|
Before George Rekers brought his rent boy to Europe to “carry his luggage,” “show him Jesus” and, according to the escort, rub his penis, there was Ted Haggard and Larry Craig. Amongst the ranks of LGBT people, there is a shockingly high number of secret homosexuals who work to undermine the progress of their own people, although none consider the LGBT community “their own people.”
This is not unique to gays. In 1965, Dan Burros, a virulent anti-Semite and member of the American Nazi Party, committed suicide after it was publicly revealed that he himself was Jewish. There does seem to be an inordinate number of these types in our community, mostly men but some women who, because of religion, money, power or all three, choose to attack gay people from their closets.
Two gay escorts unmasked a couple of them after realizing their clients were working against the gay community. Pastor Ted Haggard's “masseur” told ABC News, “I had to expose hypocrisy. He is in the position of influence of millions of followers and he's preaching against gay marriage.”
Exposed more recently is George Rekers, a married Baptist minister, professor and anti-gay “expert” witness. He hired an escort to travel with him to Europe and provide, according to the Miami New Times, nude “sexual” massages “down there.”
Only after the trip did the Rentboy.com escort learn of Rekers' years of anti-gay crusading. Since then the young man has told CNN he “feels sorry for him,” but that he also “wants Rekers to stop making anti-gay statements.”
During an emotional telephone conversation soon after the Miami New Times broke the story, Rekers told the distraught rent boy, “I've never picked a fight with them [gay people].” His history says otherwise.
Rekers advocates “that homosexuality be re-examined as a mental disorder” and compares gay couples seeking to adopt children to “households with an active terrorist.” Until he resigned over this scandal, Rekers was the most prominent board member of an organization that seeks to “cure” gay people, the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH).
Other examples of this type of behavioral disconnect include former Idaho Senator Larry Craig, who consistently voted against gay rights yet was arrested soliciting an undercover police officer in a Minneapolis airport men's room. As a Washington State senator, James West wanted to ban gay men and women from working in schools and day care centers, but admitted having relations with adult men after getting caught cruising Gay.com. In a 2005 article in The New York Times about closeted homosexuals who hurt other gays, Frank Rich wrote, “This is more than hypocrisy - it's pathology.”
To self-respecting gay people living in modern cultures in 2010, being gay is an intrinsic part of their humanity and make-up, like skin color or gender. But to Rekers, Craig, Haggard and too many others, their homosexual instinct is behavior that must be fought, but if indulged in at all, as infrequently and secretly as possible. A NARTH type once told me he was doing really well controlling his urges: “I've only 'acted out' twice this month.”
The Rekers affair has not only jeopardized his career as an anti-gay “authority,” but it has also tainted the political aspirations of Florida's homophobic attorney general.
In 2007 Florida's attorney general and Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill McCollum lobbied for Rekers to be hired as an “expert” witness to defend Florida's anti-gay adoption ban. Rekers received $120,000 of Florida taxpayer money for his services, despite a history of disastrous testimonies in other states.
When Rekers testified in Arizona in opposition to gay foster parents, the judge called his testimony “extremely suspect and of little, if any, assistance to the court.” The Arkansas Supreme Court called Rekers' testimony “pointless.”
Nevertheless, Bill McCollum's “strong” recommendation that the Department of Children and Families employ Rekers got him the job. Miami-Dade Judge Cindy Lederman had this to say of Rekers' court performance: “Dr. Rekers' beliefs are motivated by his strong ideological and theological convictions that are not consistent with science. Based on his testimony and demeanor at trial, the court cannot consider his testimony to be credible nor worthy of forming the basis of public policy.”
McCollum's nefarious mission was doomed from the start. As Mike Thomas explained in his Orlando Sentinel column, “It's almost impossible finding a credible mental-health expert who supports a blanket ban on gay adoption.”
While the vast majority of anti-gay activists are straight, particularly odious are the homosexuals who think they can reinforce their closet or be absolved of their mental or physical “sins” by castigating other gays.
Evan Hurst of TruthWinsOut.org puts it well: “George Rekers has spent his life, it seems, trying to kill off that which he despises most in himself by hurting others who share that characteristic and yet are not tormented by it.”
The energy and passion Rekers puts into his work has inflicted great pain on the LGBT community. But his aggressive, unbridled homophobia has failed to slay his most formidable foe, his own personal demons.
|
