May 6th, 2010
When one is caught in scandal, there are a few responses that may possibly be effective in clearing your name or, at least, providing hope for a future recovery.
One can provide a clear, consistent, and immediate response that clarifies the situation and leaves no outstanding questions. One laugh off the accusations as being beyond ridiculous. Or one can plead the sinner, go through steps of redemption, and hope for a limited recovery.
If none of those are possible, you just shut up and become inaccessible until the whole thing blows over.
However, Dr. George Rekers is taking exactly the wrong approach. He is becoming defensive, providing inconsistent and implausible explanations, and never really addressing the questions that everyone is wondering.
And like a dog worrying a bone, Rekers just can’t stop. And the more he says, the worse it looks.
Now Dr. Rekers is threatening to sue the Miami New Times for printing a story in which his rentboy/travel assistant claims that Rekers is homosexual and received daily nude massages from him during the trip. This tactic seldom works. If you are as rich as Tom Cruise and can truly ruin someone’s life, you can sue. If you are pure as the driven snow and have no secrets that you want revealed in court, you can sue.
But Rekers is going to do nothing but provide free publicity to the Miami New Times by suing them for informing their readers what their source is claiming.
And to make matters worse, Rekers is trying to diffuse reflection on his own sexual desires by listing four questions upon which he and Lucian reached agreement: (Washington Post)
1. Did Dr. Rekers in fact hire you to lift my luggage when necessary as a travel assistant during the trip, because I cannot do so myself since I had surgery?
Together we agreed that I in fact hired him to lift luggage when necessary as a travel assistant during the trip, because I cannot do so himself since having surgery. We agreed that this is what my travel assistant agreed to do for pay prior to taking the trip.2. Did you in fact lift my luggage during the trip each time it was necessary, or did Dr Rekers lift his own luggage during the trip?
We agreed that my travel assistant did in fact lift my luggage each time it was necessary, that I did not lift my luggage, and my travel assistant did all the lifting.3. Did Dr. Rekers hire you as a prostitute for the trip?
We agreed that I hired him as a companion and to help with luggage, and that I did not hire him as a prostitute for any sexual purpose.4. Did Dr. Rekers spend time explaining how the Christian faith is based in love to you during the trip?
We agreed that I explained the Christian faith to my travel assistant in conversations on several days during the trip.
But those questions and answers will satisfy no one. Because nobody – no one at all – cares whether Rekers preached to Lucian. And everyone assumes that Lucian probably did assist Rekers in lifting luggage and was a charming companion.
Because ultimately, it doesn’t matter whether Lucian was hired to “lift luggage” or hired as a prostitute, if he was providing daily nude massages. Rekers could provide a notarized copy of a Travel Assistant Application and a contract for the number of pieces of luggage lifted, in triplicate, and it still would not explain just how an elderly anti-gay activist came to be naked in a European hotel with a very young rentboy.
The real questions that need to be answered are:
1. Did Dr. Rekers and Lucian meet through RentBoy.com? If not, then how? It is not likely that an older white retired anti-gay psychology professor and a 20 year-old Puerto Rican gay prostitute run in the same social circles.
2. What were the qualities that made Lucian an ideal “companion” for a ten day trip? Considering the considerable difference in age, background, education, and interests, what did Lucian have other than his physical attributes which made Rekers desire his companionship?
3. Are the details about daily nude massages true? Had Dr. Rekers paid for massage services before from Lucian? Had he purchased any other services from him in the past? Had he rented anyone else from RentBoy.com or other such sites?
4. How, exactly, does Dr. Rekers reconcile his claim that he is not homosexual with his behavior on this trip?
Until Dr. Rekers can answer these questions in a way that alleviates all suspicion – which, at this point, seems unlikely – then he does himself no favors by his continued protestations about luggage.
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Derrick
May 6th, 2010
Well said, Tim. The only “answer” to even come close to the real issue is the following:
“We agreed that I hired him as a companion and to help with luggage, and that I did not hire him as a prostitute for any sexual purpose.”
But no escort is ever hired “as a prostitute for any sexual purpose”. That would be illegal. Any professional escort and any moderately well educated client would make clear between themselves that the escort is only being paid for time and companionship. If anything sexual should happen, well, that’s just the luck of the draw and not part of the services for which payment is made.
So this “answer” appears to be nothing more than an evasion. Why didn’t Geo agree to a very clear and direct joint statement that there was no physical contact with genitalia or rear end at any time, nor was there any in-hotel nudity lasting more than one minute?
Quo
May 6th, 2010
The prostitute Rekers apparently hired isn’t in a position to say that his client is a “homosexual” since that implies that Rekers couldn’t possibly have any heterosexual feelings. Rekers could perfectly well be bisexual.
NB, it’s “Lucien”, not “Lucian”, to judge from the Miami New Times story.
Paul in Canada
May 6th, 2010
For me, the real and only question is this: How does a highly educated, self-proclaimed evangelical christian, who’s faith is based on the precepts of righteousness, purity and a life lived in holiness, not hire, amongst his circle of same evangelical christians, a travel assistant that is anything but remotely connected to, in actuality or by perception, the gay community/ sex trade he so ‘preaches’ against?
Wildly mind-numbing!
There is absolutely nothing grey about this situation – here is a closeted, self-loathing fraud who has wasted his life building a ‘reality’ to assist in deceiving, ultimately, only himself. God (and his family and friends) have mercy on his wretched soul.
Samuel
May 6th, 2010
Dr. Rekers, do you believe that honestly believe that young men can best be instructed in the what sex acts to avoid by personal demonstrations of anal and penile play? This is more bizarre than that other ex-gay guy who hit a pillow with a tennis racket screaming “Mommy!”
Samuel
May 6th, 2010
The white elephant in the room is: Did Rekers similarly engage in nude ‘medical’ massages with his son of the same age as the gay prostitute?
TampaZeke
May 6th, 2010
The ONLY difference between Rekers and other anti/”ex”-gays like Alan Chambers, Tony Perkins, Peter LaBarbara, et al, is Rekers got CAUGHT and the other haven’t YET.
Maurice Lacunza
May 6th, 2010
I did not lift that luggage that needed lifting. That luggage was lifted when luggage needing lifting was lifted by the luggage lifter. I did not lift that luggage when that luggage needed lifting. Lifting luggage is not for me, you see, when a luggage lifter lifts luggage for me.
(Green Luggage with Hands)
W B W J R ?
tulips
May 6th, 2010
I just felt nauseated when I learned that Rekers was coauthor of the infamous article written by a Jeb Bush Florida Health & Human Services appointee called ‘The Christian World View of the Family,’ “which bears the names of Regier and a University of South Carolina professor named George Rekers. The essay condones ‘biblical spanking’ that can cause bruises or welts” to the child. I’m straight and I wouldn’t hesitate for a second to choose a loving gay couple to adopt a child of mine that I couldn’t care for over any of the hateful anti-gay child-beating advocates and so-called Christians like Rekers, Dobson, Perkins, and their ignorant followers. Oh, and I wasn’t at all surprised to learn that Rekers “Christian world view” article also urges that women stay at home & out of the workplace. I suppose if you’re Rekers keeping your wife at home would facilitate your freedom to spend time with young “traveling companions”.
Lynn David
May 7th, 2010
More… though I cannot see that it means much…..
http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2010/05/things_rekers_said_to_lucien_w.php
Poor judgement is the least of what Rekers has exhibited. However, that is sufficient in that his days in the political arenas and those court appearances against us are over.
Richard Rush
May 7th, 2010
Considering that Rekers appears desperate, I can’t help wondering if he is seeking to pay Lucien to make specified statements or to buy his silence.
hb
May 15th, 2010
His judgment is bad, and his grammar is worse. That man has a college education? To me, it just indicates how desperate he feels, though I can not feel sorry for him.
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