\nNARTH Responds to the Recent Media Coverage of Dr. George Rekers<\/strong><\/a><\/div>\n<\/p>\n
"I am immediately resigning my membership in NARTH<\/strong> 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."<\/em><\/div>\nGeorge A. Rekers, Ph.D.<\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n<\/p>\n
NARTH<\/strong> 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<\/strong>. NARTH<\/strong> continues to support scientific research, and to value client autonomy, client self-determination and client diversity.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n"I will fight these false reports because I have not engaged in any homosexual behavior whatsoever.<\/em>" Such an odd thing to say ["light touch" "long stroke" "vanilla"].<\/div>\n\nOur take on: Bill McCollum’s "expert" witness George Rekers<\/strong><\/a>
Orlando Sentinel<\/strong>
May 13, 2010<\/div>\nFlorida Attorney General Bill McCollum’s recommendation of an "expert" witness to defend the state law banning gay adoption has become a big embarrassment for the would-be Republican governor. The witness, George Rekers, recently hired a gay male escort to accompany him on a two-week European vacation. Expert, indeed.<\/p>\n
But the deal between Florida and Mr. Rekers would be scandalous even if the psychologist weren’t a world-class hypocrite. The state paid Mr. Rekers more than $120,000 to testify against a challenge to the adoption ban from a gay man seeking to adopt two young brothers he has raised as a foster parent. Mr. Rekers, a prominent anti-gay activist, was hired on Mr. McCollum’s recommendation in 2007 — three years after a judge in Arkansas found his testimony in a similar case to be worthless.<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n
<\/font><\/strong> <\/p>\n
The judge in the Florida case, Cindy Lederman, wound up declaring the state’s gay adoption ban unconstitutional. In her ruling, Ms. Lederman wrote that Mr. Rekers’ testimony was neither "credible nor worthy of forming the basis for public policy." Yet the attorney general’s office appealed the ruling. Incredible.<\/font><\/strong><\/p>\n
Since the revelations about Mr. Rekers, Mr. McCollum has been on the defensive about hiring him. "There wasn’t a whole lot of choice," he said. The dearth of credible experts to defend the ban should have told the attorney general something. Reputable studies have shown parents’ quality, not their sexual orientation, is what counts. No wonder Florida is almost alone in barring gay adoption.<\/p>\n
Mr. McCollum can atone for his mistake by dropping the appeal, and clearing the way for Florida to abandon this archaic law.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\nWhat’s sad about this story is on reading Dr. Rekers’ argument against Gay adoption, it is immediately discountable simply on the face of his logic. It might be called a group inclusion<\/em> argument. He lists statistical facts about the group, concluding the entire group is responsible. It’s a logic that would be a good example of fallacious thinking in a college logic course.<\/div>\nThere are similar logical lapses in his resignation statement. Ex-Gay people don’t exactly recognize "gay" as a signifier. They define people as "homosexual-behaving adults." So for him to say, "<\/em>I am not gay and never have been<\/em>" is odd – since there’s no such thing. But he’s in trouble with the "homosexual-behaving adult" part too. None of us much care about his massage interests. That’s his business [and his money]. But it’s going to be a stretch to convince anyone that he was trying to convert young Lucien to Christian heterosexuality by having him give hour long, nude, "long stroke" massages once a day. <\/p>\n
What Reverend Doctor George Rekers doesn’t seem to get is that we don’t care what he does, or who he does it with. What we care about is something Jesus said, "Judge not that ye be not judged<\/strong>." Or maybe, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone<\/strong>." Or how about, "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you<\/strong>." He can’t tell us that he believes that "homosexual-behaving adults" shouldn’t adopt or be foster parents if he is a "homosexual-behaving adult" who has adopted and taken in foster children. And as for NARTH<\/strong><\/a> – there’s something not quite right about his advocacy:<\/div>\n\nWe respect the right of all individuals to choose their own destiny. NARTH is a professional, scientific organization that offers hope to those who struggle with unwanted homosexuality. As an organization, we disseminate educational information, conduct and collect scientific research, promote effective therapeutic treatment, and provide referrals to those who seek our assistance. NARTH upholds the rights of individuals with unwanted homosexual attraction to receive effective psychological care and the right of professionals to offer that care. We welcome the participation of all individuals who will join us in the pursuit of these goals.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\nInstead of resigning, one would think that Dr. Rekers might avail himself of the services offered by NARTH<\/strong>. Then again, maybe he knows what the rest of us already know – that the whole ex-gay thing is built on a pile of sand. Again, I don’t mind NARTH<\/strong> "offer[ing] hope to those who struggle with unwanted homosexuality". But sending out an envoy [Dr. Rekers] to testify against gay people who want to raise children as adoptive parents or foster parents betrays NARTH<\/strong>‘s real mission. It is simply an anti-Gay organization. They either want gay people to not exist or at least to get back in the closet [like Dr. Rekers, for example]. If they really want to protect children, why don’t they focus their efforts on a therapy for pedophiles instead of harassing gays?<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NARTH Responds to the Recent Media Coverage of Dr. George Rekers "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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4089\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}