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Anderson Cooper will examine a “shocking ‘experimental therapy’ designed to make feminine boys more masculine” on his show at 10 p.m. Tuesday. The story centers around 38-year-old Kirk Murphy, who killed himself in 2003.
His family blames therapy Murphy went through as a young child at the hands of North Miami’s George Alan Rekers — a prominent figure of the Christian right who was taken down last year in a Miami New Times investigation. Reporters Brandon K. Thorp and Penn Bullock also wrote about the abuse Murphy suffered, when he was only known as “Kraig,” a code name.
Rekers, who co-founded the Family Research Council, an anti-gay lobbying group, was photographed returning from a 10-day trip to Europe with a 20-year-old “rent boy,” who said Rekers was a homosexual who paid him for daily nude massages.
Rekers insisted he paid the man to carry his luggage, but Rekers was photographed by New Times lugging several suitcases while his paid companion stood by. After the story broke, Rekers told the rent boy to cover up the affair and eventually resigned from the board of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality, which claims homosexuality is a curable condition.
CNN quotes Rekers in a story today as saying, in an uncharacteristic bout of humanity, “Well, I think, scientifically that would be inaccurate to assume that it was the therapy, but I do grieve for the parents now that you’ve told me that news. I think that’s very sad.”
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