An 18-year-old Florida gay cheerleader is facing felony charges that she had sexual contact with her underage, 14-year-old girlfriend. The case against gay cheerleader Kaitlyn Hunt is unusual because it involves two females.  Leading gay rights advocates say the teen is being unfairly targeted for a common high school romance because she's gay.

The two gay high school students had a consenting relationship that began soon after Kaitlyn Hunt turned 18. The cheerleader's mother said she assumed the younger girl's parents knew about their relationship.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Florida believes Kaitlyn is only being prosecuted because she's gay. They say Kaitlyn Hunt is being criminalized for behavior that "occurs every day in tens of thousands of high schools across the country, yet those other students are not facing felony convictions ... and potential lifelong branding as sex offenders."

Advocates say older high schoolers dating their younger counterparts is an normal, everyday occurrence that is not prosecuted, regardless of sexual orientation, and not a crime on par with predatory sex offenses.

"Kaitlyn played on the basketball team with her younger girlfriend and shared the same circle of friends," said Hunt's mother, Kelley Hunt Smith.

But Hunt was kicked off the basketball team near the end of last year after the coach learned of the relationship because players were not allowed to date each other, her parents said.

Then, in February, she was charged with lewd and lascivious battery on a child 12 to 16. The day before she was arrested, police and the younger girl's parents secretly recorded a phone conversation in which the two girls discussed kissing in the school bathroom, said Hunt's father, Steve Hunt.

"It's horrible. For my daughter's sexual preferences, she's getting two felony charges. It could possibly ruin her future. She is scared," Steve Hunt told The Associated Press in a phone interview Tuesday.

The family has received support from all over the world, with messages coming from as far away as New Zealand, the Netherlands and Canada, Steve Hunt said. He said he reads them to her to keep her spirits up, but she feels like she has let everyone down, he said through tears.

A "Free Kate" Facebook page has generated more than 30,000 followers so far, and an online petition urging that the charges be dropped crashed at one point because it got so much traffic. It now has more than 100,000 signatures. And during a press conference Monday, dozens of supporters showed up outside of the Indian River Sheriff's Department, many wearing T-Shirts that read "Stop the Hate, Free Kate" with rainbow hearts.

Prosecutors have offered a plea deal to Kaitlyn Hunt that would allow her to avoid registering as a sex offender if she pleads guilty to lesser charges of child abuse. Kaitlyn would do two years of house arrest followed by one-year probation if she takes the deal.  The Hunt family said they would accept a plea deal only if the charges are dropped to a misdemeanor.

Although there has been an outpouring of support for Kaitlyn, the gay cheerleader has also been demonized. Her 17-year-old sister spent a half-hour cleaning a mirror where someone had written a slur against women and other words including "rapist" and "disgusting."

Plus, the school board expelled her even though a judge ruled she could stay. Hunt has been attending an alternative school since her expulsion.

Do you think Kaitlyn was wrongfully charged because she's gay? Or is the law just protecting younger counterparts for being less aggressive in relationships?