Bissam recently fled Damasc, unr threat om Isis ath squads. His 'crime'? Beg gay. So he ma his way to a cy where fellow Arab members of the LGBT muny have been gatherg to seek a new life – and fellowship – exile…
Contents:
- 'GAY GIRL IN DAMASC' TURNS OUT TO BE AN AMERIN MAN
- GAY DAMASC
- ‘A GAY GIRL DAMASC’ CLEAN
- WHE PRIVILEGE AND THE 'GAY GIRL IN DAMASC'
- THE GAY GIRL DAMASC HOAX
- SYRIA GAY GIRL DAMASC BLOG A HOAX BY US MAN
- 'A GAY GIRL DAMASC': HOW THE HOAX UNFOLD
- GAY SYRIA 2004 - PERSONAL STORI
- GAY GIRL 'OUT' OF DAMASC: LBIAN ARAB BLOGGER IS MARRIED WHE MAN TOM MACMASTER
- FOREIGN POLICY: DAMASC STILL HAS GAY GIRLS
- US MAN ADMS HE IS ‘SYRIAN GAY GIRL’ BLOGGER
'GAY GIRL IN DAMASC' TURNS OUT TO BE AN AMERIN MAN
The person behd the "Gay Girl In Damasc" blog me forward after purported arrt drew scty. * gay of damascus *
Over the last several months, Ama Arraf, a blogger who said she was Syrian-Amerin and went by the name Gay Girl In Damasc, ptured the world's attentn. Today, the Gay Girl In Damasc blog end the mystery, postg an apology that revealed Ama was fact the work of Tom MacMaster, an Amerin om Geia whose universy rerds show is a medieval studi graduate program at the Universy of Edburgh Stland. The revelatn me hours after NPR approached Brta Froelicher, his wife, wh some evince that nnected her wh Gay Girl In Damasc.
GAY DAMASC
Ama Arraf, known as "Gay Girl In Damasc," was the fictnal ventn of a whe Amerin man livg Stland. The episo lead Brian Spears to offer this advice to his fellow whe wrers: "Don't -opt the voice of a mory hop that people will take your wrg more serly." * gay of damascus *
It’s an error often ma by Wterners who report on homosexualy the ntemporary Arab world through the rose-tted prism of their wtern ials.
To that list n, alas, now be add a 40-year-old Amerin studyg Bra, Tom MacMaster, who this week was exposed as the hoaxer posg as a Syrian blogger unr the name ‘A Gay Girl Damasc’.
However, for anyone who knows the Damasc scene he was purportg to scribe, or has even the vagut unrstandg of how homosexualy plays out the Arab world, there was a much more obv giveaway. Homosexuals, fact, enjoy extraordary eedoms Damasc, as they do elsewhere the regn, but only so long as they follow a goln le: don’t fe homosexualy wtern gay terms.
‘A GAY GIRL DAMASC’ CLEAN
The Gay Girl Damasc Hoax explor the vulnerabily of ted and polilly engaged Wterners to Progrsive Orientalism, a form of Orientalism embedd wh otherwise egalarian and anti-imperialist Wtern thought. Early the Arab Sprg, the Gay Girl Damasc blog appeared. Its thor claimed to be Ama Arraf, a Syrian Amerin lbian Mlim woman livg Damasc. After the blog’s went viral April 2011, Wtern journalists electronilly terviewed Ama, magnifyg the blog’s claim that the Syrian uprisg was an ethnilly and religly pluralist movement anchored an expansive sense of social solidary. However, after a post announced that the secret police had kidnapped Ama, journalists and activists belatedly realized that Ama did not exists and Thomas “Tom” MacMaster, a forty-year-old straight whe Amerin man and peace activist livg and studyg medieval history Stland was the blog’s te thor. MacMaster’s hoax succeed by meldg his and his dience’s shared polil and cultural beliefs to a falsified versn of the Syrian Revolutn that validated their views of themselv as anti-racist and anti-imperialist progrsiv by erasg real Syrians. Watch our talk wh the thor Andrew Orr here: * gay of damascus *
Bee the gay scene isn’t policised, isn’t a threat; and the army of secret police n therefore polely look the other way.
None of the men I spoke to the Damasc ffee shop had ever been harassed, and they all sffed at the ia — heavily promoted by gay-rights mpaigners the Wt — that they are persecuted. At the same time, none nsired himself ‘gay’ the sense that he harboured a burng clatn to transform what he did the bedroom to an all-fg liftyle choice and personal intik.
WHE PRIVILEGE AND THE 'GAY GIRL IN DAMASC'
A blog claimg to be wrten by a gay woman Syria is revealed to be the work of an Amerin man livg Stland. * gay of damascus *
But if secularism is the explanatn for Syria’s happy set-up, elsewhere, paradoxilly, ’s Islam’s ntug stranglehold that, if anythg, allows homosexualy to flourish even more — aga, so long as ’s not polilly manifted as a distct way of life or fed wtern gay terms. So obssed are the Islamists wh disuragg the social mixg of the sex that they have, by flt, created highly charged homosocial environments. It’s routely reported that the Wahhabi kgdom executed three homosexuals a or so ago but, as the Arabic text of the ernment prs release ma clear, the men were fact behead for rapg young boys: hardly the same thg.
The kgdom’s all-boys schools and universi, ed, have such an entrenched tradn of homosexualy that they put the English boardg schools and Oxbridge of the 19th century to shame.
Moreover, gay activists give crence to the reactnari’ argument that homosexualy is somethg foreign, precisely bee is fed wtern gay terms; and also giv Middle Eastern regim an exce to round up self-intified gay men who n be associated wh that foreignns. It me as no surprise this week that state Syrian TV, the midst of the Gay Girl Damasc sndal, reportedly blamed (and whout apparent irony) homosexuals for the uprisg the untry. A more basic qutn, of urse, is whether the ghettoised wtern gay liftyle is really somethg that anyone should take as a role mol, but that is never asked by those who sist on imposg on other cultur a ncept they only vented a few s ago.
THE GAY GIRL DAMASC HOAX
For months Tom MacMaster nvced thoands of rears – cludg some media anisatns – that his hoax blog “A Gay Girl Damasc” was genue. * gay of damascus *
Those wrgs stopped abptly last Monday, and a postg on her blog, “A Gay Girl Damasc, ” a said Ama had been hled away by ernment secury of her disappearance beme an Inter and media sensatn. On Wednday, pictur of her on the blog were revealed to have been taken om a London woman's Facebook Sunday, the tth spilled out: The gay girl Damasc nfsed to beg a 40-year-old Amerin man om persona Tom MacMaster built and cultivated for years — a lbian who was half Syrian and half Amerin — was a tantalizg Inter-era fictn, one that he ed to brg attentn to the human rights rerd of a untry where media rtrictns make tradnal reportg almost Sunday, MacMaster apologized on the blog. "MacMaster, a Middle East peace activist who is workg on his master’s gree at the Universy of Edburgh Stland, wrote that he fictnalized the acunt of a gay woman Syria to illumate the suatn for a Wtern hoax rais difficult qutns about the reliance on blogs, tweets, Facebook postgs and other Inter munitns as they creasgly bee a standard way to report on global events.
SYRIA GAY GIRL DAMASC BLOG A HOAX BY US MAN
homosexualy Syria, gay Syria, lbian Syria, LGBT Syria, homophobia Syria, gay persecutn Syria, * gay of damascus *
The edor said she had termed that Ama's e-mails had been sent om a puter several terviews, the edor — who spoke on ndn that she be intified only by her psdonym, Pla Brooks — said she enuraged Ama to wre more, first on Lez Get Real and later on a new blog, tled “A Gay Girl Damasc. As spicns of a hoax grew, many exprsed outrage that attentn had turned away om the creasgly vlent ernment crackdown ntroversy has also angered many the lbian and gay muny, which rallied around Ama. NEAL CONAN, Host: The Arab Sprg is a story of the urage of crowds, but also of pellg dividuals, talysts of change - most famoly, Tarek Bouazizi Tunisia who set himself on fire to prott the nfistn of his unlicensed u and vegetable the arrt of a young half-Amerin, half-Syrian woman who attracted a fervent followg for a blog tled "Gay Girl Damasc.
'A GAY GIRL DAMASC': HOW THE HOAX UNFOLD
The 'Gay Girl Damasc' turns out was neher Damasc nor gay or female, for that matter. * gay of damascus *
People who are mori - women, the lbian and gay muny, people who are not whe - often fd themselv havg a hard time gettg their voic heard. That sort of irony is not beg really lost on me here, pecially given the large number of lbians and gays, pecially the onle muny, who speak for themselv and do so very eloquently.
And they have taken my arguments serly when they need to be serly taken and have dismissed them as foolish when they need to The first man, the one who impersonated the Gay Girl Damasc, said, I vented her. There was a piece the Guardian this morng by Daniel Nassar lled "The Real World of Gay Girls Damasc, " where he outled some of the very real dangers that the lbian muny Damasc fac.
The stance that prompted a lot of vtigatn of Ama Arraf, "Gay Girl Damasc, " was her now fictnal arrt, that people really got worried about her.
GAY SYRIA 2004 - PERSONAL STORI
Lookg for LGBTQ welg hotels Damasc? Fd a selectn of gay & lbian welg hotels & rorts Damasc on . Book now - enjoy later and Save 10% w/ sir pric. * gay of damascus *
The Gay Girl Damasc Hoax explor the vulnerabily of ted and polilly engaged Wterners to Progrsive Orientalism, a form of Orientalism embedd wh otherwise egalarian and anti-imperialist Wtern thought.
GAY GIRL 'OUT' OF DAMASC: LBIAN ARAB BLOGGER IS MARRIED WHE MAN TOM MACMASTER
* gay of damascus *
Image ptn, An onle mpaign was lnched to secure "Ama's" releaseA blog purportedly wrten by a gay woman Syria, which scribed life Damass amid the current polil unrt, has been revealed to be a hoax. A Girl Gay Damasc gaed a worldwi rearship and was closely followed by news the te thor has now e forward - Tom MacMaster, an Amerin man studyg Stland. "One day if I'm kidnapped by my ernment, many rears won't re bee I uld turn out to be another Ama, " wrote one Lebane Gay Girl Damasc blog, datg back to Febary this year, claimed to document the life of 25-year-old Ama Abdallah Arraf al-Omari, a half-Syrian, half Amerin lbian livg Damasc.
"Mr MacMaster said he had jt tried to show some of the stggl of people livg amid polil upheaval the Middle East and to "illumate them for a wtern dience" polil and gay activists have reacted furly to the revelatn.
FOREIGN POLICY: DAMASC STILL HAS GAY GIRLS
When an Amerin grad stunt Stland revealed last week that he was Ama, the famed Gay Girl Damasc, people were angered. But Daniel Nassar of Foreign Policy don't want the ntroversey to take away om the very real stggle of homosexuals Syria. * gay of damascus *
"Bee of you, Mr MacMaster, a lot of the real activists the LGBT [lbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgenr] muny beme unr the spotlight of the thori Syria, " wrote Daniel Nassar, an edor of the Gay Middle East blog. She knows a Bible verse for every ocsn, she knows that the only real superhero is J, and she knows that the Kgdom’s Camp Damasc, the “most effective ex-gay mistry on the pla” has a 100% succs rate.
Febary to April, 2011: MacMaster giv sporadic updat om his character, rangg om polil analysis and hard news acunts of the btal reprsn of the untry’s pro-mocracy movement to love poetry and Mills and Boon-que homosexual memoirs.
Female, gay and half-Amerin, Ama Abdullah is pturg the imagatn of the Syrian opposn wh a blog that has shot to promence as the prott movement stggl the face of a btal ernment crackdown. CNN also publish an email terview wh Ama, which the character was quoted as sayg: "A whole lot of long time chang are g sudnly bubblg to the surface and views towards women, gay people and mori are rapidly changg, ". Tom MacMaster, wily reported to be a 40-year-old Amerin studyg for a Master's gree at Edburgh Universy, claimed to be the sole thor of the Gay Girl Damasc blog.
US MAN ADMS HE IS ‘SYRIAN GAY GIRL’ BLOGGER
Forty-year-old stunt adms he was behd a hoax that prompted a mpaign for the release of “Damasc Gay blogger”." data-reactroot=" * gay of damascus *
As I grew up, passg through class wh succs, I changed physilly and mentally, started a new level of my life, which characterized by reful explorg the gay world. The paradox here is that Syria we lgh at those jok a lot, but then when meet a man om that town; we never talk about homosexualy serly whout strange looks and fake s.
Apart om the fact that didn’t have private rooms, a hot tub, porno lounge, and some of the other acutrements of gay snas the Wt, every other aspect was distguishable om those plac that we all love. Not many spoke English, but a good English speaker explaed to me that there was even another gay hammam Damasc.
All the while everythg was gog on, the attendants (two or three ratty old men) went and out, cleang up cigarette butts (another ditn that this was a gay hammam was that smokg was takg place everywhere, even the most humid plac where didn’t seem chemilly possible for a match to be l), seemgly obliv to all activi takg place.