Gay Girl in Damascus Is a Man Called Tom http://cryptogon.com/?p=22927

Amina Arraf, the “Gay Girl in Damascus” who sent the world into a frenzy after she was reportedly kidnapped by Syrian security forces, has been outed as a 40-year-old American man.A new entry on Sunday in the blog, which for months was purportedly written by a lesbian Syrian-American woman living in Damascus, asserted that the entire saga was a hoax.

The post, which came days after an entry saying the blogger had been arrested, was signed by “Tom MacMaster” in Istanbul, Turkey.In it, the author says the narrative was fictional but insists it “created an important voice for issues I feel strongly about”.It says the author had never expected so much attention.