Next Media Animation takes on the story of Amina Araf, who blogged as “Gay girl in Damascus”, and gained a loyal following with her tales of life as a lesbian in a repressive country. Fans all around the world campaigned for her release after it was reported she was abducted by Syrian police. But NPR’s Andy Carvin investigated further after Syrian sources told him Amina’s story didn’t add up. It turned out that Amina was actually a 40-year-old American guy named Tom MacMaster. The whole thing was a hoax. MacMasters’ actions were roundly criticized by the LBGT community worldwide … including by Paula Brooks, a lesbian web editor … until it was revealed Brooks was also a straight male
Tag Archives: bloggers
LezGetReal Gets Less "Lez" And More "Bizarre" – Two Men Posing As Lesbians Flirt With Each Other
In what has to be one of the most bizarre LGBT Blog stories to happen lately. It’s been discovered that one of LezGetReal’s Founding Editor, Paula Brooks was not a lesbian or even a woman but was really a man by the name of Bill Graber, 58, a retired Ohio military man and construction worker. Graber’s identity was only found out AFTER The Gay Girl in Damascus blog, purportedly written by a Syrian lesbian blogger who was “kidnapped” during one of the uprisings actually turned out to be hoax and the writer of the The Gay Girl in Damascus blog turned out to be a married, American man named Tom MacMasters.
Most ironic part of all this.
“In the guise of Paula Brooks, Graber corresponded online with Tom MacMaster, thinking he was writing to Amina Arraf. Amina often flirted with Brooks, neither of the men realizing the other was pretending to be a lesbian.”
Not thats one for the books.
Linda Carbonell one of the owners of LezGetReal , wrote: “The past three days have been devastating for all of us on LezGetReal. ‘Paula Brooks’ has been a part of our lives for three years now.” But obviously not a big enough a part that anyone on staff at LezGetReal ever had any contact by phone or in person with “Paula/Bill” for the past three years.
Personally, I don’t know what to believe from LezGetReal on this whole storyline plot that’s even too far fetched for even “The L Word” but I do hope that they get their act together, but I also hope that they do it with integrity and there are no more gender surprises coming up. because there is a real need for a lesbian based news source. I just hope that they can show some sincerity and integrity and move forward.
Back2Stonewall.com Receives LGBT Blogger Initiative Scholarship to Netroots Nation 2011!
BOOYAH!
Back2Stonewall.com has recieved a scholorship from the LGBT Blogger Inititive to atend this years Netroots Nation in Minneapolis MN.
Fore those of you who aren’t in the know Netroots Nation is a political convention for American progressive political activists and bloggers. That group is broadly called the Netroots and has since grown to include progressive organizations and politicians who use new media technologies to communicate with their constituents. The convention re branded to Netroots Nation in 2007 in an effort to more accurately reflect the makeup of its audience and mission of implementing programs that teach and empower Netroots communities to affect change in the public sphere.
This year there will be over 70 panels (in addition to the parties, trainings, screenings and other fun events) that will be presented in Minneapolis June 16-19 and will feature Senator Russ Feingold as the opening keynote speaker.
I will be posting and Video blogging from the event!
The Great Google – Blogger Crash of 2011 Is OVER! – Back2Stonewall.com IS BACK!
Well it seems that the Great Google – Blogger Crash of 2011 is over (we hope).
In case you missed on the fun, ALL Google Blogs around the word were unable to publish for about 24 hours and have lost a days worth of posting. But thems the breaks kids and there’s no use crying over lost posts so here’s a quick recap of some of what you might have missed.
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*Margaret Gallagher Srivastav is STILL A BITCH!
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*Tony Perkins is STILL a KKK connected asshole.
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*Peter LaBarbera is still an undercover S&M closet queen who owns assless chaps
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*The GOP/Republican Party is fucking insane.
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*Sarah Palin is a Cylon (With a major malfunction)
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*And last but not least…… Rick “Man on Dog” Santorum is STILL having that “frothy” internet problem.Thanks for hanging in there everybody……
I’ll be updating the blog and posting again in a bit. And this weekend Back2Stonewall.com will be making a MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT
NOW if only I could get into TWITTER.
Queerty.com Closes Its Sites – Say Bye Bye Davey Wavey
After over a week of downtime citing “emergency technical problems”, Queerty.com has officially closed.
Queerty owner David Hauslaib, explained the shutdown via email to the NGBlog:
As many of you know, last year Queerty partnered with the folks at 353Media to handle its operations. I transitioned out of my original role to make time to tackle some unrelated projects, and a trusted crew took the reins. Sadly last week, in a scenario that began with some technical headaches, has ended with 353 opting not to continue operating the site. It is a decision I was saddened to hear, and I worked to find an amenable solution that would keep Queerty online. That effort was unsuccessful.
And that’s all she wrote.
Netroots Nation Saturday: Pelosi Takes The Stage And Obama Sends A Message – No New Information. No Timelines. Just The Same Ole, Same Ole With Some Fear Thrown In For Good Measure (VIDEO)
Yesterday at the Netroots Nation 2010 gathering in Las Vegas. Nancy Pelosi took the stage and President Obama sent a videotaped message. Obama’s message was much of the same except this time he started throwing in the “fear factor” of what will happen if the “ReTHUGlicans” take control in 2010 and 2012 and touted all the Democrats achievements. (“Vote for us we might give you crumbs even though we promised you more. Or vote for them and get sent to concentration camps” sort of message)
Watch the Pelosi and Obama Videos and read more after the jump…..
I would like to respond to a few things Nancy Pelosi talked about regarding ENDA and DADT, Pelosi who has been a friend to the LGBT Community basically said ENDA could not go forward until DADT was finished. (Washington, D.C. it seems s not able to multi-task when it comes to LGBT rights) and how she loves ENDA. At his point Pelosi said something that I must correct her on. Pelosi said:. “It’s embarrassing that its taken so long (18 years) to get ENDA together.” No Nancy, it’s not embarrassing…..ITS DISGUSTING. And to call it any less , to me at least is highly offensive. We are talking about Civil Rights here. Something that should not be put on the back burner for any reason for any group of people at all.
Nancy then took a backhanded swipe at GetEQUAL’s recent protests, Pelosi said, “I would target [politicians] in a positive way. This is America, show your appreciation to those that are with us.” UGH. Nancy and the Democrats need to learn that until DOMA and DADT are repealed (with full implementation of the repeal) and EDNA and UAFA are passed, that any and all politicians are up for being targeted. Especially, most especially, the ones that claims to be on our side and then do NOTHING to advance the agenda. It makes absolutely no sense to target politicians that do not claim to be on our side and that vilify us. Their minds will never change. And what’s worst is that there are members in her own party that feel that way or else there would be no problem getting these issues passed.
Perhaps, just perhaps if the Democrats put their own House in order and learned to play hard ball with their own members we wouldn’t have to target any Democrats members for being against us. Because the major problem the Democrats have is that unlike the Republicans who may be evil. The Republicans are evil and unified. THEY ARE ONE BIG EVIL UNIFIED PARTY. The Democrats on the other hand have a three way split between Progressives, Conservatives, and the dreaded undercover Republican spies in thier party called The Blue Dogs. And until the Democratic Party picks group it really wants to be and gets unified it will never get anything done. And until that time, and since the Democrats leadership won’t work on, push , or embaress, their own members who are against us. WE MUST.
And as for Obama….
The speech was very nice But let me say something to you. You promised the LGBT Community alot in return for our support and our money and your term is halfway done. Maybe you should have made it clearer that you expected to be president at get all those promises done in the 20 years that you expected to be President. Because thats not the open timetable we expected or supported. Simply put. If you want our support, anmd you want our money give usYOUR timetable for the LGBT agenda? Maybe if you provide this to us, we wouldn’t be so impatient, and we would not feel like that you are only interested in our money.
Rant over…….for now