakes or at least some restrictions on the relationship before it had gotten to this point, or at least I would have tried to.
I see it the way you do, but before 18 their really was no hammer to drop.
It’s so hard for me to say because I am not a father yet, let alone a father of a potentially sexually active 15 year old girl, but honestly I don’t think I would consider it rape. I might not like it very much, but I think I’d try to be as understanding and supportive as possible. I may be a bit biased however since I’m gay myself and I know how frustratingly difficult it is for young gay people to explore their sexuality safely and not feel terrible about it.
From the article in the OP:
“These people never came to us as parents, never tried to speak to us… and tell us they had a problem with the girls dating,”
I don’t think it should be considered rape. That’s based on an assumption that the 15 year old knew what she was getting into, i.e., she consented, even though not quite legal age. I wouldn’t want to see any relationship like this result in prosecution. These arbitrary age limits are stupid, and cases like this should be prosecuted on their merits. The state is harming both of these girls for no good reason.
I say not rape and in jurisdictions with romeo and juliet laws it wouldn’t be considered rape. Gender shouldn’t matter.
ETA: Looking into it briefly it seems that Florida did pass one in 2007, but all it does is give you an opportunity to get your name off the registered sex offender list. Doesn’t give you an affirmative defense to statutory rape.
They tried to have her expelled too. The parents of the older one are pretty vindictive.
I think you mean the younger one. What I want to know is, what proof do they have that the two girls have done more than hold hands? You can’t have a statutory rape conviction without any proof that sex took place.
Legal in my state.
So if I’m reading this right. They had a relationship, and they were 15 and 17 yrs old. Then sometime later, the older girl turned 18, and now the parents object?
The parents object because they think the older one turned their daughter gay. So instead of telling their daughter to break up, they waited until the older one was 18 and pressed charges.
Well, they have no grounds, of course, because the older girl’s behavior did not turn their daughter gay. She was already that way.
Neither does their daughter have grounds for complaint, because, despite appearances, said behavior did not turn her parents stupid and mean.
They were already that way.
Prosecuting two teenagers for sex is just unbelievable. Most states have a age span limit. Like three years difference in age is legal.
But it appears that this girl will have to take a plea deal to avoid prison. Making her a registered sex offender for life. What a waste.
It was consensual sex, so it’s no business of anyone but the two girls involved, including the parents. Same whatever the genders are.
Must be that in their state that a 15 year old is able to consent to anything.
They are both kids, it isn’t like it is a 15 year old with a 37 year old.
According to the Facebook group, they met when one was 14 and the other was 17 and only began dating after the older one turned 18. So it really doesn’t seem like the parents waited to drop the hammer until she was 18- apparently there was no sexual relationship before then. If there had been ,there was no reason for the parents to wait- the older teen could have been charged with the very same crime at 17. I’m wondering how a prosecutor is planning to prove anything unless one of them admitted to a sexual relationship. (most likely in the course of explaining that it was completely consensual)
It should be treated exactly the same as an opposite-sex couple of the same ages would be , but there's a reason Romeo and Juliet laws use a " x years difference in age" standard. 18 and 15 could be "just turned 18 and about to turn 16" , an age difference of about 2 years or it could be "just turned 15 and about to turn 19" ,a difference of nearly 4 years. All I can tell in this case is that they were 17 and 14 at the end of the summer and the older girl turned 18 in September , and the size of the age difference is probably going to influence how I think the law should deal with it.I’ll give my answer by way of an example. When my daughter was 15 she started dating an 18 year old guy with my knowledge and consent. I did tell him that if he tried anything before she was 16 I’d break both his legs.
After they broke up a few years later (so it was a fairly long relationship for young uns) I did ask her out of curiosity if they had waited til she turned 16. She replied that no they hadn’t. I didn’t push for any details, I was pretty happy that whatever had happened it was consensual and they stayed together for over 2 years so as far as I was concerned it was a non issue.
Gender shouldn’t make any difference in the matter.