Petrelis Files

Guardian Vid: Straight Male Explains
'Gay Girl in Damascus' Hoax

Kudos to Esther Addley of the Guardian in the United Kingdom for snagging this Skype chat with the hoaxer behind this continuing scandal. From the Guardian site:

The male American PhD student who confessed to being an internet hoaxer masquerading as a lesbian blogger in Damascus has spoken publicly about the reasons behind his deception, saying he was motivated, in part, by his own "vanity".

Gay activists in Syria and further afield have reacted furiously to the revelation that the blog, A Gay Girl in Damascus, was written not by a 35-year-old woman kidnapped by security forces last week, but by Tom MacMaster, a married, 40-year-old American studying at Edinburgh University.

Speaking via Skype video to the Guardian, MacMaster, who is on holiday in Istanbul with his wife, expressed some contrition for the blog, which he began in February after constructing an elaborate web identity for Amina Abdallah Aral al Omari, a fictional lesbian Syrian, over more than four years. ...

And here the vid of the chat Esther Addley had with MacMaster: