The 20-year-old male escort hired to
accompany ex-gay leader George Rekers on a European vacation says Rekers
is gay, the Miami New Times reported.
Rekers, a Baptist minister and board
member of the National Association for Research & Therapy of
Homosexuality (NARTH), a group that believes gay men and lesbians can
– and should – alter their sexuality, has denied he participated
in “inappropriate behavior” with Lucien, the prostitute he hired
from gay escort website RentBoy.com. Rekers said he hired the escort
to “lift his luggage” during the 10-day trip the pair shared.
The Miami New Times broke the
story about Rekers' apparent hypocrisy on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Rekers denied the paper's
allegations, saying its authors had “cleverly gave false
impressions of inappropriate behavior” in a blog posting.
In a Facebook posting Rekers said that
he hired Lucien to “share the Good News of Jesus Christ” with
him.
“Contrary to false gossip, innuendo,
and slander about me, I do not in any way 'hate' homosexuals, but I
seek to lovingly share two types of messages to them, as I did with
the young man called 'Lucien' in the news story.”
The two messages, Rekers says in a
response to gay blogger Joe
My God, are: “It is possible to cease homosexual practices to
avoid the unacceptable health risks associated with that behavior”
and “the most important decision one can make is to establish a
relationship with God for all eternity by trusting in Jesus Christ's
sacrifice on the cross for the forgiveness of your sins, including
homosexual sins.”
But on Thursday, Times writers
Penn Bullock and Brandon K. Thorp returned with a new story after
interviewing Lucien, who told them that Rekers is gay.
“It's a situation where he's going
against homosexuality when he is a homosexual,” he said.
Lucien said he provided the 61-year-old
social conservative daily body rubs in the nude, adding that Rekers
liked having his anus rubbed by the younger man.
The story has prompted gay advocates to
ask for Rekers' resignation from the ex-gay group NARTH.
“Given the sordid and tawdry facts,
he should immediate step down from NARTH's board and apologize to the
LGBT community for his extreme hypocrisy and self-loathing,” said
Wayne Besen, executive director of Truth
Wins Out, a non-profit group that advocates against ex-gay
ministries.
“As of today, his entire body of work
on LGBT issues in rendered meaningless,” he added.