This past week brought us news that the squalid Kaitlyn Hunt saga is spiraling down to its inevitable conclusion, with Ms. Hunt, on whose trim little shoulders rode the hopes of the entire LGBT world, finally accepting a plea deal involving jail time, home detention, and probation.

Kaitlyn Hunt attracted attention earlier this year on the occasion of her arrest for sexual involvement with an underage child, a fourteen-year-old schoolmate. Hunt was eighteen at the time the relationship began, leaving her liable to statutory rape and molestation charges with the possibility of lengthy prison terms.

Because this was a Juliet and Juliet affair, the U.S. gay community landed on it like an escadrille of multicolored butterflies. Abolishment of age-of-consent laws has been a long-term goal of the gay rights movement -- sought far longer than same-sex marriage - and the Hunt case presented a perfect opportunity to strike a major blow against the existing legal structure. The case occurred in Florida, a state that trends toward the grotesque in legal matters, and Kaitlyn Hunt was a perfect subject for gay PR. No redneck lesbian or tattooed urban ag she -- Hunt is a sweet, feminine little creature with a fine dress sense and the cutest smile since Anne Hathaway. No more appealing example of LGBT girlhood could be imagined. (At least until you got a look at the publicity photos her supporters sent out and realized that Hunt has the same expression on her face in every last one, no matter who she's with or what the circumstances. By the time you finish, it's easy to believe that she'd have that same wide-eyed whimsical look if she was being chased by giant ants.)

The gay publicity machine, with the cooperation of the legacy media (if there's any difference these days) opened up with the standard attacks on society at large, the state of Florida, the legal system, and in particular, the younger girl's parents, who were depicted as Bible-thumping fanatics standing in the way of young love solely because it involved two girls. (Videos of the girl's parents, though truncated and cleverly edited, reveal anything but. Instead we see a level-headed couple anxious to protect their daughter, obviously a biracial child suffering the special strains and insecurities inevitable with such a legacy.)

As the case progressed, Hunt was offered two separate plea deals, neither of which involved jail time and both featuring short periods of home detention followed by probation. They were rejected without explanation, very likely because neither fit the current objectives of the gay-rights movement.

Then in late summer it was discovered that Hunt, against explicit court orders, had reassumed contact with the younger girl. They had met several times and exchanged over 20,000 phone messages, a number that suggests not romantic infatuation but obsessive-compulsive disorder. Some messages implied that the two were involved in a dom/sub relationship, with the younger girl suffering some form of abuse. (This revelation would send any parent into a state of eruption. The young girl's parents truly deserve to be complimented for their patience and trust in the judicial system -- no small leap of faith in a state like Florida.)

Finally, with Kaitlyn Hunt facing immediate court proceedings and a substantial sentence, a plea deal was worked out and accepted on October 3. It was by no means as mild as the previous offers. Hunt is to spend four months in jail (probably in county, less brutal than a state prison), and two years under house arrest, presumably with a tracking bracelet, with another two years on probation. (These last penalties presumably added to keep Hunt away from the younger girl in hopes that she might have a normal adolescence.)

This is a reasonable sentence, offering a firm rebuke to Hunt for her repeated defiance of the law while not necessarily wrecking her life. Just as important, it derails the current gay anti-age of consent campaign. In truth, much of the approving news coverage evaporated once Hunt's value as a poster girl for child sex was destroyed by her own misbehavior. The gay struggle against current protections regarding children will have to start several steps back from where it was before the Hunt case began. So we've got an all-around win: a young girl is rescued, the legal system has been redeemed, and even Kaitlyn, willful and arrogant as she has shown herself to be, gets another chance.

The sole question remaining is: where was the conservative media when all this was going on? Few of the accustomed outlets have mentioned the case even in passing. This recalls similar squeamishness and unwillingness to engage evident during the gay marriage battle. It's something that will have to be examined in more detail. You can't win anything unless you're willing to fight for it.