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George A. Rekers Resigns from NARTH Board after RentBoy scandal

by Susan Marie Kovalinsky | May 14, 2010 at 08:49 am

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Dr. George Alan Rekers has resigned from his position as sitting board member of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH), following allegations that he received erotic massages from a male prostitute.

Rekers, an anti-gay activist for decades, took a 10 day European vacation with a male escort he met on the gay site, Rent Boy.com.

20 year old Jo-Vanni Roman (called in his work, “Lucien”) is a gay escort who says they met through the explicit website Rentboy.com.

Rekers denied the accusations, claiming he he hired Roman to help carry his luggage while he recovered from surgery. He said he only found out Roman was an escort partway through the trip, and tried as a Christian minister to turn the youth from homosexuality.

NARTH's Response to the media scandal:

In response to the media scandal, begun by the Miami New Times, and later picked up by the Miami Herald, FOX, CNN, MSNBC, The Rachel Maddow Show, Anderson Cooper, and many others, NARTH has posted the following on their official website:

"I am immediately resigning my membership in NARTH to allow myself the time necessary to fight the false media reports that have been made against me. With the assistance of a defamation attorney, I will fight these false reports because I have not engaged in any homosexual behavior whatsoever. I am not gay and never have been." --George A. Rekers, Ph.D.
NARTH has accepted Dr. Rekers' resignation and would hope that the legal process will sufficiently clarify the questions that have arisen in this unfortunate situation. We express our sincere sympathy to all individuals, regardless of their perspective, who have been injured by these events. We also wish to reiterate our traditional position that these personal controversies do not change the scientific data, nor do they detract from the important work of NARTH. NARTH continues to support scientific research, and to value client autonomy, client self-determination and client diversity.

Gays offended

Many gay advocacy groups are offended by Reker's hypocrisy, because they feel he was not just a closeted gay, but one who was working openly on behalf of anti-gay groups, research, and legislation.

It was reported that the state of Florida paid Rekers some 60 thousand dollars to testify as an expert witness on behalf of the state's ban on gay adoption. He was co-founder of the conservative and anti-gay Family Research Council, and sat on the board of NARTH.

His allegations of slander added insult to injury, and his treats to sue the Miami New Times were seen by many to be further signs of his hypocrisy:

The issue here is that Rekers has helped destroy the health and well-being of vulnerable lesbians and gays with “pray away the gay” therapy while he can’t keep away form the very thing he rails against. The Shakespearian idiom—methinks he does protest too much—fits the bill here like a hand in a glove.