He hired a young Florida man from Rentboy. com to carry his bags on a European trip, an anti-gay psychologist has said.

According to the Miami Herald, the young man, who would identify himself only as Geo, told that George Rekers only paid him $75, a fraction of what he would receive if sexual services were involved. Geo described himself as a student from Spain attending college in Miami.

Geo said, "He was setting me up as a companion. In all honesty, he's a very kind, family-values man."

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel has said that Rekers, a founder of the Family Research Council, recently testified in a challenge to Florida law banning adoptions by gays.

He needed someone to help with his luggage because of medical problems following surgery, the 61-year-old in an e-mail said.

It is "even creepier if they didn't have sex," Wayne Besen, head of Truth Wins Out, a group opposing the notion that homosexuality is curable, said

Besen further said, "Rekers is driving the story right now with his comical denial. He could have just as easily given someone a big tip to carry his bags, like everyone else does." (With Inputs from Agencies)