Reply #71: fl's AG Paid George 'Rentboy' Rekers $87,000 to Be Star Witness for State's Gay Adoption Ban [View All]

http://www.towleroad.com/2010/05/florida-ag-bill-mccollum-paid-george-rentboy-rekers-87000-to-be-star-witness-for-states-adoption-ban.html

Florida AG Bill McCollum Paid George 'Rentboy' Rekers $87,000 to Be Star Witness for State's Gay Adoption Ban

Florida taxpayer dollars were used to compensate George Alan Rekers, the "ex-gay" activist caught recently returning from vacation with a hustler from Rentboy.com, to defend the state's ban on gay adoption.

Rekers While the ACLU defended Frank 'Martin' Gill and his sons, Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum paid Rekers and his colleague Walter Schum close to $100K to spread their falsehoods in order to keep children away from the loving care of gay parents.

They were the only witnesses the state called.

Equality Florida:

"Rekers was one of only two witnesses Attorney General Bill McCollum called in an effort to reverse a Miami judge who ruled Florida's adoption ban- the only one in the country- is unconstitutional. McCollum paid Rekers and a colleague $87,000 for testimony that called gay people mentally unstable and advised that the ban should be expanded to include Native Americans because, Rekers claimed, they are also at much higher risk of mental illness and substance abuse. 'They would tend to hang around each other,' Rekers testified. 'So the children would be around a lot of other Native Americans who are … doing the same sorts of things.' This latest controversy may shed new light on how outrageously bias and scientifically unsupported Rekers' testimony has been, said Nadine Smith, executive director of Equality Florida. 'It is disgraceful that the attorney general used taxpayer dollars to compensate this discredited bigot-for-hire,' said Smith. 'It shows just how low they have to scrape to find anyone even willing to defend this awful ban that denies children permanent loving homes.'"