Update, May 6: Ex-Gay Watch has determined that FRC did not remove Rekers, but rather relocated references to Rekers during a site redesign.
When it was reported yesterday that ex-gay movement godfather George Alan Rekers had hired a male prostitute for a 10-day excursion to Europe, the Family Research Council — which Rekers co-founded — promptly scrubbed its website free of references to Rekers, without admitting the scandal to its readers.
NARTH, PFOX, Exodus, and Focus on the Family have yet to do so. Here are some ex-gay publications that praise Rekers and treat his religious bigotry as if it were scientific expertise. Expect some of these publications to be quietly scrubbed soon — but don’t look for these organizations to admit that Rekers has been living and proclaiming a lie for most of his life.
NARTH:
Rekers co-founded this think tank for antigay religious activists who misrepresent mainstream mental-health research. The organization’s web site currently has 107 articles citing Rekers as a key authority.
Focus on the Family:
CitizenLink: Psychiatrists Mull Renaming Sexual Disorder: Rekers protests growing accuracy and insight among scientists regarding people who are born with physical and mental aspects of both genders.
Focus on the Family’s Issue Analysis: Culture: Rekers’ religious bias is cited as proof that homosexuality results from bad parenting by an individual’s same-sex parent, and not the other way around.
CitizenLink: Conference Focuses on Help for Sexual-Identity Confusion: Rekers, speaking at a NARTH conference in Florida last November, advocated that evangelicals brainwash children from an early age in order to lock in rigid gender-role behavior and to suppress sexual honesty regarding their sexual orientation.
Focus on the Family’s Issue Analysis: Overcoming Homosexuality: Rekers is cited as one of several superfluous footnotes intended to grant an appearance of legitimacy to FOTF’s contempt for mainstream research into the interaction of genes and other biological factors with sexual orientation.
Answering Parents’ Questions on Gender Confusion in Children: Rekers is cited again as proof that homosexuality is caused by same-sex parents and peers.
Can Homosexuality Be Treated and Prevented?: This article has been removed. Its former summary: “Psychologist George Rekers says there is considerable evidence that change of sexual orientation is possible‚Äîwith or without psychiatric intervention.”
Exodus International:
Exodus International -The Seduction of Our Youth: Christian Parents Are Discovering It CAN Happen Here: Rekers argues that children should be prevented from knowing about and disclosing their sexual orientation until adulthood.
Exodus International – What’s your “success rate” in changing gays …: Rekers reviews a study of Exodus “ex-gays” by Christian conservatives Stanton Jones and Mark Yarhouse. He fails to note that the study redefined gay celibacy as a successful conversion to heterosexual orientation; refused to study the vast majority of Exodus counselees who report no change in orientation; and refused to study Exodus counselees who say they were harmed by Exodus’ prescriptions for sexual dishonesty, denial, suppression, and blame.
Exodus International – Gender Identity Disorder: Exodus refers readers to Rekers’ advocacy for gender dishonesty and rigid gender-role conformity.
Exodus International – Homosexuality and the Truth: A Life …: Exodus activist Alan Medinger cites Rekers as proof that homosexuality is learned, despite all evidence to the contrary.
Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays:
PFOX – Hate Crimes Against Ex-gays: PFOX cites Rekers’ false claims about learned homosexuality as proof that violent hate crimes against LGBT people should be punished less harshly than comparable violence against other demographics.
APA Leaders Respond with One Voice: Inclusion: PFOX protests the American Psychological Association’s refusal to give Rekers a soapbox from which to distort the research of other APA member professionals.
Superintendent Letter March 2010hot – The Best for Children: Rekers is a key signer of a letter by antigay activists, falsely claiming to be pediatricians representing mainstream medical advice, warning schools not to tolerate LGBT students.
Q&A on Gender Identity Confusion — Sexual Behavior Disorders: This brochure borrows from Rekers to misdefine “transgender”; falsely equate a variety of transgender conditions with fetishes; and encouragediscrimination against transgender persons in order to compel them to become “ex-transgender.”
PFOX also cites Rekers in several Spanish-language translations of the above publications.
Excellent work, Michael.
And Exodus International used to (I don’t know if they still do) sell a booklet (in the Exodus booklet series) at ex-gay conferences called “Prevention of Homosexuality” that is excerpted from his book _Growing up Straight_.
Schadenfreude isn’t much in my line, so I wouldn’t normally rejoice at someone’ downfall. I certainly do in this instance, however.
Some people are prepared to inflict appalling psychological, emotional and spiritual abuse on young people in the name of the “prevention” of homosexuality, and Rekers is one of them. The “treatment” that he prescribed for the boy known as Craig (described in Chapter 4 of Simon Levay’ book “Queer Science”) bears ample witness to this. Abuse of this kind cannot be condoned on the ground that it is motivated by “religious” considerations. The good news is that it didn’t prevent Craig from growing up gay; the bad news is that it did him tremendous damage. I still sometimes wonder whether he ever fully recovered from it.
The more of these people like Rekers have their credibility shattered, the better.
[...] and those organizations he co-founded have been furiously pulling down and, according to Truth Wins Out, “scrubbing” any mention of Rekers from their websites. “When news broke [...]
Rekers is a joke. Unfortunately, he has deceived a lot of religious bigots who wanted to believe the BS that Rekers was spewing. I feel so sorry for the Gays that he has screwed up with his messages of hate, psuedo-science, and religios bigotry. There’s nothing like a “reformed homosexual” that has so much self hatred that he feels compelled to destroy all things Gay. Very sad but let’s hope this is the final nail in the coffin for the “Ex-Gay” ministry.
“CitizenLink: Conference Focuses on Help for Sexual-Identity Confusion: Rekers, speaking at a NARTH conference in Florida last November, advocated that evangelicals brainwash children from an early age in order to lock in rigid gender-role behavior and to suppress sexual honesty regarding their sexual orientation”
Interestingly, adherence to inflexible gender roles is a major contributing factor to committing violence against women
a cure for Homosexuality from both the liberal religious traditions and the that of Psychology. Allow me to state at the outset that I may indeed have found a real and workable cure. I choose to put this idea into the world not because I am greatly enamored of it but because I hope that if it is right, I may help to shape the message that such a cure sends. For too long the religious right has dominated any theological thought about a cure. This must change. What would happen if tomorrow a real cure was made by a group in the religious rights pocket such as NARTH? Imagine the fulcrum they would hold over what such a cure meant? I can here Jerry Falwell now.
The liberal theologian might say that a cure is not needed, that the belief that homosexuality is wrong is itself incorrect and based off of bad theology and even worse definitions incorrectly added to the Bible. I would agree, see http://www.gaychristian101.com/Homosexual-Eunuchs.html or http://www.gaychristian101.com/Define-Arsenokoites.html. However, I state that this leaves gay males at a disadvantage. They make up roughly 7 percent of the population and can only have the hope of a monagamous relationship with that same 7 percent. Heterosexaul males make up roughly 41 percent of the population but have a pool of roughly 48 percent of the worlds population from which to choose a mate, heterosexual females. The remaining 4 percent of the popualtion being lesbians. My point is this, even a Fully liberal theologian sees the poverty of choices available. Not wrongness of choice, because as I said before this is biological orientation, not personality of the person chosen nor the peronality of the chooser.
I put fourth a cure in the hopes of changing the theoligical, social, and even biological course of current research. In the past, the church and psychologists only thought about taking away the “unwanted” behavior. I propose increasing and using the current behavior. As you read I abjour you to remember Paul’s famous quote,
‘For in the Kingdom of Heaven their shall be neither male nor female”
So that others will not acuse me of puting the cart before the horse, I will start with a cure. Swedish researchers reported finding important differences in how the brains of straight men and gay men responded to two compounds suspected of being pheromones – those scent-related chemicals that are key to sexual arousal in animals. The first compound came from women’s urine Androstenol ( (1,3,5(10),16-estratetraen-3-ol), the second from male sweat. Brain scans showed that when straight men smelled the female urine compound, their hypothalamus lit up. That didn’t happen with gay men. Instead, their hypothalamus lit up when they smelled the male-sweat compound Androstenone (5 ALPHA ANDROST-16-EN-3 ONE and (4,16-
androstadien-3-one), which was the same way straight women had responded. This research once again connecting the hypothalamus to sexual orientation.
Now that we know atleast some of the pheromones the body of male homosexuals desire, we know that any”cure” should probably include the male pheromone while blocking the female one. We know from a study with bed bugs that such an effect is possible. Insects communicate through the use of pheromones. Some tell insects “there’ an AWESOME breeding ground/food over here, guys’ and others tell members of the same species “I’m ready to get laid’. However, another class of pheromones appropriately named “alarm pheromones” tell other members of the same species “We’ve got to f*****g leave. NOW!’ You’d be amazed how many insects communicate with one another. Cockroaches do it. Bees do it. Lightening bugs do it, too. Well, bed bugs release alarm pheromones just like other insects.
A lot of pheromones revolve around sex…but here’ the interesting thing: bed bugs don’t have sex pheromones. Instead, male bed bugs run up to any other individual which has recently fed and stab them with their penis. They really can’t tell the boys from the girls and will hook up with just about everyone which looks to be well fed. However, they tend to back off males after a few seconds.
There’ been an increased interest in bed bug biology lately because of their recent insurgence back into our dwellings. They’re a nuisance, so some of this is to look for new ways to control them. Evolutionary biologists are looking at them as model organisms to study sexual conflict. Everybody’ interested in them for various reasons.
Camilla Ryne wanted to figure out how male bed bugs sorted the boys from the girls. We’ve known about alarm pheromones for awhile, and that they cause these guys to scatter. When the boys mount the boys, they release these pheromones…but when the boys mount the girls this isn’t released. Could be correlation…could be causation. Time to experiment.
As mentioned earlier, for this to work one male (the pitcher) needs to be starved and the other male (the catcher) needs to be fed. So this is exactly what she did…any of the “victims’ male or female were fed right before this happened and a starved male was introduced to the enclosure. To prevent the release of the alarm pheromone, she blocked the glands with nail polish. To simulate the pheromone, she applied bed-bug extract to females which were being mounted and properly controlled for the effects of the solvent.
She found that males who had their alarm pheromone glands disabled were more susceptible to being stabbed by other males. Her control groups had about 2 instances of male-male pairing during the experiment, but the groups which had their glands disabled routinely had 3-5 pairings as well as longer pairing times in the groups with blocked glands.
In the groups with the blocked glands…there was also sperm transfer. They actually ejaculated into the hemocoel as if this were a female and not a male. This wasn’t observed in the male-male control pairings. For all intents and purposes, they were completely unable to tell they were having sex with a male.
Interestingly, the female-male interactions were similar to the male-male interactions. When the alarm pheromone was applied to the female, the time that it took the male to…*ahem* desert his post…was about the same as it took for a homosexual pairing to end. A little longer, but not statistically significant.
So far our cure looks pretty easy. Add male pheromones. Find a chemical that blocks female pheromones without blocking the nasal neurons ability to accept and use the male pheromones.
Now add a few known factors for what makes for strongest biological bond pairing. A company called gene partner does just this. They look at major histamine compatability to find ones perfect match. The GenePartner project was inspired by a famous study performed by Prof. Dr. Wedekind at the University of Bern in Switzerland. In this study, Prof. Dr. Wedekind recruited female volunteers to smell T-shirts worn by men for three consecutive days and rate them for attractiveness. He then analyzed the particular part of DNA that codes for HLA (human leukocyte antigen) molecules and found that women preferred T-shirts from men whose HLA molecules were most different from their own. Sensing and classifying the HLA genes is something our bodies do automatically and subconsciously.
HLA molecules play a central role in controlling the activation of immunological effectors during an immune response and are therefore essential for immune resistance. A greater variety in HLA genes offers a greater variety in possible immune responses. In terms of evolution, this makes perfect sense: children of couples with a higher variety in their HLA genes (and hence, immune responses) will have better protection from a greater variety of diseases. Simply put, this means that their body has more weapons to use in its defence against a disease. An important additional effect is that comparing HLA genes can help identify kinship and prevent potential inbreeding.
In 2003, the GenePartner team decided to take this discovery one step further and see if there are specific patterns of HLA genes that “attract” each other more. In collaboration with the Swiss Institute for Behavioural Genetics, they tested a large number of individuals (both romantically involved couples and persons not in a relationship) for their HLA genes. The results were astounding and led to the development of a formula that combines the diversity factor studied by Prof. Dr. Wedekind, together with several other evolutionary factors researched and developed by the Swiss Institute for Behavioral Genetics.
The GenePartner formula measures the genetic compatibility between two individuals and makes an accurate prediction of the strength of their basis for a long-lasting and fulfilling romantic relationship.
Genetic compatibility
High diversity in specific immune system components ensures greater resistance against a variety of diseases. Our bodies automatically sense how diverse the immune systems of people around us are, and we subconsciously classify them depending on how genetically compatible they are to our own.
With genetically highly compatible people we feel that rare sensation of perfect chemistry. This is the body’ receptive and welcoming response when immune systems harmonise and fit together.
The effects of genetic compatibility
Genetic compatibility results in an increased likelihood of forming an enduring and successful relationship. Research has also shown that the sex lives of genetically compatible partners are more satisfying than average.
Now our cure is getting more complicated. Add male pheromones. Make a perfume of the MALE mate with whom we would have genetic compatability. Find a chemical that blocks female pheromones without blocking the nasal neurons ability to accept and use the male pheromones or the gentically compatible partners natural aroma.
Finally a simple piece. Mix the whole thing into a substrate that might be used nasally. Vaseline comes to mind but I am quite certain better substrates could be found. Ideally, the substrate would last 24 hours and increase absorption when the bodyheated up, ie when having sex. Such technology is already available in many deodorants.
Putting it all together, Add male pheromones. Make a perfume of the MALE mate with whom we would have genetic compatability. Find a chemical that blocks female pheromones without blocking the nasal neurons ability to accept and use the male pheromones or the gentically compatible male partners natural aroma. Mix the whole thing into a substrate that might be used nasally. Ideally one that would last 24 hours and increase absorption when the bodyheated up, ie when having sex.
The cure for Homosexuality would not be heterosexuality, but a prosthesis leading to all people smelling of the perfect love match. Over time imprinting would likely take place. Not just male humans but all humans would be the beloved. Not Heterosexuality but real choice, bisexuality.
@Lars Not to oversimplify your issue/obsession, but sometimes simple brainwashing is just that: brainwashing. No matter what you call it, dress it up, train it to cha-cha, it’s still brainwashing. And this philosophy may not only be relegated to sexual orientation. You can apply this techinique in varying degrees to any other type of condition you deem inappropriate or erroneous, whether it be being interested in sports to changing your underwear everyday; I’m sure you could concoct something equally as fascinating, if not dubious. Now, this is not to say that hormones would specifically play a part in those particular reassignment agendas, and I certainly would not intimate that your bedbugs analogy would be the end-all and the miracle cure the masses have been waiting for in regards, specifically, to sexual orientation. You have not even addressed the “plight” of the transgendered; what recourse would THEY have in your perfect world-view? What pheromones would be most appropriate for THEM? I’m sure you have it all figured out. Please enlighten us.
Your explanations are subjective, and so your conslusions would be, also. They would automatically stem from faulty reasoning because your premises make use of inductive reasoning, even though it at first appears that you are attempting to show conclusively, 100% how males and females should always be attracted each to the opposite sex, and if they are not, they should be fixed, thus, conforming to established societal “norms”. Lars, please consider that sometimes some situations are not either “right” OR “wrong”. Sometimes they just “are”. Period.
Stephen: I’m pretty intelligent, and i couldn’t figure out his point. Good for you that you could wade through it.