Foreign Policy: Damasc Still Has Gay Girls : NPR

Contents:

• 'GAY GIRL IN DAMASC' TURNS OUT TO BE AN AMERIN MAN
• ‘A GAY GIRL DAMASC’ CLEAN
• SYRIA GAY GIRL DAMASC BLOG A HOAX BY US MAN
• THE GAY GIRL DAMASC HOAX
• ANDREW ORR ON “THE GAY GIRL DAMASC HOAX”
• THE REAL WORLD OF GAY GIRLS DAMASC
• GAY DAMASC
• THE GAY GIRL DAMASC HOAX
• ACTIVISTS NMN VLENCE AGAST LGBTQ MUNY ST. VCENT, WHERE GAY SEX IS ILLEGAL
• JAGUARS STRENGTH COACH KEV MAXEN COM OUT AS GAY
• NEW EVINCE ABOUT AMA, THE “GAY GIRL DAMASC” HOAX
• HOW TO HOAX YOURSELF: THE CASE OF A GAY GIRL DAMASC
• WHE PRIVILEGE AND THE 'GAY GIRL IN DAMASC'
• FOREIGN POLICY: DAMASC STILL HAS GAY GIRLS

'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.

‘A GAY GIRL DAMASC’ CLEAN

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.

SYRIA GAY GIRL DAMASC BLOG A HOAX BY US MAN

She was a gay woman livg a untry where beg gay is illegal.

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.

THE GAY GIRL DAMASC HOAX

"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.

"Wispread ncernThe ntroversy over “A Gay Girl Damasc” has created anguish among her fans. 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.

ANDREW ORR ON “THE GAY GIRL DAMASC HOAX”

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.

"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.

THE REAL WORLD OF GAY GIRLS DAMASC

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.

Early on the Arab Sprg, a blog that had already existed for several years went viral: A Gay Girl Damasc by Ama Arraf, a Syrian-Amerin Mlim woman, who wrote about the uprisgs Syria and her life as a lbian Damasc.

GAY DAMASC

Andrew Orr, Profsor of Milary History and Secury Studi at Kansas State Universy, has lved to the qutns his newly published book, “The Gay Girl Damasc Hoax.

Dpe his attempts, Tom MacMaster, the man behd the fake persona of the Gay Girl Damasc blogger, never accurately reprented the LGBT muny Syria.

THE GAY GIRL DAMASC HOAX

It would be temptg to scribe all this as a thrivg ‘gay scene’, but would be foolish to do so. 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.

ACTIVISTS NMN VLENCE AGAST LGBTQ MUNY ST. VCENT, WHERE GAY SEX IS ILLEGAL

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.

JAGUARS STRENGTH COACH KEV MAXEN COM OUT AS GAY

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. All this is perfectly keepg wh the regn’s long and rich history of tolerated homosexualy.

NEW EVINCE ABOUT AMA, THE “GAY GIRL DAMASC” HOAX

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.

HOW TO HOAX YOURSELF: THE CASE OF A GAY GIRL DAMASC

Wtern-based gay rights anisatns loathe this set-up as a kd of c hypocrisy. Sadly, that don’t stop them om relentlsly tryg to impose on the Arab world their wtern gay liftyle choic.

For a start, achiev what the reactnari uld only dream of achievg: rcg the number of practisg homosexuals. Once homosexualy is fed and dragged out of the closet wtern terms, nobody wants to have anythg to do wh . 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.

WHE PRIVILEGE AND THE 'GAY GIRL IN DAMASC'

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.

FOREIGN POLICY: DAMASC STILL HAS GAY GIRLS

Vcent and the Grenad, where gay sex is still homelsns to ongog physil and verbal abe, the gay muny the small natn of some 100, 000 people says is unr nstant threat. While rarely voked, the rights group and a lol activist said the laws help legimize hostily and abe agast gay people.