George Rekers Exposed! From Miami New Times Christian right leader George Rekers takes vacation with "rent boy" By Penn Bullock and Brandon K. Thorp Thursday, May 6 2010 The pictures on the Rentboy.com profile show a shirtless young man with delicate features, guileless eyes, and sun-kissed, hairless skin. The profile touts his "smooth, sweet, tight ass" and "perfectly built 8 inch cock (uncut)" and explains he is "sensual," "wild," and "up for anything" — as long you ask first. And as long as you pay. On April 13, the "rent boy" (whom we'll call Lucien) arrived at Miami International Airport on Iberian Airlines Flight 6123, after a ten-day, fully subsidized trip to Europe. He was soon followed out of customs by an old man with an atavistic mustache and a desperate blond comb-over, pushing an overburdened baggage cart. That man was George Alan Rekers, of North Miami — the callboy's client and, as it happens, one of America's most prominent anti-gay activists. Rekers, a Baptist minister who is a leading scholar for the Christian right, left the terminal with his gay escort, looking a bit discomfited when a picture of the two was snapped with a hot-pink digital camera. Reached by New Times before a trip to Bermuda, Rekers said he learned Lucien was a prostitute only midway through their vacation. "I had surgery," Rekers said, "and I can't lift luggage. That's why I hired him." (Medical problems didn't stop him from pushing the tottering baggage cart through MIA.) Yet Rekers wouldn't deny he met his slender, blond escort at Rentboy.com — which features homepage images of men in bondage and grainy videos of crotch-rubbing twinks — and Lucien confirmed it. At the small western Miami townhome he shares with a roommate, a nervous Lucien expressed surprise when we told him that Rekers denied knowing about his line of work from the beginning. "He should've been able to tell you that," he said, fidgeting and fixing his eyes on his knees. "But that's up to him." For decades, George Alan Rekers has been a general in the culture wars, though his work has often been behind the scenes. In 1983, he and James Dobson, America's best-known homophobe, formed the Family Research Council, a D.C.-based, rabidly Christian, and vehemently anti-gay lobbying group that has become a standard-bearer of the nation's extreme right wing. Its annual Values Summit is considered a litmus test for Republican presidential hopefuls, and Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter have spoken there. (The Family Research Council would not comment about Rekers's Euro-trip.) He has also influenced American government, serving in advisory roles with Congress, the White House, and the Department of Health and Human Services and testifying as a state's witness in favor of Florida's gay adoption ban. A former research fellow at Harvard University and a distinguished professor of neuropsychiatry at the University of South Carolina, Rekers has published papers and books by the hundreds, with titles like Who Am I? Lord and Growing Up Straight: What Families Should Know About Homosexuality. "While he keeps a low public profile, his fingerprints are on almost every anti-gay effort to demean and dehumanize LGBT people," says Wayne Besen, a gay rights advocate in New York City and the executive director of Truth Wins Out, which investigates the anti-gay movement. "His work is ubiquitously cited by lobby groups that work to deny equality to LGBT Americans. Rekers has caused a great deal of harm to gay and lesbian individuals." Rekers is a board member of the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), an organization that systematically attempts to turn gay people straight. And the Huffington Post recently singled out Rekers as a member of the American College of Pediatricians — an official-sounding outfit in Gainesville that purveys lurid, youth-directed literature accusing gays of en masse coprophilia. (In an email, the college's Lisa Hawkins wrote, "ACPeds feels privileged to have a scholar of Dr. Rekers' stature affiliated with our organization. I am sure you will find Prof. Rekers to be an immaculate clinician/scholar, and a warm human being.") Rekers lectures worldwide, from Europe to the Middle East, on teen sexuality. Yet during his ten-day sojourn with Lucien to London and Madrid, he had no lectures scheduled. Both men deny having sex on the trip, and emails exchanged between the two before their jaunt are cautiously worded. "I'd like to propose another trip to Rome, Italy, for a week or more," Rekers wrote in an email dated March 21 obtained by New Times. "This is so exciting to have a nice Travel Assistant and traveling companion! Wow! I'm so glad I met you." "I called and talked to the reservation guy in London and reserved a room with two twin beds," Rekers wrote on March 26. "Now that I'm packed, tomorrow I'll work on completing my income tax return," Rekers wrote two days later. "Not fun... But I'll just remind myself that the fun trip is coming soon." In his interview with New Times, Lucien didn't want to impugn his client, but he made it clear they met through Rentboy.com, which is the only website on which he advertises his services. Neither Google nor any other search engine picks up individual Rentboy.com profiles, any more than they pick up individual profiles on eHarmony or Match.com. You cannot just happen upon one. To arrive at Lucien's site, Rekers must have accepted Rentboy.com's terms of use, thereby acknowledging he was not offended by graphic sexual material. He then would have been transported to a front page covered with images of naked, tumescent men busily sodomizing each other. Then Rekers must have performed a search. Did he want a "rentboy," a "sugar daddy," or a "masseur"? In what country? And what city? If Rekers searched for a rent boy in Miami, he would have found approximately 80 likely candidates. He must have scrolled down the first page, past the shirtless bears and desperate ex-models, and on to page 2. There, at last, was Lucien. As a favor to Rekers, Lucien recently removed any wanton sexual descriptors from his Rentboy profile. Though he does admit Rekers "likes younger guys to hang out with," Lucien is protective of his erstwhile client. He describes Rekers primarily as a family man — one whose passion for oppressing homosexuals is dwarfed by his desire to help children. "You don't understand how much this guy honestly cares about taking care of kids," he says. Indeed, much of Rekers's activism over the past three decades — beginning with his 1983 book, Shaping Your Child's Sexual Identity — has been devoted to improving children's lives by educating them, protecting them from their own budding sexualities, and keeping them safe from gay adoptions — as he did by testifying as an expert witness in favor of gay adoption bans in both Arkansas and Florida. Well, it's a good thing Rekers isn't gay himself. Lucien tells us that Rekers frequently takes in foster children and that four years ago he adopted a 16-year-old boy. We found the boy, who is now Lucien's age, on Facebook. He declined to be interviewed.
Rekers seems to consider himself a psychiatrist of sorts, yet he obviously missed the memo about the american psychological and psychiatric associations declassifying homosexuality as a disorder. With 11 billion people reproducing exponentially, is it really a good idea to even ATTEMPT to change gay people straight? Especially in the western world, where 1 person such a large environmental weight. Great article shale. makes you wonder if the whole NARTH organisation is simply the product of repression.
Ya know, when I read shit like this I become even more juvenile and immature than usual. I laugh like a loon, role in the floor howling and babbling about wanting some rent boy to come carry my load. hoist my sack, grab my bag, handle my stuff. Oh my God! where do these guys come up with their lines. There ain't a stand up comedian in the world that could deliver such a dead-pan statement like that and keep a straight (did I say straight) face. This is exactly the kind of thing that renews my faith. My God is a lusty, rowdy old fart with a great sense of humor. My God wanders his creation and laughs his ass off at all the goofy creatures he's made. I know he's doubled over crackin up at georgie-porgie and and his luggage claim episode. This kinda stuff helps lower my blood pressure. Gotta go kids...gonna take a trip...gotta pack my bags...wanna come along?
What does fiddling with another guy have to do with gay rights? Whats the difference between this situation and a politician that fights to limit women rights caught with a young female call girl?
No difference at all. Hypocrisy is hypocrisy. We have stupid prostitution stings here on Biscayne Blvd. and in addition to the poor lonely men trying to rent some human contact, they catch everyone from politicians, cops and priests (Het priests??!! ). Glad to see those hypocrits exposed too.
I dont know, these kind of stories annoy me I mean, what the hell are they talking about here? This kind of sentence in particular gets interpreted by different groups different ways. To me its sounds like the rest of the article is "ha ha, got caught with a rentboy, he's "gay"" but then get to the bolded sentence, and its like "oh, but its alright he's not gay gay", whereas to others it just sounds like sarcasm. Whereas others who are going to assume this guy spent the 10 days just trying to talk the rentboy into another line of work, are just going to think the bolded statement sounds factual. Same kind of abstraction when it comes to people calling him hypocritical. A guy like this went on a 10 day trip with a gay rent boy, must have included sex right?....why exactly? And if he did use his mouth like a chinese finger puzzle, what does that have to do with the reasons he's against gay adoption? So you cant be against gay adoption if you ever stick your dick in another guys mouth? - Thats the way it sounds to me, and it sounds ridiculous But to me now labelling this Rekers guy as gay also sounds ridiculous, married for donkeys years, how ever many kids, unknown number of mistresses and or call girls, one trip with a rentboy and he gets the same label as I do??? Interesting how it works though, this guy goes on a trip with a rentboy, everyones going to assume its about sex, If I went on a trip with a callgirl everyone would assume its about shopping
Why wouldn't it be about sex? If he wanted a companion he could have found any number of young straight guys in his flock of Xtian believers...I mean, free vacation with a "leader" from the movement. When you go to Rentboy.com website there isn't a helluva lot of doubt what you're getting. As far as "one trip" it's the one known trip but who knows how many other trips there were. Bottom line is just what Shale said HYPOCRITE!!!
