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Lez Get Real, Shall We?

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The distance from Damascus to Edinburgh to Ohio totals about 10,000 miles, but for two straight American men pretending to be lesbian bloggers covering different continents around the world, the distance from the truth was immeasurable.

A conversation between Clinton Fein and Tanya Domi.

 

Clinton:  LezGetReal for a second. There are so many layers to this story that I don’t really know where to begin. In a nutshell, a State Department investigation into the sudden disappearance of Amina Abdallah Araf al Omari, a widely read Syrian woman blogging as “A Gay Girl in Damascus” turns out to be a hoax perpetrated by “A Straight Creep in Edinburgh,” Tom MacMaster, who is actually American.

In a half-hearted, non-apologetic apology, MacMaster, a Middle East activist from Georgia USA, claimed that despite leading everyone to believe he was Amina, he was dealing with very real issues and giving voice to things that needed to be spoken about. “I never expected this level of attention. While the narrative voice may have been fictional, the facts on this blog are true and not misleading as to the situation on the ground. I do not believe that I have harmed anyone – I feel that I have created an important voice for issues that I feel strongly about. I only hope that people pay as much attention to the people of the Middle East and their struggles in this year of revolutions. The events there are being shaped by the people living them on a daily basis. I have only tried to illuminate them for a western audience.” Seemingly unaware of the extent to which his elaborate hoax was diverting attention away from real issues facing actual Syrians in an increasingly brutal crackdown on protesters.

Then it turns out that the person who helped solve the case because her suspicion was aroused by the IP address of the “A Gay Girl in Damascus” site (although the State Department’s findings would have anyway), was Paula Brooks, the founder of the LezGetReal web site, who helped launch “A Gay Girl in Damascus”. Only, it turns out Paula Brooks is really a 58- year-old retired military veteran and construction worker, Bill Graber. (The picture of him that I used in the graphic for this article was provided to the Washington Post by Graber. but who verified that it’s him?)

 

Tanya: Clinton, I do not know where to begin on the LGR and the “Gay Girl from Damascus” blog hoaxes. I am filled with such a range of emotions about this hoax—rage, anger, exasperation, shock and some disbelief.  I mean, two white heterosexual American men who had the audacity to pose as lesbians.  There is such disrespect and mockery in their actions and the presumption that they could pass as “gay girls” and in the course of propagating these blogs, played with women’s hearts and minds.

In the case of “Amina Abdallah”, MacMaster, the man behind the faux Syrian lesbian, has cruelly played all of us to be fools in his sport, with lesbians as his game. Bill Graber, who posed as “Paula Brooks” on LezGetReal blog, as a deaf lesbian mother—what a con! I do agree with feminist psychotherapist Susie Orbach who has called these lesbian personas a “double inversion”—exploiting the ‘illegitimacy’ of the person they were impersonating to give themselves legitimacy”.

 

Clinton: “We Are All Khaled Said,” one of the social media activism success stories, to a large degree responsible for the overthrow of Mubarak in Egypt and the blossoming of the Arab Spring in the Middle East said this in response to this whole sordid affair: “I think this hoax is a stab in the back to Online activists and especially to those who need to hide their identity to protect themselves from dictators. I believe that many people’s trust in social activism have been shaken by this hoax.”

I don’t even want to get into the whole pathology of heterosexual men posing as lesbians – yet!

 

Tanya: Interestingly enough, I am reading Arabist Joseph Massad’s tour de force book titled Desiring Arabs at the moment, in which the author posits that “the Prophet prohibited suhaq, or sapphism, just as the Qu’an prohibited adultery”.  Knowing about such prohibitions under Sharia law, for Ammina publicly identifying as “A Gay Girl in Damascus” struck me as so, so audacious—a death wish, if true.  And, unlikely, as well. It immediately raised a red flag to me.  I was intrigued and decided to watch her alleged kidnapping play out, figuring if this woman really existed, she would most likely be murdered, execution style by zealot religious police.

And let me just add that I have always, always been uncomfortable with the LGR’s tagline:  “A gay girl’s guide to the world”.  “A gay girl” is not the customary adjective and noun used by lesbians to refer to themselves.  Younger women commonly call themselves “queer” and older women like myself call ourselves “lesbian”.  But ‘gay girls’? I always thought that tag line was a bit off and odd—sort of discomforting.  I fortunately was never pulled into the LGR and it never called out to me.

 

Clinton: Samya from Muslimah Media Watch wrote a brilliant essay as to why this is damaging to the cause of global online activism and Arab women. And while I agree with her insights, I don’t agree with her conclusions, because with both “A Gay Girl in Damascus” and LezGetReal there were signs. Signs that we chose to ignore. And so I don’t think we get off the hook that easily without looking at what those were and why and how we missed them.

The first time I was exposed to LezGetReal was on Twitter, where we followed each other and briefly communicated. I have no idea who was managing their Twitter account. Although I found the word “lez” to be incongruent with the content, which I thought was sincere and smart actually – David Kato, Uganda, The Family. The same way you were uncomfortable with the LGR’s tagline. I have lots of friends who are lesbians and I have never, not once, heard any of them use the term “lez” to identify themselves. I always thought it was either a kind of derogatory term or one that you would see on porn sites to titillate straight men. Now it kind of makes sense in a way, as does the irony of the “GetReal.” It seems to me now the very name LezGetReal was a taunt – how could we have missed it?

A good few lesbian bloggers I have read in the last couple of days are understandably pissed. People are calling for global regulation to prevent this kind of hoax from happening again. Samaya wrote “[T]he MacMaster case should give rise to more serious global regulations to ensure that the Web, widely acclaimed as a window of opportunity for women aspiring for social and political advancement, would not be used for extortion and defamation.”

I could not disagree more. What we need are smarter tools that enable us to authenticate voices and better filters, both technological and organic, not a global Big Brother. The need for anonymity trumps our desire to accept anything at face value. Yes, this may be a setback for global activism and Arab women in the short term, but in retrospect, this didn’t pass the smell test, and we should have caught on sooner Period.

 

Tanya:  As a feminist, I think people should read Samya’s essay to learn why it is so important to create space for them in the cyber public square –yield to vital Arab women’s voices during this seismic moment in Middle East history.  So much of women’s lives are spent behind the doors of purdah in the Middle East. Like lesbians and gays, Middle East women are forced to hide by custom and law—finding an outlet online is vital to them, like breathing air.  Therefore it is so shameful that MacMaster usurped a cyber platform by posing as a “gay girl” for his own amusement and uninformed purposes.

Nonetheless, I do share your opinion Clinton that we should not regulate blogs or the net to prevent these hijackings.  Power put into the hands of a censor is quite dangerous and today’s hero could be tomorrow’s enemy.  No regulating entity should have that kind of power. That is why we must build resilient democracies that provide multiple opportunities to make known these transgressions in the public square and let the chips fall where they may.

 

Clinton: McMasters and Graber are both fraudulent, smug, self-important assholes with major issues and bizarre motivations I think need exploring, (which we will) but let’s own our willingness to be so successfully duped. Discernment is our responsibility, not the people creating content authentic enough to fool us.

Tanya: LGR is now a damaged brand and should be taken off life support and shut down. The key bloggers at LGR have seriously damaged credibility, perhaps irreparably harmed by the revelation that Paula Brooks never existed. Their claims that they never knew Paula Brooks were Bill Graber ring hollow.  Pull the plug.

(Image: Clinton Fein)

 

Clinton Fein is an internationally acclaimed author, artist, and First Amendment activist, best-​known for his 1997 First Amendment Supreme Court victory against United States Attorney General Janet Reno. Fein has also gained international recognition for his Annoy​.com site, and for his work as a political artist. Fein is on the Board of Directors of the First Amendment Project, “a nonprofit advocacy organization dedicated to protecting and promoting freedom of information, expression, and petition.” Fein’s political and privacy activism have been widely covered around the world. His work also led him to be nominated for a 2001 PEN/Newman’s Own First Amendment Award.

 

Tanya L. Domi is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, who teaches about human rights in Eurasia and is a Harriman Institute affiliated faculty member. Prior to teaching at Columbia, Domi worked internationally for more than a decade on issues related to democratic transitional development, including political and media development, human rights, gender issues, sex trafficking, and media freedom.

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News

AOC Says Reflecting Pool Is ‘Swamp’ Because GOP Doesn’t ‘Understand First Thing About Science’

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12 hours ago

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June 24, 2026

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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said that the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool has become a “swamp” because the GOP doesn’t understand science.

Ocasio-Cortez made the comments in response to journalist Pablo Manríquez, according to The Hill.

“I mean, when you defund science research, when you de — when you don’t really understand the first thing about science,” she said. “Yeah, they talked a bunch of smack, they said that they had to repaint the pool, and now they’ve turned the place into a swamp. They turned it to an actual swamp.”

READ MORE: Critics Torch Interior’s ‘Propaganda’ for Likening Reflecting Pool Algae to Iran’s Navy

President Donald Trump had often railed against the maintenance of the reflecting pool not being up to snuff, and recently renovated it. But instead of making the water beautiful and clear, the pool has turned solid green from algae blooms. The lining is pulling away and floating up, and this week, three dead ducks were found in the reflecting pool.

 

The deaths of the ducks have led some to speculate that there is blue-green algae in the pool, which is harmful to humans and animals, according to Newsweek. However, aquatic ecology professor Rosalina Stancheva Christova took samples of the water last Tuesday, and determined the algae was a common green variety of the Desmodesmus genus, according to NPR. Desmodesmus is not toxic.

The algae may be harmless, but it is unsightly, particularly in a pool that’s supposed to be crystal clear as a mirror. Part of the issue is that the blue lining that replaced the old liner is too dark.

“The new, darker interior surface is going to absorb more sunlight,” specialist “Swimming Pool Steve” Goodale told NPR. “It is going to result in water that’s warmer, and that ultimately is going to lead to more prolific algae growth.”

The Department of the Interior said that the bloom was due to “residual algae” in the supply lines, according to CNN.

Just as it’s unknown currently what killed the ducks—if it was algae, natural causes or something entirely different—it’s not clear why the liner is peeling off, however some experts have ideas.

Science communicator “The Monarch Diaries,” explored what was perhaps happening in a thread on the social media platform Bluesky. This May, shortly after the renovation process started, they predicted that the lining—Rhino Pipeliner 5000—would be a perfect place to grow algae.

“They’re using Rhino Pipeliner 5000, which freezes as sprayed-on curds almost exactly as it hits the surface. Won’t flow out, flatten, and self-level like standard epoxy or paint would. Under standing water, the orange peel texture is a perfect scaffolding for algae, bacteria, and general bio scum,” they wrote.

They're using Rhino Pipeliner 5000, which freezes as sprayed-on curds almost exactly as it hits the surface. Won't flow out, flatten, and self-level like standard epoxy or paint would.Under standing water, the orange peel texture is a perfect scaffolding for algae, bacteria, and general bio scum

— The Monarch Diaries (@monarchdiaries.bsky.social) 2026-05-20T05:15:26.286Z

In another post they accurately predicted that the liner would start peeling away, but they gave it 5 years rather than a month.

If Rhino Pipeliner 5000 (w custom flag blue tint) is indeed what they're applying, in around 5 years it'll be delaminating and peeling up in massive slimy sheets. So a perfect future metaphor for the Trump yearsinB4 capitol scum pond liner delamination

— The Monarch Diaries (@monarchdiaries.bsky.social) 2026-05-20T05:44:55.270Z

The Monarch Diaries explains that Rhino Pipeliner 5000 is intended for use in pipes, as its name suggests. They say that it “shrinks 1-3% when curing”, perfect for pipes but not for a large pool.

“On a big slab, uh, no it will pull towards the center and delaminate from the substrate at the edges. Plus, applying directly to concrete is a problem. Long story short: Swiss cheese pinhole effect,” they said.

This shit shrinks 1-3% when curing, which in a pipe is exactly what you want. On a big slab, uh, no it will pull towards the center and delaminate from the substrate at the edges.Plus, applying directly to concrete is a problem. Long story short: Swiss cheese pinhole effect. Already flagged.

— The Monarch Diaries (@monarchdiaries.bsky.social) 2026-05-20T05:26:44.551Z

In another thread, they explained that the coating needs to be resprayed within a 4-hour window or it won’t work—but they say that didn’t happen.

“Watching them work, here’s what they did: spray a section, let it sit for hours to days, then spray the next one feathering over the cured edge. This lands FAR outside the 4-hour application overlap window (worse in hot humid weather). The seams never got a chemical weld in the first place,” they wrote.

Watching them work, here's what they did: spray a section, let it sit for hours to days, then spray the next one feathering over the cured edge. This lands FAR outside the 4-hour application overlap window (worse in hot humid weather). The seams never got a chemical weld in the first place. 4/

— The Monarch Diaries (@monarchdiaries.bsky.social) 2026-06-19T17:04:35.373Z

The entire thread is interesting and goes into the physics of what may be happening for those who are interested.

While there is a scientific explanation for what has happened, Trump claimed that the disaster that is the reflecting pool is because of vandals. Six people have been arrested for vandalism, but the government’s own documents show no evidence of vandalism, according to Rolling Stone.

Instead, the supposed “vandals” can be seen in video footage either touching the water or pieces of the plastic liner that have floated to the top of the reflecting pool. Trump has recently accused vandals of cutting the liner with a knife, despite saying the liner could not be cut last month when touting the then-upcoming renovation.

Image via Shutterstock

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HUMILIATING

Trump DOJ Nominee Surprised By Questions About Tweets Insulting Judiciary Committee Members

Published

13 hours ago

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June 24, 2026

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Konstantinos Ligris, a DOJ nominee floated by President Donald Trump, seemed surprised when he was asked about tweets insulting two sitting senators serving on the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Trump sent Ligris’s nomination to the Senate Committee on the Judiciary on Wednesday. If confirmed, Ligris would become an assistant attorney general for the Office of Justice Programs. The OJP is an agency under the Department of Justice best known for controlling criminal justice grants.

In Wednesday’s hearing, in clips surfaced by journalist Aaron Rupar, committee ranking member Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) grilled the DOJ nominee about tweets he had written insulting a number of politicians, including Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN), Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), as well as police officers as a whole.

READ MORE: ‘Coverup’: Kristol Says a Senate Vote on Blanche Should Be a Vote on Epstein

“I can’t imagine how you can defend some of the things that you’ve been posting for years, some of the things that you’ve written,” Durbin said. “There’s this awful tweet that you put in the record, a matter of public record, now. In light of what you’re seeking here… in 2024, Ligris referred to police officers as ‘dumb as dirt,’ close quote, when writing quote ‘breach of peace, typical cop dumb as dirt.’  And now you’re seeking a position to work with police departments all over the United States, and to give to these officers who risk their lives for you and me, officers which you’ve referred to as dumb as dirt. You’re going to be allocating federal funds. How could you do that?”

Ligris hedged and replied that he wasn’t familiar with the context and purged his tweets every 90 days “for cybersecurity,” but Durbin wasn’t having it. Durbin demanded he address the “dumb as dirt” comment. Ligris again said he didn’t know the context, but said that as “most of my family serves in law enforcement,” he did not think that “law enforcement is dumb as dirt.”

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) continued this line of questioning, focusing on tweets Ligris made insulting two members of the Judiciary Committee.

“You have tweets that call Donald Trump and Kamala Harris ‘two clowns,’ you have tweets that call Senator Murkowski ‘almost as dumb as Kamala,’ you have tweets that call Senator Collins a ‘fraud.’ You have tweets that call Senator [Alex] Padilla, who sits on this committee, a ‘thug.’ You have tweets that call Senator [Adam] Schiff a ‘fraud.’ He also sits on this committee. And you undertook no preparation to face questions about that as you come before the Senate Judiciary Committee,” Sen. Whitehouse asked.

The DOJ nominee said he hadn’t prepared to answer those questions, and confirmed he did not inform the DOJ about his tweet history. He added that the DOJ “never raised” any questions about the tweets with him. Sheldon then asked if Ligris could be relied on to approve grants filed from the state of California, which Padilla and Schiff represent.

“Having called Senator Padilla a thug at least five times, and Senator Schiff a fraud, what reasonably could they expect about you giving California programs a fair hearing if you’re put in charge of OJP?” Whitehouse asked.

“Every state and every jurisdiction would expect that they would go through the process of applying for grants with the Office of Justice Programs, and reviewed through the process… of applying for grants with the Office of Justice Programs, and those and those grant applications would would be administered and reviewed through the process of the of the department,” Ligris replied.

“Yeah, that’s what they would expect. And then there’d be a guy at the head of the program who thinks that the senators involved are a thug and a fraud. How do you convince us that you’re not going to let that personal bias against these two individuals affect your judgment?” Whitehouse fired back.

“Because I believe that the Office of Justice Programs has a mission to support the entire country, every state and every city, and protect our communities, irrespective of the elected leadership that exists there today or tomorrow,” he said.

“So, ‘just trust me,’ I guess, is what you’re saying,” Whitehouse said.

Ligris’ background is as a real estate attorney, but he went into the technology sector. He is currently a managing director at security consulting firm RoyStark as well as a director at CATIC Financial and CATIC Holdings, a title insurer, according to Criminal Justice Journalists Crime and Justice News Digest. He also founded the digital real estate platform Stavvy Inc., and the legal firm Ligris, which focuses on real estate.

Image via Shutterstock

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IT'S NOT A GAME

Trump Holds Housing Bill Hostage, Mike Johnson Says He’ll Sign It Anyway

Published

16 hours ago

on

June 24, 2026

By

President Donald Trump suddenly announced he was holding hostage a housing bill that passed with overwhelming bipartisan support until the SAVE America Act is passed. But Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said Trump will sign it anyway.

Trump was set to sign the “21st Century ROAD to Housing Act,” which passed the Senate Monday 85-5 and the House Tuesday 393-13, on Wednesday afternoon. But those plans were thrown into chaos when he posted to Truth Social that he was cancelling the signing.

“Today’s Housing News Conference and Signing is hereby cancelled until such time as we pass the desperately needed SAVE AMERICA ACT, which I consider to be a National Emergency. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” Trump wrote. Shortly before on Wednesday morning, he had called for the end to the filibuster in order to pass the act.

READ MORE: ‘A Joke’: Trump’s Possible National Housing Emergency Sparks Fierce Backlash

The SAVE America Act—or Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act—would require Americans to provide proof of citizenship when registering to vote and show photo ID when voting in federal elections. Trump claims the bill is necessary to prevent widespread election fraud, despite there being no evidence of voter fraud on a large scale. Though passed in the House, with Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX), joining Republicans, the bill has languished in the Senate. Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) said he will not bring the bill to a vote, because he knows it will not pass.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Johnson dismissed Trump’s bluster, and said that he would “understand it’s a good product” when he goes through the housing bill, and will ultimately sign it.

“When interest rates are high and costs are high, it makes the barrier to entry so high that young families can’t get into houses anymore. That’s not a Republican or Democrat problem, it’s an American problem, so, Americans are fixing it. And so, we’re going to reduce regulation so builders can build. We’re going to limit institutional investing in the housing market. We’re going to bring the American dream back within the grasp of hardworking American families,” Johnson said in a clip surfaced by journalist Aaron Rupar. “The president, when we go through the details of the bill, he’s going to understand that it’s a good product and certainly something that fulfills his promises to bring down the cost,”

The 21st Century ROAD to Housing Act aims to increase the housing supply and drive down home prices. One of the main ways it does so is to limit institutional investors from purchasing homes, according to CBS News. It will also help local governments convert empty buildings zoned for commercial use into housing, and removes some regulations in building new houses.

Image via Reuters

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