Headphones Not Required

That’s the only conclusion that can be drawn here:

The Salvation Army is threatening to close soup kitchens for tens of thousands of New York’s homeless and walk away from other projects if the city enacts legislation requiring firms that do business with New York to offer health benefits to the partners of gay staffers. The evangelical faith is prepared to give up the $70 million a year in city funding it receives and pull out of New York entirely the New York Post reports…

An official from the organization is quoted as saying that opposing gayness is a deep theological issue for them. Funny, he doesn’t say that about, you know, helping the poor. This is a good time to remind readers that when you see the Salvation Army Santas, it’s best to take whatever money you would be inclined to give them and give it instead to a better, more loving organization that does the same work.

That man was George Alan Rekers, of North Miami — the callboy’s client and, as it happens, one of America’s most prominent anti-gay activists. Rekers, a Baptist minister who is a leading scholar for the Christian right, left the terminal with his gay escort, looking a bit discomfited when a picture of the two was snapped with a hot-pink digital camera.

Reached by New Times before a trip to Bermuda, Rekers said he learned Lucien was a prostitute only midway through their vacation. “I had surgery,” Rekers said, “and I can’t lift luggage. That’s why I hired him.” (Though medical problems didn’t stop him from pushing the tottering baggage cart through MIA.)

Yet Rekers wouldn’t deny he met his slender, blond escort at Rentboy.com — which features homepage images of men in bondage and grainy videos of crotch-rubbing twinks — and Lucien confirmed it.

It doesn’t take a social scientist to see the trend that has developed with regard to homophobic far-right conservatives being outed constantly. Denial ain’t just a river, as they say.