While researching sodomy laws for my post in livius'
On Chicken Fucking thread, I stumbled across
this disturbing article about a teenager getting a massive prison sentence for performing oral sex on a younger teen.
Quote:
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In February of 2000, Limon and another male teenager were both students at the same residential school for developmentally disabled youth in Miami County, Kansas. A week after Limon’s 18th birthday, he performed consensual oral sex on the other teenager, who was nearly 15 years old - three years, one month and a few days younger. Because Kansas’s so-called "Romeo and Juliet" law gives much lighter sentences to heterosexual teenagers who have sex with younger teens but specifically excludes gay teenagers, Limon was sentenced to 17 years in prison. A heterosexual teenager with the same record would serve no longer than 15 months for the same offense.
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Apparently one of the Court's arguments for the harsher sentence was that young teens are impressionable and therefore might be "turned gay" by such an incident.
Quote:
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In one brief, the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) and its Kansas chapter debunked the state’s claims that the length of Limon’s sentence is justified because young people who engage in same-sex intimacy are so impressionable that they may be swayed into becoming gay. The NASW pointed to social science evidence that same-sex attractions surface much earlier in life - well before puberty - and that one gay sexual experience can’t make someone "turn" gay.
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I just can't believe any sane person would think it makes sense to send an 18 yr. old kid to prison for a day - much less 17 years - for such a thing.
