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Here's the latest in the George Alan Rekers scandal:
A coalition has come together to stand behind "rent boy" Lucien, including, Equality Florida, NCLR, pr guy Howard Bragman, The Trevor Project, and Lambda Legal.
Meanwhile, a Facebook exchange between Lucien and Rekers exposes Rekers' lie that he did not find out about his travel assistant's internet advertisements offering prostitution activity until after the trip was in progress."
In a Facebook exchange between Rekers and the gay escort dated March 20, Lucien offers to do "just about anything" at any time.
"George wanted to say when ever you want to talk, would you mind messaging, i'd prefer that," Lucien wrote at 7 p.m. "and you find out what you want to do i would be ok with just about anything and when ever is the next time you want to meet i'm ok with that as well"
Rekers responded at 10:29: "OK will do — messaging and phone calls. I'm still working researching some trip ideas. Will let you know soon."
Lucien told the Miami New Times that Rekers told him there were more rent boys: "He's told me that he's hired other escorts, and it's never really worked out. They don't talk enough, or they've had very weird circumstances… Basically, he's never been fully comfortable with the situation, or they've jipped (sic) him. Jipped him of time or money."
Meanwhile, more than 1500 people have signed a petition demanding an apology from Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum for wasting taxpayer money on "discredited bigot-for-hire" Rekers.
Rentboy.com posted a statement regarding the Rekers scandal:
This week an anti-gay activist and family values crusader named George Rekers was caught by the Miami New Times returning from a vacation with a rentboy, and the story has turned into an international media circus, with coverage on CNN, Colbert Report, BBC, The Daily Show, The Tonight Show and the blogosphere. We were completely surprised by this turn of events and we are following it closely. At rentboy.com, it is our policy to protect the privacy of any escort advertising his services on our site–the same goes for clients. Information exchanged between consenting adults meeting on our site remains private. Mr.Rekers has built a highly public, lucrative career out of shaming gay men and women. If it is true that he took a rentboy "on vacation," then he has brought this negative attention on himself. We reserve judgment, we don't know all the facts.
Just to be clear, Rentboy.com is not an escort agency, we are an ad listing service for male escorts, where men place their own ads and work for themselves, so that clients can contact them directly. Our mission is to create a non-judgmental space where anyone curious about exploring male-male companionship can hire a man by the hour. We remain open-minded and devoted to privacy for the people who use our site, but we can't take the risk out of leading a double life, or having a closeted or hypocritical career… If you're a famous heterosexual homophobe and you appear in public with a rentboy with your pants down, you're just asking for trouble.
If you would like to Take a Pornstar or Male Escort on Vacation, Rentboy.com is where you'll find him. Excess baggage can indeed be heavy and there is nothing like a hot man to help you unload it.
Here's Rachel Maddow's excellent Friday commentary on the scandal, AFTER THE JUMP…
