Frank Rich: A Heaven-Sent Rent Boy

[Me.]

“OF all wars, only culture wars offer the hope of sheer, unadulterated hilarity. Sex and hypocrisy were staples of farce long before America became a nation, and they never go out of style. Just listen to the roaring audience at the new hit Broadway revival of the perennial “La Cage aux Folles,” where a family-values politician gets his comeuppance in drag. Or check out the real-life closet case of George Rekers, who has been fodder for late-night television comics all month.

Rekers is in a class by himself even in the era of Larry Craig and Ted Haggard. A Baptist minister and clinical psychologist with a bent for “curing” homosexuality, the married, 61-year-old Rekers was caught by Miami New Times last month in the company of a 20-year-old male escort at Miami International Airport. The couple was returning from a 10-day trip to London and Madrid. New Times, which published its exposé in early May, got an explanation from Rekers: “I had surgery, and I can’t lift luggage. That’s why I hired him.”

Alas, a photo showed Rekers, rather than his companion, handling the baggage cart. The paper also reported that Rekers had recruited the young man from Rentboy.com, a Web site whose graphic sexual content requires visitors to vouch for their age. Rentboy.com — really, who could make this stuff up?

Much like the former Senator Craig, Rekers claims it was all an innocent mix-up. His only mistake, he told the magazine Christianity Today, was to hire a “travel assistant” without proper vetting. Their travels were not in vain. The good minister expressed gratitude that his rent boy “did let me share the gospel of Jesus Christ with him with many Scriptures in three extended conversations.”

This is a family newspaper, so you must supply your own jokes here.…cont…

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/16/opinion/16rich.html

[underpants]

1. Ha! great I can read this tonight. GREAT title for the article

O8) :rofl:

[SpiralHawk]

2. "Luggage handlers are, um, kinky and stuff." - Sen Diaper Dave Vitter (R - Moralist)

"They are not good solid Family Value republicon, um, 'cristuns' like me and my, um, special friends"

- Sen Diaper Dave Vitter (R - Moralist)

[SpiralHawk]

3. "Rentboys are, um, way worse than faux lesbian bondage clubs." - Steeley Mike (R)

[Rosa Luxemburg]

4. three extended conversions!

I guess that' one way of putting it?

[davidwparker]

5. K&R

[yowzayowzayowza]

6. Indeed.

These dying gasps of our culture wars, like Rekers’s farcical pratfall, might be funnier if millions of gay Americans and their families were not still denied their full civil rights.

[Scuba]

7. So true, so sad.

[Papa Boule]

8. What really intrigues me about the mentality of people like Rekers

is their supremely selfish willingness to let every other person like them be burned at the stake (metaphorically or actually), as long as their own false front is protected and they are never seen as less than perfect in any way (in the eyes of whatever group or person they idealize or revere).

[Marr]

9. Every time I hear one of Rekers' excuses,

I want to add a, "yeah... that's the ticket" to the end of it.

[WillyT]

10. K & R !!!

:kick:

[Jeffersons Ghost]

11. Well, I'm still sticking to my Renthouse and Layboy magazines...

I ignore the pictures and only read them for the articles.