Good evening. My name is Dyana Bagby. I am a real lesbian and I write under my real name.
I just wanted to make this clear in case some of you had any doubts. And in light of an internet scandal that has rocked the gay — well, specifically, the lesbian — blogging world, those doubts would be understandable.
That "A Gay Girl in Damascus" blog you may have vested your time and emotions in, worrying about Amina Arraf as she wrote about participating in protests in the war-torn Syria, about surviving as a lesbian in such an oppressive regime, about how government officials apparently kidnapped her? Yeah, she's not real. "She" is a straight guy, Tom MacMaster, 40, married, from Stone Mountain, Ga. He fessed up after some in-depth reporting by the Washington Post after it and other news outlets became fascinated and concerned about this lesbian in Damascus facing possible violence because of who she is.