Whe Privilege And The 'Gay Girl In Damasc' : NPR

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

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.

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.

GAY DAMASC

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.

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. 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.

‘A GAY GIRL DAMASC’ CLEAN

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. 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.

WHE PRIVILEGE AND THE 'GAY GIRL IN DAMASC'

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. 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.

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.

THE GAY GIRL DAMASC HOAX

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. 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. 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.

SYRIA GAY GIRL DAMASC BLOG A HOAX BY US MAN

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.

'A GAY GIRL DAMASC': HOW THE HOAX UNFOLD

"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. "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.

GAY SYRIA 2004 - PERSONAL STORI

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. 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. DAMASCUS, Syria — The neighborhood of Shaalan the center of Damasc was nsired the most attractive place for the lbian, gay, bisexual and transgenr (LGBT) muny.

GAY GIRL 'OUT' OF DAMASC: LBIAN ARAB BLOGGER IS MARRIED WHE MAN TOM MACMASTER

People have bee more aware of the gay muny over the last three years, pecially after the media placed the spotlight a negative way.

Gays are not allowed to open bars or private nightclubs, and therefore the nightclubs they go to are limed to those that accept the LGBT muny, ually eher bee the owner is open-md and wel LGBT clientele after they have bee regular clients or bee the owner is gay. Mazen, a bar owner al-Rawda who is openly gay, told Al-Monor that his bar has bee a regular meetg place for the lol LGBT muny, whout officially beg a gay bar due to the law. “Bee I'm open to everyone regardg my sexual tenncy, the bar has bee a favore place for the gay muny, particularly sce is the center of Damasc.

FOREIGN POLICY: DAMASC STILL HAS GAY GIRLS

“When new straight clients e they adapt to the suatn, which mak them more receptive to the prence of gays public. The war has brought people closer to each other and unmasked the other si of the gay muny, which has always been shunned the media.

You perceive a doctor, lawyer, engeer and teacher a different way om the stereotypil image that most of the people have of [gays], namely that they are feme and attract their partners at traffic lights. Away om the nightlife, and like the rt of the Syrian people durg the crisis, the gay muny has been active volunteer work and civil society anizatns. Ree add, “One good thg that has happened durg the war is the rapprochement between lbians and gays; we have bee iends and formed a group.

I was more isolated the past and I refed to meet gay men, but now I feel that I'm more darg when they are bi me.

US MAN ADMS HE IS ‘SYRIAN GAY GIRL’ BLOGGER

Some believe that the war provid homosexuals wh an opportuny to publicly show their sexualy, as people are preoccupied wh the war, while others argue that society still needs many years to accept them. The 'Gay Girl Damasc' turns out was neher Damasc nor gay or female, for that story has had the media world a b of a enzy the last fortnight. The mea culpa statement, as has been touted, has not gone down well wh eher the facto Gay and lbian muny the Middle East, nor wh 'ser' journalists who mt be feelg a ltle 'had'.

'However asi om beg all too quick to blame this hoax ter crime and lash out at this Thomas MacMaster, as have the gay Arab muny together wh media and activists who eher spent time followg him or are disgntled by the stolen thunr, some mentators have turned their crcism more ward and rebed the suceptible dience we have been to play to the hands of this prankster.

Brendan O’Neill ptur well:"Those plag about beg duped, Soby Doo-style, by the apparent master of disguise that is Tom MacMaster need to have a word wh themselv: was their openns to beg duped, their embrace of the seemgly ma--heaven ‘gay girl Damasc’ narrative wh s achgly right-on ntrast between a morally sensive LGBT gal and a male-domated regime, which really blew this blog out of all proportn. For five termtent months, the vtigator tracked the activy of 50 acunts on Facebook whose owners clared their homosexualy, and ma terviews via text msage wh ten people, eight of whom were female. Shortly before her suici, Hejazi raised the flag bearg the slogan “All for Love and Love for All” at a ncert Egypt by the Lebane die rock band Mashrou’ Leila, which supports gay rights.