As I was reading tiponeill's diary telling the despicable tale about how Florida Attorney General (and gubernatorial candidate) Bill McCollum paid Rentboy.com customer Dr. George Rekers at least $60,900 for expert testimony in defense of Florida’s ban on gays adopting children, I was pleased to read in the comments that Anderson Cooper's show tonight would feature an interview with the the rent boy hired by Rekers to do much more than haul his luggage, and I linked to a juicy AC360 blog post by report Randi Kaye offering a preview of the interview tonight at 10, which including references to McCollum's link to Rekers. But a few minutes later, the blog post had been scrubbed from the site. Did GOP heavies put the pressure on CNN? We'll have to tune in tonight at 10 to find out. But just in case, read on to see what was scrubbed. I happened to save the entire blog post!
First, here's a screen shot of the now-scrubbed AC360 blog post:
Yup, right there it is: A headline touting an "AC360 Exclusive: 'Lucien', the male escort exposes George Rekers." And Randi Kaye starts off her blog post with an attention-grabber:
I just spent a couple of hours with a 20-year-old male escort we’ll call "Lucien". This was his first television interview about what he says "really" happenened on his 14-day European vacation with George Rekers.
And it appears that Lucien told it all to Randi! First, Kaye makes it clear why people should care about this story:
Why should you watch? Because Rekers is a Baptist minister and sits on the board of NARTH, the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality. NARTH is dedicated to helping people cope with what it calls "unwanted homosexuality." George Rekers has spent decades trying to turn gay people straight. His record shows he’s touched almost every piece of anti-gay legislation in Florida and much of it around the country. In fact, we’ve found the state of Florida paid Rekers about $120,000 to testify as an expert in the legal battle to uphold the ban on gay adoptions in Florida. Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum now seems to be trying to distance himself from the star witness his office paid to defend Florida’s anti-gay adoption ban.
CNN contacted McCollum's office about Rekers, and got this response:
McCollum’s office told us Rekers came to their attention "by recommendation from another academic after an exhaustive search" and that Rekers "had exceptional credentials and he had provided testimony in similar cases on two separate occasions.
Yes, it certainly must have been exhausting for McCollum to find the most raging closeted homophobe out there willing to make sure that Florida remains the only state to ban GLBT Americans from adopting children. Raging war against teh gays is tiring folks!
But Lucien thinks the Florida taxpayers got shafted:
Money well spent for Florida taxpayers? Hardly, says "Lucien" the male escort. He told me there is "no doubt" in his mind that "Rekers is a homosexual."
Lucien goes on to give plenty of details to Kaye about how he met Rekers and what he did with/for/to him:
"Lucien" says Rekers hired him by answering his ad on the website, RentBoy.com. He says Rekers would have been exposed to all kinds of naked men in compromising sexual positions on the website before getting through to the ads for male companions.
"Lucien" showed me the contract he signed with Rekers. It does show he was hired to carry Rekers luggage because he needed help with that, but #3 in the contract terms spells out that Lucien "will provide George Rekers a massage for at least one hour each day of the trip in their shared rooms using the same procedures ("Lucien") provided to George Rekers in Florida." "Lucien" told me he had given Rekers two "sexual massages" in Florida at hotels before they even left for Europe and that Rekers had requested the massages be "sexual." "Lucien" says he gave Rekers what he called the "long stroke" which included touching his genitals. He said the massages took place in their shared rooms in both London and Madrid. For his services, "Lucien" was paid $75 a day plus the cost of his air travel.
"Lucien" seems like a decent young man. CNN didn't pay him for the interview and he told CNN that he had turned down payments from other organizations for his story because he doesn't want to make money on this. But he feels a duty to speak out so that Floridians know the truth.
He says Rekers became sort of a "father figure" to him and he feels sorry for him. He told me George Rekers has asked him repeatedly not to talk to the media and not to tell anyone about his "sexual massages" but "Lucien" is talking because he wants people, especially in Florida, "to know who Rekers really is."
Amen to that! Since I can't link you to the story, here's another screen shot to show you that I'm not making up any of the quotes:
And here's a nice picture of Randi Kaye with "Lucien":
I'm really hoping that CNN will air this story tonight. If not, you still got the truth right here.