George Alan Rekers, the disgraced Christian Right leader and "ex-gay" therapist exposed for his dalliances with a gay-male escort, once supervised experiments to change behavior in boys perceived to be feminine by denying the children maternal attention and spanking them, according to the Miami New Times weekly newspaper via The Advocate.com
Journalists Penn Bullock and Brandon K. Thorp, who broke the Rekers-male escort story for the
Miami NewTimes in May, expose the " violent Pavlovian regiment" at the Feminine Boy Project, a clinic Rekers operated at UCLA.
"In 1974, Rekers, a leading thinker in the so-called ex-gay movement, was presented with a 4-year-old 'effeminate boy' named Kraig, whose parents had enrolled him in the program. Rekers put Kraig in a 'play-observation room' with his mother, who was equipped with a listening device. When the boy played with girly toys, the doctors instructed her to avert her eyes from the child."
Rekers also encouraged the use of a "reward-punishment system" involving spankings from the boy's father to enforce masculine behavior, according to the Miami New Times article.
Just a second, wasn't another boy enrolled in some type of spanking program to curb his behavior? That's right, Ned Flanders from "The Simpsons."
In the episode "Hurricane Neddy," viewers learn Flanders is the son of "freaky beatniks" who didn't discipline Ned and let him run wild. Eventually, his parents took him to Dr. Foster, who enrolled Flanders in the University of Minnesota Spankalogical Protocol. It involved eight months of continuous spanking. The treatment rendered Flanders unable to express any anger and resulted in his trademark nonsensical jabbering at moments when he was close to losing his temper, causing Flanders to repress his anger. A hilarious outcome for audiences.
What happened in Rekers' case with Kraig? Kraig attempted suicide at 18 years old and committed suicide at 38. Read it the Miami NewTimes story
here.
