Recent disclosures about how Religious Right leader Rev. Dr. George Rekers hired a rent boy to accompany him on a trip to Europe continues to send shock waves through the Religious Right and conservative politics.
National media coverage continues; the scandal is becoming an issue in the Florida gubernatorial race; Rekers' professional associations are distancing themselves from him, and if that was not enough, another rent boy has emerged claiming to have had Rekers as a client. For the record, Rekers insists that he is "not gay" and that he has done nothing inappropriate. On his web site he writes:
"Professor Rekers was not involved in any illegal or sexual behavior with his travel assistant."
Here are the main developments:
-- Rent boy "Lucien" was interviewed by CNN on Friday. He described part of his service to Rekers as providing "sexual massages" and provided a copy of the signed contract that provided for daily massages on the trip. The CNN revelations were picked up on by The Miami Herald which noted that Rekers has also been the "butt of jokes by Jay Leno, Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart."
-- The Family Research Council is distancing itself from Rekers, claiming in a press release that they had to review "the historical records" to find that he was on the original board; and that they have not had any contact with him in a decade. In fact, at least according to Rekers, he was with James Dobson, the co-founder and original CEO and board chairman.
-- The anti-gay National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) of which Rekers is an officer, declared on its web site:
NARTH takes seriously the accusations that have been made, and we are currently attempting to understand the details behind these press reports.
-- These distancings follow the University of South Carolina, where Rekers has been a professor of neurophychiatry - scrubbing him from their web site. According to Rekers' Curriculum Vitae, he is a "Distinguished Professor of Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Science Emeritus 2006-present" after having taught at the university since 1985.
-- Florida Attorney General and current GOP Gubernatorial Candidate Bill McCollumn is ducking questions about hiring Rekers as an expert witness to defend the state in a lawsuit against a ban on gay adoptions. The judge found Rekers' testimony to be "not credible" as well as being ideologically and theologically driven and inconsistent with the relevant science. The judge ruled that the law is unconstitutional. McCollumn is appealing the ruling.
-- Rekers' expensive (media reports range from $60,000 to $120,000) Florida testimony is now also being further scrutinized. The Miami NBC News affiliate published part of the transcript in which Rekers states that in addition to gay people, he would exclude Native Americans as a whole class from adopting children, primarily because of a high rate of alcohol abuse. He would exclude prospective Native American adoptive parents whether or not individuals are even drinkers
"...because it would be not only them, they would tend to hang around each other. So the children would be around a lot of other Native-Americans, who are doing the same sorts of things, you know."
-- The the web site Gawker reports that another male prostitute (and former porn star) claims to have had a similar experience with Rekers at the Hyatt Regency at Chicago's O'Hare Airport in 1992. Rekers emailed Gawker to say only:
"Professor George Rekers has never been to the Hyatt Regency Hotel at O'Hare Airport in Chicago."
[Crossposted from Talk to Action]