(RNS) A former Family Research Council board member has resigned from an organization that helps people deal with unwanted same-sex attractions, after reports that he hired a gay escort.
While planning a trip through Europe last month (April), George Rekers hired a gay prostitute who advertises on the website Rentboy.com, according to a report in the Miami New Times. The escort, Jo-vanni Roman, 20, told the New Times he was paid to give Rekers nude massages.
Rekers has written books on child sexual identity and had been a prominent member of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH).
Rekers announced his resignation from NARTH on May 11,”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.”
Family Research Council President Tony Perkins wrote in a newsletter that Rekers was on the original board of his conservative Christian organization but had not been connected with it for more than a decade.
Perkins wrote on May 5, after the reports emerged, that while, “it’s extremely disappointing when any Christian leader engages in the very activities that they `preach’ against, it’s not surprising.”
Rekers, who is not granting interviews, told the Miami newspaper that his traveling companion helped him with luggage he could not lift after having surgery.
— Adelle M. Banks
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