Georgia Woman Faces Eviction Because Of Decade-Old Sex Act

alan.com:

Wendy Whitaker had consensual oral sex with her boyfriend when she was 17 and he was three weeks shy of his 16th birthday. She was convicted of sodomy in 1997 as a result, had to register as a sex offender for life, and can't live within 1000 feet of schools or churches.

The Southern Center for Human Rights in Atlanta has filed a suit on her behalf to overturn parts of Georgia's sex offender registry law, and she has just filed another suit to stop the state from evicting her from her home. She won't be able to afford both a mortgage and a rent on a new home, so she would have to face foreclosure if she is forced from her house.

Read the whole story: alan.com

Comments

[4akinderworld]

In Indiana, the age of consent is 16. When my boys were that age, I kind of wished it was older.

[johnqsittinzen]

She could've been a homeowner, but she blew it.

[indypete]

Get off the stage!

[johnqsittinzen]

Was that too hard to swallow?

[BBackSoon]

You know as a senior I had a freshman girlfriend. So I was 17 or 18 and she was 14 or 15. It’s scary to think that kids could go to jail for that now days.

[johnqsittinzen]

You can't go to jail for just having an underage girlfriend. But if you were having sex with her, you most definitely could have gone to jail - in those days as well. Consider yourself lucky.

[GEAH]

What's the matter? All the girls your age tell you to take a hike, so you had to hit on a 14-year-old?

[BBackSoon]

Wow nice response. At the time it didn’t seem like that big of a deal. Sorry if I have offended you by my irresponsible youth.

Maybe you could teach me from your perfect existence.

[Destin]

Look at Loretta Lynn, married and making babies since the age of 13 wasn't she? Jerry Lee Lewis married his 13 year old cousin. One of my grandma's was in her early teens and making babies while married. My own mom married and divorced with 2 kids by the time she was 19.

I find it interesting in the old days of the old south, they were much more liberal about courting age. I wonder why they have made this sudden puritan change within the last 10 years? And yes, these are all relatively new laws that are on the books. And it's been less than 15 years since Georgia changed the age of consent law from 14 to 16. That was exposed during a little known trial in which a 30-something man was put on trial for statutory rape for having sex with his 14 year old niece. Niece testified and said it was all consensual. Man was set free, but the law was changed shortly after to 16.

[johnqsittinzen]

It's still the same ole south; he's black, she's white, somebody's got to be punished.

[Destin]

That would not surprise me at all. And I know some stories about that. Like my dad showing me ruins, that are there to this day, of a house that was burned down back in the late 50's. Turned out a farmer's daughter fell in love with a foreign doctor who was from India and went to work in the rural area where my dad was living at the time in south Georgia. Back then, if your skin was non-white, they'd consider you black, even Asians. Anyways, farmer got mad, disowned his daughter, she married the foreign doctor, a couple months later he torches their home killing them both. And he got away with it. The so-called "southern justice" was alive and well back then. While that is appalling, I still can't get over how someone could do that to their own daughter. And tho I'm only mid 40's, I've even seen a lot in my life here in Georgia. I can remember being in my teens when the Klan came through town one weekend and held a big rally and burned a cross at the local Baptist Church, apparently with permission of the Church.

Anyways, times are changing, but outside the cities like Atlanta, changes are real slow!! Most of the states still thinks it's the 1960's still.

[postman606]

The black kid in the picture is not her boyfriend, but Genarlo Wilson, who was convicted of a similar, unrelated crime.

[MajorKong]

I myself never had sex as a teenager. This was, however, due to lack of opportunity and not any particular virtue on my part.

[indypete]

Welcome to the club!

[BBackSoon]

You made me shoot coffee out my nose!

[postman606]

I'm sure you had sex, if it was just with an appendage.

[leeman79]

Is...is that banjo I hear?

[LittlePurpleUSA]

Each state should really have Romeo & Juliet laws. It's ridiculous. Man, now that I think about it I could have gone to jail for having sex with my then 16 year old girlfriend when I was 17. That's scary. And the fact that every state is different is just ridiculous. An 18 year old can have sex with a 17 year old in NY and it's perfectly legal, but if they're in California it's not. Florida? Nope, illegal. It's all just so silly.

http://littlepurpleusa.blogspot.com

[SinisterK9]

Why should all the states be exactly the same? Isn't that part of being in America? Letting states govern themselves to a certain extent?

[indypete]

What if a state decides to legalise murder?

[LittlePurpleUSA]

"Why should all the states be exactly the same?"

I never stated that they should. I'm just pointing out the lunacy of it.

http://littlepurpleusa.blogspot.com

[Takae]

Well, I hope not because Juliet was 13 and Romeo 15 or 16. :P

[Blue in NH]

If I had been blown when I was three months shy of being 16 I'd have thought I died and gone to heaven. So who blew the whistle on this woman anyway?

[TheBlackCat]

that's the question!

[DevRock]

Only in America.....And Saudia Arabia.

[indypete]

Peggy seems to have given up.... What a shame!

Come back , peggy.... the pinata game isn't over yet!

[spiderbucket]

She had to go take care of her dirty desires after becoming all flushed with the thought of such naughty talk. In the closet of course where all good people go to hide their perversions.

[jimmydanol]

I think my case was even worse. I was the public defender and attorney of the following teenager. From Orlando Sentinel (6/10/05) (btw, I really wish blogs were popular back then as I was unsuccessful at attracting national media coverage):

A Mexican teenager who was charged as an adult for having consensual sex with a 14-year-old girlfriend was sentenced Thursday to the 13 months he has already spent in the Highlands County Jail awaiting trial.

It's unlikely, however, that Oscar Perez Gomez, who according to his birth certificate was 15 at the time of his arrest, will taste the freedom he says he longs for. Immigration officials have placed a hold on Perez and likely will deport him to his native Mexico after a hearing before an immigration judge.

He'll also leave jail with the stigma of being a sex offender.

[Egalitare]

How long before we arrest elementary school-aged kids for playing 'Doctor" and designate them as "sex offenders"?

[adey]

I think it's aready happened. No joke.

[popartusa]

Is Georgia really part of the United States? Someone needs to shake those people by the nape of the neck until they see a need to join the twenty first century. Lighten up Georgia...remember those rules.."do unto others etc.} ...} love they neighbor..." you do remember Jesus, dont you, well those were not just suggestions you know.

[Durango]

I didn't read that closely.

Maybe they are talking about eh Georgia in the Caucasus region.

But I don't want to insult an entire country if that isn't the case.

[SinisterK9]

The book also says don't have sex outside of marriage, and further says to obey the laws of man so long as they do not conflict with the laws of God. Your logic (or lack thereof) goes both ways. It supports them as much as you.

I love when people pick and choose certain passages in the Bible to use against one another.

[indypete]

The false Christians of the religious right are experts at picking and choosing from the Bible.

[Durango]

But, But, But . . .

I am not a Christian.

Am I obligated to follow their religious beliefs?

See that is why we have Separation of Church and State.

So i don't have to follow any of your silly rules.

[TheBlackCat]

Though I did not lose my technical virginity until I was a legal adult, I did engage in "non traditional" sexual activities when I had just turned 16 and my boyfriend was 19. Now it is over a decade later.

It's just preposterous that some are thinking that a girlfriend who was less than TWO YEARS older than him was so much more mature that she is completely responsible and "took advantage" of him. A 17 year old is just as stupid as a kid who is turning 16 in three weeks. There is no discernable difference in mental capacity when we are talking about a year and a half age difference.

I honestly do regret any sexual experimentation I did as a teen. But no one took advantage of me. I hold no ill will against the 19 year old I first experimented with. If my parents had taken legal action against him, I would have testified in his defense, and would never have spoken to my parents again.

[TheBlackCat]

Interesting little tid bit I wanted to add to the conversation...

I live in Massachusetts, and we have many older Puritanical laws still on the books that are no longer prosecuted. Of course, so long as something remains illegal on the books, there is always the possibility that an overzealous law enforcement official could actually enforce such laws. Anti sodomy laws make any form of non traditional intercourse illegal in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

So, legally speaking, in Massachusetts homosexuals are allowed to marry, but they are not allowed to consumate their marriage.

[ObamAtomic]

Pegglegy you stated , I QUOTE,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

*I am a member of The Heritage Foundaton and I put my family, my god and my country above everything else*.

YOU OMIT ONE IMPORTANT FACT, THE CONSTITUTION. GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT !

[MajorKong]

The Almighty might be a bit peeved that she put her family before him.

[LiberalChrisFromEurope]

Oh, she confessed that she is a member of the Heritage Foundation? My precious time ...

[TheBlackCat]

Oh come on Chris, no one cares what YOU have to say, according to Peggy. You're a EUROPEAN. Everyone knows you guys are nothing but a bunch of God hating communists who eat puppies.