JayB Posted June 21, 2011 Posted June 21, 2011 "A Gay Girl in Damascus': how the hoax unfolded For months Tom MacMaster convinced thousands of readers – including some media organisations – that his hoax blog “A Gay Girl in Damascus” was genuine." Here were examine how events unfolded which led to the diary being exposed as the work of the a married American man studying at the University of Edinburgh: February 19, 2011: MacMaster posts the first item on the blog, pretending to be Amina Abdallah Arraf al Omari. The first posts introduce the author as a lesbian of American and Syrian parents, born in the US and now living in Damascus. February to April, 2011: MacMaster gives sporadic updates from his character, ranging from political analysis and hard news accounts of the brutal repression of the country’s pro-democracy movement to love poetry and Mills and Boon-esque homosexual memoirs." http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/8572884/A-Gay-Girl-in-Damascus-how-the-hoax-unfolded.html Best Summary: "It would be nice if "Amina Arraf" existed. As niche constituencies go, we could use more hijab-wearing Muslim lesbian militants and fewer fortysomething male Western deadbeat college students. But the latter is a real and pathetically numerous demographic, and the former is a fiction – a fantasy for Western liberals, who think that in the multicultural society the nice gay couple at 27 Rainbow Avenue can live next door to the big bearded imam with four child brides at No. 29 and gambol and frolic in admiration of each other's diversity." http://articles.ocregister.com/2011-06-17/news/29675338_1_lesbian-assad-bashar Quote
Off_White Posted June 21, 2011 Posted June 21, 2011 This hoax aside, I'll wager there are lesbians in Syria. Quote
G-spotter Posted June 21, 2011 Posted June 21, 2011 This hoax aside, I'll wager there are lesbians in Syria. O RLY? Quote
prole Posted June 21, 2011 Posted June 21, 2011 The real threat is there might be Syrian lesbians in Orange County! Quote
JayB Posted June 22, 2011 Author Posted June 22, 2011 Can't imagine why folks of a particular political persuasion ate this stuff up: ""Reality, of course, is different. Having lived in both worlds [the United States and Syria], I can tell you this in all honesty; I have never once encountered any problem here on account of my sexuality that I would not have encountered were I straight as an arrow. I have never once been attacked or beaten or even screamed at for being a lesbian in an Arab land. On the other hand, I have had dung thrown at me in America for wearing a hijab, been attacked and struck by strangers for being an Arab." http://dscriber.com/watch/3648-amina-araf-gay-girl-blogger-disappears-in-syria Quote
prole Posted June 22, 2011 Posted June 22, 2011 Can't imagine why folks of a particular political persuasion ate this stuff up... Uh yeah, gee whiz... Quote
JayB Posted June 22, 2011 Author Posted June 22, 2011 This hoax aside, I'll wager there are lesbians in Syria. I'll see your bet and raise it to "anywhere there are women." The real question is - in which parts of the world, and which set of cultural norms, religious convictions, and ideologies does it suck the most to be a lesbian? Quote
bstach Posted June 22, 2011 Posted June 22, 2011 A cc.com party? You haven't read the Rope Up trip reports, clearly. Quote
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