Another Anti-Gay Activist Accused of Gay Tryst

(May 5) -- Add to the growing list of anti-gay crusaders who have been entangled in alleged gay romps the name of one George Alan Rekers, a Baptist minister who co-founded the Family Research Council. The Miami New Times reported this week that Rekers appeared at Miami International Airport last month with a young male escort, fresh from a 10-day trip to Europe. Rekers admitted that he found his companion on Rentboy.com (not safe for work), where the escort had advertised his attributes (including sexual details), but Rekers maintains that he's not gay and had merely hired the escort to help him carry his luggage.

Permit yourself a feeling of deja vu. You have definitely heard this before.

In 2007, there was Idaho Republican Sen. Larry Craig, arrested for lewd conduct at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, where, from his bathroom stall, Craig played footsie with an undercover police officer in the adjoining carrel. Craig, who pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct, also denied being gay, though later other men came forward and said they had had sex with Craig.

Then there was the case of Ted Haggard, the former pastor of the evangelical New Life Church in Colorado Springs. In 2006, a gay prostitute said that he had been having sex with Haggard for three years; Haggard resigned.

And don't forget former Republican Congressman Mark Foley of Florida. The same year as the Haggard scandal, he was caught sending sexually provocative messages to former congressional male pages (some of whom later came forward to say that they'd had sex with him); Foley also stepped down.

Just two months ago, California state Sen. Roy Ashburn, a Republican with an anti-gay voting record, was arrested on a charge of driving drunk after leaving a gay nightclub.

It would be easy to keep going, but what to make of the pattern? Why are so many Republican lawmakers and conservative pastors who condemn homosexuality in public seeking out gay sex in their private lives?

Many blame the politics of the GOP, which attacks homosexuality in order to woo conservative voters. That position pressures gay Republican lawmakers to stay in the closet. In that regard, Republicans reap what they sow, says Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., who is openly gay. "Well, if you are a lion tamer, don't complain to me when a lion bites you. Who told you to get in the goddamn cage?"

Frank maintains it's acceptable to out closeted politicians and powerful public figures when they agitate against gay rights -- an opinion that's not shared by everyone in the gay community. But that running debate may become less and less important as anti-gay activists continue, albeit unwittingly and unwillingly, to out themselves.

It remains unclear what will happen to Rekers' public career. If he follows the script of earlier examples, he'll say nothing for a while, and then perhaps issue some sort of mea culpa without admitting that he's gay. Perhaps Rekers will have to step back from a few of his public roles and, like Haggard -- who remains married to his wife -- seek redemption from a gay lifestyle. But one thing's certain: Given the protocols of the anti-gay right, Rekers must know full well that his career promoting family values would come to an end if he simply said, "Yeah, I'm gay. So what?"