A Gay Girl in Damascus

A Gay Girl in Damascus (February 2011 - June 2011) was a blog purportedly authored by Amina Abdallah Arraf al Omari. Omari was, in fact, a hoax persona created by the American citizen and then-student of the University of Edinburgh, Thomas Jarvis MacMaster.^[1][2][3] During the 2011 Syrian uprising, a posting on the blog, purportedly by "Amina's" cousin, claimed that the girl had been abducted on June 6, 2011. This sparked a strong outcry from the LGBTQ community and was covered widely in mainstream media.

In the wake of the reports, questions arose regarding the possibility that Arraf al Omari was an elaborate hoax. On June 7, 2011, author/blogger Liz Henry,^[4] Andy Carvin^[5] (a journalist with National Public Radio in Washington, D.C.), and others raised doubts about the identity of the blogger. The photos purported to be of her were proven to be a Croatian woman residing in Britain, with no relation to Syria, the blog, or the ongoing protests in the country. On June 12, Ali Abunimah and Benjamin Doherty of the website The Electronic Intifada conducted an investigation that pointed to a strong possibility that the identity of Amina was MacMaster, an American living in Edinburgh.^[6] Hours later, MacMaster posted on "Amina's" blog and took responsibility for it and the false reports of the girl's capture.^[7] He was accused of creating a second hoax persona to defend his first one.^[8] As of 2023, MacMaster is a history professor at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia.^[9][10] He has since written two e-novels^[11] and has come to the defence of Rachel Fulton Brown, an academic accused of white supremacy.^[12][13][14]