A Christian leader and prominent neuro-psychiatrist who co-founded the notoriously anti-gay Family Research Council with evangelist James Dobson, took a ten-day European vacation with a callboy he met through RentBoy.com, reports Miami’s New Times.
The escort said he met George Rekers, professor of Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Science at the University of South Carolina, on RentBoy.com.
According to the article, the escort (identified only as “Lucien”) arrived at Miami International Airport after a 10-day trip to Europe on April 13. Moments later, Rekers followed him off the plane.
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Rekers later told the paper he only learned his companion was an escort midway through the trip. “I had surgery,” Rekers said, “and I can’t lift luggage. That’s why I hired him.”
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.
Rekers, a Baptist minister, is considered one of the most prominent anti-gay activists in the U.S., and a board member of the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), an organization that systematically attempts to turn gay people straight.
He frequently testifies for the Christian right in court cases involving gay rights. Rekers was an “expert” witness for the Christian right in a 2008 case defending Florida’s ban on gay adoption and in a 2004 case in Arkansas, also on the same issue.
By Tuesday evening, Family Research Council had removed Rekers’ name from its website.
