Home ›

George Rekers

Printer-friendly version Send to friend

Liberty Counsel Willing To Stand With Rekers

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on May 13, 2010 - 9:45am

Last week, Family Research Council co-founder George Rekers was discovered returning from an overseas trip with a "rent boy."

Since then, FRC has issued a statement distancing itself from Rekers, saying it had had no contact with him in over a decade, he's resigned from the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality, been scrubbed from the University of South Carolina medical school's website, and announced that he is undergoing spiritual therapy so that he can "can more fully understand my weaknesses" ... all while threatening to sue anyone who says he is gay.

What kind of law firm would be willing to represet Rekers in such a suit, you ask?

The Jerry Falwell-founded kind, of course: 

A leading religious legal defense group said it is standing with George A. Rekers, the conservative expert on gay behavior who has seen his career implode amid media reports that he took a young gay travel companion to Europe with him.

Officials at the Liberty Counsel said Wednesday they would back Mr. Rekers if he followed through on his threat this week to sue media outlets and others for trying to discredit him.

"I think [Mr. Rekers] would have a great case to file a defamation action," said Mathew D. Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel said.

"I think it was a completely arranged setup," he said, referring to the presence of writers of the free weekly Miami New Times at Miami International Airport when Mr. Rekers and his hired travel companion arrived in the United States April 13.

I can't even say this is surprising, as Liberty Counsel easily ranks among the most viciously anti-gay organizations operating today. 

PFAW
Filed under:

FRC Founding Board Member Discovered Traveling With "Rent Boy"

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on May 4, 2010 - 1:08pm

In 1983, George Rekers joined James Dobson and a handful of others in founding the Family Research Council.

Last month, Rekers was reportedly discovered returning from an overseas trip with a "rent boy":

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." (Though medical problems didn't stop him from pushing the tottering baggage cart through MIA.)

...

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 politics, 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.

PFAW
Filed under:
Syndicate content