Reply #5: That wasn't what Janeane was talking about

[deadmessengers]

Many states have "Romeo and Juliet" laws providing for lighter penalties if, in a statutory rape situation, one party is only a year or 2 older than the other. That was the case here, where one boy had just turned 18, and the other was about to turn 16. Kansas' statute specifically exempted homosexual relations from this "Romeo and Juliet" provision under their law, so the older boy was sentenced under the regular guidelines, which sent him to prison for 17 years, as opposed to the 2.5 he would have been on the hook for if his partner was female. The Kansas Supreme Court (properly) deemed this a violation of the "equal protection" clause and thus unconstitutional, and that's what Janeane was talking about.