Baptist Minister Rents Trouble [1]
Submitted by Anne Landman [2] on
George Rekers [3], a Baptist minister who along with James Dobson [4] co-founded the powerful Christian lobbying group Family Research Council [5], was spotted arriving at Miami International Airport with a companion he hired from a gay escort Web site called RentBoy.com [6]. Dr. Rekers said he hired the prostitute as a travel assistant for a trip to Europe after having had surgery. "I can't lift luggage. That's why I hired him," Rekers said. Photographs of the two emerging from the airport, though, show Rekers pushing both their suitcases on a luggage cart. Rekers said he realized the man was a prostitute half way through his ten day vacation. Rekers sits on the board of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality [7], an organization dedicated to changing the sexuality of gays and lesbians, and has authored books that describe homosexuality as a curable condition. Dr. Rekers has testified in Florida and Arkansas as an expert witness in favor of bans on gay adoption. His companion was identified as a 20 year-old Puerto Rican man whose description on RentBoy.com says he is "sensual," "wild" and "up for anything." He then lists “vanilla, leather ... shaving [and] spanking” among his fetishes and stripping and go-go dancing among his talents. After reports of his trip with a male prostitute surfaced, all information about Dr. Rekers disappeared from the Family Research Council's Web site.