The Issues With Men Posing as Lesbians on Blogs & Making International News

Earlier today I posted this blog post about men posing as lesbians on blogs making international news.  It's a convoluted stories with many people and moving parts.

I wanted a separate space to identify the issues and questions raised by the saga.


A couple of points.

1.  MacMaster said he created the Amina Arraf avatar character because he was not being taken seriously and he was treated as too extreme when he posted as himself. He said he had "been accused of being of a misongyist, a homophobe, a racist, and just about everything else."

2. MacMaster said he also wanted to practice his creative, fictional literary voice.

3. MacMaster did not contain himself to one personal blog and a forum. He posted as Arraf on dating sites and presented himself as a reporter to a news blog.

4.  MacMaster/Arraf has a real-life wife and had an online girlfriend.

5. There is some question as to how much and what and when MacMaster's wife knew. She says she was deceived and that she is sick and furious over it.

6.  MacMaster used the real pictures of a London woman named Lecic who was completely unaware of how her pictures were being used (from her private Facebook page) and very upset when she found out about it as reporters began contacting her at work, calling her family, etc.

7.  MacMaster said he was banned from Wikipedia for making too many edits on the subject of Syria.

8. The U.S. State Department got involved in the attempted rescue of the fictional Arraf.

9.  The U.S. government has now been accused by members of the Syrian government and others of making up stories and perverting facts directly due to this hoax.

10. Somehere in the neighborhood of 15,000 people may have joined the Facebook page created for supporters of Arraf trying to secure her freedom.

11.  According to Andy Carvin of NPR, MacMaster communicated with legitimate news organizations as Arraf, including the Guardian.  MacMaster "arranged to meet" a UK Guardian reporter in Damascus and supplied a photo, again, of another woman, Jelena Jacic, but never showed up.  Francesca Paci of Italy's La Stampa published an apology letter from MacMaster.  He had communicated with her as Arraf and never told her Arraf was a fictional construct.

12.  Organizations such as blogs, media outlets and advocacy groups feel their credibility has taken an enormous hit.

13. Bill Graber, who had been posing as Paula Brooks, the editor and owner of  Lez Get Real, was also outted in the ensuing scandal.

14.  Following the Graber/Brooks story reveals many fallings out, business disputes over the site, complaints about Brooks' writing, comments made by Brooks filled with the not unfamiliar histrionics of an attention-seeker wallowing in drama.

15.  A handful of women are now claiming that Graber/Brooks harassed and bullied them in an effort to get them to go public with their private stories about coming out as lesbians.  He wanted them to "do it for the cause."  Said they were basically not "lesbian enough" and not doing their parts.

16.  Bill Graber/Paula Brooks reportedly told people she was the founder and editor of Lez Get Real, a PhD from Bryn Mawr with three master's degrees (Duke), an employee at the Smithsonian Institution, a former employee for MSNBC including The Rachel Maddow Show and Countdown with Keith Olbermann and connected to NBC (able to get press passes, press exposure and more) via relatives who are NBC staffers, an activist, a mother of twins, who also adopted a son, the widow of a wife who had been a pilot in the Navy or Air Force and had died of breast cancer, later the girlfriend of a 41-year-old Jewish FBI agent named Stephie who was great in bed.  Brooks had also been molested by a priest as a child at a school for the deaf.  Oh yeah, and Brooks was deaf...which is why she could not use the phone or VOIP to talk to anyone, though her "father," Bill occasionally would on her behalf.

17.  One woman, Melanie Nathan, said she had even quit her paying job to volunteer full-time for the Graber/Brooks LGBT website, Lez Get Real.

18.  Bridgette LaVictoire fell in love with Paula Brooks (Bill Graber).

19.  McMaster says people "want to believe."

20.  MacMaster said it was a boost to his ego to "punk" so many intelligent people and legitimate news organizations.

21.  Many people claim to have been emotionally invested and now deeply wounded.

From NPR:

"Since MacMaster's confession went up, the reaction from the blogosphere has been harsh. A lot of criticism thrown his way was that he had thrown all bloggers in the Middle East into question, both in their countries and in the Middle East."

"MacMaster said that was part of the reason he kept Amina going. If he was discovered, the Syrian government could point to him and say 'see how these foreigners are trying to malign our country'"

So then the questions might be:

1.  Is what MacMaster did wrong and why?

2.  Is he a sociopath, a narcissist, a man who made mistakes, a thoughtless, juvenile cad, an arrogant, condescending, privileged, interfering ass, a butthurt internet troll, an attention-seeking drama whore, a performance artist, an opportunistic salesman, a legitimate creator of successful fiction, someone with a mental illness, an evil bastard or something else?

3.  What is the extent of the damage done by MacMaster?

4.  MacMaster is a U.S. citizen whose actions indirectly cost the U.S. State Department.  Should something be done about that and if so what should or could be done?

5.  Was the MacMaster stunt damaging to LGBT rights?  Syrian rights?  Other marginalized or oppressed groups or people in danger?

6.  What can be done about something the situation with MacMaster and Graber?

7.  How does what MacMaster did compare to what Graber did?

8.  What is Graber?  A sociopath, a narcissist, a man who made mistakes, a thoughtless, juvenile cad, an arrogant, condescending, privileged, interfering ass, a butthurt internet troll, an attention-seeking drama whore, a performance artist, an opportunistic salesman, a legitimate creator of successful fiction, someone with a mental illness, an evil bastard or something else?

9.  Münchausen by internet?

10.  How will these stories affect "citizen journalism"?

11.  What about the legitimate international news agencies that were also fooled?


More questions:

1.  From Jared Man on NPR comments: "Perhaps their words have been more enlightening than detrimental to the lesbian and those masquerading as lesbian communities? Lets all try to be optimistic today, shall we?"

2.  From Rhetorical Jones (Fool_Child) on NPR comments: "Someone please remind me - Why are anonomous bloggers relevant and considered 'newsworthy'?"

3. From Knowledge at studwithswag.com: "Isn’t there a line that should never ever be crossed when it comes to merging fantasy and reality?"

More comments:

1.  From Johnny Truant on NPR comments: "Ah, the Internet: Where women are men, the men are boys, and the girls are FBI agents."

2. From Albert Esq (neoli) on NPR comments: "this story is timeless, whether it was fanatics masquerading to be the 'word of god' or 'liberals' masquerading as liberals...people will do just about anything to get noticed."

From Knowledge at studwithswag.com:

"I am somewhat reminded of Orson Wells’ radio adaptation of The War of The Worlds which caused panic and chaos by those who believed the terrifying narrative was real.

But this is no such thing. There’s a clear difference between openly fictionalizing or placing a spin on real events and perpetrating a triple-double whammy by pretending to be someone or something you’re not. No theater training in the world could have aptly prepared Tom MacMaster or Paula Brooks aka Bill Gather and all of the people they lied to for the resulting backlash.

This is one of those chapters in faction (a mix of fiction and fact) where by the end of the story the truth is greater and more interesting than fiction. MacMaster was in the process of writing the story of his life, and he will likely try to capitalize on all of the events leading up to it now. Here’s a quasi academic who doesn’t, at first sight, correlate the difference between fact and fiction and hurt and pain that he’s caused to many. He is so oddly transparent that he and his wife decided to go on vacation in the midst of all the chaos; in the midst of a grand internet hoax coming to light. It’s classic sociopathic behavior from a narcissist and I hope those who read his graduate dissertation pay very close attention to his detail."

LezGetReal: Tom and Bill and The Tale of The Fake Lesbians