Florida AG Paid $60,000 to Anti-Gay Activist Who Hired Male Prostitute

Controversial anti-gay activist Dr. George Rekers, who is now embroiled
in his own gay controversy after admitting to hiring a gay male
prostitute to carry his bags on a European trip, was paid by a team of
lawyers headed by Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum in a court case
defending Florida’s ban on gays adopting children.

Florida is the only state that bans all gays and lesbians from adopting
children, though the ACLU is attempting to overturn the law.

Attorneys for McCollum paid Rekers at least $60,900 and perhaps as much
as $87,000 for expert testimony in the appeal of the case. But in his
testimony, Rekers claimed gays make inferior and even dangerous parents
and that adopted kids living in gay households, even after 10 years,
would be better off removed from the home and placed with straight parents.

Here are some excerpts from that cross-examination by ACLU of New York's
James Esseks with Rekers on the stand:

Q. You have been retained as an expert witness for the State, correct?

A. Yes.

Q. Before agreeing to be retained by the State, you insisted on getting
a retainer, an advance payment from the state. Is that correct?

A. Yes.

Q. What was the amount of that advance payment?

A. $60,900.

Q. Do you intend to bill the State for more funds, in addition to that
amount?

A. Perhaps.

The Court: Was it 16 or 60?

Ms. Bass: $60,900.

The Witness: Right, yeah, based on $300 an hour.

A source in the Department of Children and Family Services said Rekers’
compensation went up to $87,000.

Here is part of what the state got for all that money:

Q. Well, Dr. Rekers, earlier you testified that Native-Americans have a
higher rate of alcohol abuse than the general population does, right?

A. Yes.

Q. It’s a very significantly elevated rate of alcohol abuse, I mean
compared to the general population?

A. Yes.

Q. So if Native-Americans have significantly higher rates of alcohol
abuse, and if they also have significantly higher rates of psychiatric
disorders, and if they also have higher rates of relationship
instability, is that enough for you to say that all of a sudden they
should be categorically excluded?

The Court: I think you can add violence to that, as well.

The Witness: Yeah, violence, yeah.

Q. And violence, as well.

A. Yeah, if it turned out that a majority of the individuals in the
Native-American population, that a majority of them were high risk for
one of these things happening, as a lifetime prevalence, there could be
a parallel rationale for excluding them, as adoptive parents, because it
would be not only them, they would tend to hang around each other. So
the children would be around a lot of other Native-Americans, who are
doing the same sorts of things, you know.
So it would be a high risk, and, in fact, since you can’t perfectly
predict human behavior, the best you can do and the best the State can
do is to look at risk levels, and if a particular kind of household
poses multiple high risks for condition that would be detrimental for
children, then that would be a rationale for excluding that group.


Miami-Dade County Judge Cindy Lederman later dismissed Rekers’ testimony
calling it “far from neutral and unbiased.” She said “Dr. Rekers’
beliefs are motivated by his strong ideological and theological
convictions” and so Lederman could “not consider his testimony to be
credible nor worthy of forming the basis of public policy.”

The ACLU, which is representing gay adoptive father Martin Gill, was
stunned to hear Rekers’ paid expert testimony. Spokesman Brandon Hensler
admitted to being amused by Rekers’ current gay prostitute controversy.
And he further questions why Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum
would hire Rekers as an expert witness.

"I can't know for sure what Bill McCollum knew or didn't know,” said
Hensler. “But in the end it is his responsibility. He is the Attorney
General and it is the Attorney General who is appealing this case."

A ruling is expected any day.

Meanwhile, Rekers is disputing but not denying a New Times article that
he hired a 20-year-old male prostitute to accompany him on a trip to
Europe. Rekers was photographed carting the man's bags through Miami
International Airport this week after the two returned from the trip.

On a statement on his blog, written in the third person, Rekers denied
having any sexual involvement with the younger man.

"Dr. Rekers did not even find out about his travel assistant's internet
advertisements offering prostitution activity until after the trip was
in progress," he wrote.

Leaders of two conservative groups Rekers helped run are now distancing
themselves from him. The National Association for Research and Therapy
of Homosexuality (NARTH), which describes itself as “a professional
scientific organization dedicated to assisting individuals dealing with
unwanted homosexual attractions,” says “we extend our sympathies.

“NARTH takes seriously the accusations that have been made, and we are
currently attempting to understand the details behind these press reports.”

The Family Research Council, which Rekers claims he helped found,
dismissed Rekers as an early adviser of the organization.


--
The Tea Party's teabaggers are just the Republican base by another name.

On Fri, 07 May 2010 10:20:47 -0400, hk
wrote:

Florida AG Paid $60,000 to Anti-Gay Activist Who Hired Male Prostitute

How these cynical, dishonest people can make it past the sniff test
and be held up as experts in parenting is beyond me.

Nothing short of astounding and incredibly sad.

I'm sure a large majority of gays who want to adopt would be far
better parents, role models and human beings than this lying rat.

On Fri, 07 May 2010 17:33:12 -0400, wrote:

On Fri, 07 May 2010 12:58:14 -0700, jps wrote:

On Fri, 07 May 2010 10:20:47 -0400, hk
wrote:

Florida AG Paid $60,000 to Anti-Gay Activist Who Hired Male Prostitute

How these cynical, dishonest people can make it past the sniff test
and be held up as experts in parenting is beyond me.

Nothing short of astounding and incredibly sad.

I'm sure a large majority of gays who want to adopt would be far
better parents, role models and human beings than this lying rat.


It does seem that the most vociferous gay bathers are also the most
likely to be gay themselves.

They're ashamed of themselves.

I expect you mean gay bashers and not gay bathers. That'd make for
some serious reverb in bathhouses.

On Mon, 10 May 2010 20:52:34 -0400, wrote:

On Mon, 10 May 2010 16:25:13 -0700, jps wrote:

On Fri, 07 May 2010 17:33:12 -0400, wrote:

On Fri, 07 May 2010 12:58:14 -0700, jps wrote:

On Fri, 07 May 2010 10:20:47 -0400, hk
wrote:

Florida AG Paid $60,000 to Anti-Gay Activist Who Hired Male Prostitute

How these cynical, dishonest people can make it past the sniff test
and be held up as experts in parenting is beyond me.

Nothing short of astounding and incredibly sad.

I'm sure a large majority of gays who want to adopt would be far
better parents, role models and human beings than this lying rat.


It does seem that the most vociferous gay bathers are also the most
likely to be gay themselves.

They're ashamed of themselves.

I expect you mean gay bashers and not gay bathers. That'd make for
some serious reverb in bathhouses.

I saw the typo but I thought it was still accurate. Some of these guys
would be right at home in a Frisco bath house. They could say it was a
Bay Area Baptism, just trying to save the sinners.

Totally agree and appreciate your take.

I think guys like this deserve a public flogging but they'd probably
enjoy that too.