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Tom MacMaster

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Internet Personality

The Resume

    (circa 1971- )
    Grew up in Harrisonburg, Virginia
    As of 2011, resided in Edinburgh, Scotland
    As 'Amina Abdallah Araf al Omari' posted the blog 'A Gay Girl in Damascus'
    Admitted to being author of the blog (June 12, 2011)

Why he might be annoying:

    The hoax started unraveling when he posed as Amina's cousin to post that Amina had been kidnapped.
    He apparently did that to explain an asbence of posts while he and his wife went on vacation in Istanbul. (I suspect there were simpler ways of handling the situation than faking a crime and creating an international incident.)
    He used, without permission, pictures of a Croatian expatriate named Jelena Lecic to represent Amina.
    When exposed, he was initially unrepentant: 'I feel that I have created an important voice for issues that I feel strongly about.'
    He then issued the half-assed apology, 'I regret that a lot of people feel that I led them on.' (Why not, 'I regret leading a lot of people on'?)
    He said, 'I also had a real good ego boost in thinking 'I'm good. I'm smart. These journalists don't realize I'm punking them.'
    Unsurprisingly, Syria's official news agency quickly seized on the story to question the legitimacy of other bloggers speaking out against the nation's record of human rights abuses.
    The editor of GayMiddleEast.com wrote, 'What you have done has harmed many, put us all in danger, and made us worry about our LGBT activism. Add to that that it might have caused doubts about the authenticity of our blogs, stories, and us.'

Why he might not be annoying:

    As Amina, he flirted with Paula Brooks, the operator of lezgetreal.com, who turned out to be straight dude Bill Graber, which seems fitting in a weird-assed way.
    The Washington Post noted, 'According to a narrow definition of what it means to be real on the Internet, Tom MacMaster was very good indeed at being Amina.'
    The New Statesman wrote, 'See it for what it is - fiction - and you can admire the literary creation of MacMaster. If only he had presented it that way in the first place.'
    He admitted, 'I didn't expect this thing to get so big.'
    He told The Guardian, 'I don't feel incredibly happy with myself, you know. I wish in retrospect I would have done things very, very differently.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2022, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 12 Votes: 83.33% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 5 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 70 Votes: 54.29% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 3 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 3 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 17 Votes: 52.94% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 24 Votes: 62.50% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 17 Votes: 70.59% Annoying
    In 2011, Out of 14 Votes: 57.14% Annoying