‘Paula Brooks,’ editor of ‘Lez Get Real,’ also a man

Washington Post ^ | 06/13/2011 | by Elizabeth Flock and Melissa Bell

[a fool in paradise]

...“Paula Brooks,” editor of Lez Get Real since its founding in 2008, is actually Bill Graber, 58, who said he is a retired Ohio military man and construction worker that had adopted his wife’s identity online...

Brooks’s identity came under suspicion after news broke that a woman called Amina Arraf on the blog “A Gay Girl in Damascus” might not really be a Syrian lesbian.

Over the weekend, as journalists, bloggers and fans of Amina hunted for clues to the identity behind the blog, Brooks came under review as a possible suspect. Liz Henry, a Web producer at BlogHer.com, questioned Brooks’s involvement with Amina, as Amina had started to write about the Syrian uprising on Lez Get Real before starting her own blog...

Graber said he started the site to write about gay issues after seeing the mistreatment of close friends who were a lesbian couple. He said the site was “done with the best of intentions.” As a former Air Force pilot, he also said he used the site to argue in favor of the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell repeal.

“I didn’t start this with my name because... I thought people wouldn’t take it seriously, me being a straight man,” he said.

He felt secure that no one would discover his true identity until the story of Amina started to unravel. He said his connection to Amina was purely coincidental and started when Amina commented on a post on the Lez Get Real site in February. It “was a major sock-puppet hoax crash into a major sock-puppet hoax.”

In the guise of Paula Brooks, Graber corresponded online with Tom MacMaster, thinking he was writing to Amina Arraf. Amina often flirted with Brooks, neither of the men realizing the other was pretending to be a lesbian.

[a fool in paradise]

Graber said he started the site to write about gay issues after seeing the mistreatment of close friends who were a lesbian couple. He said the site was “done with the best of intentions.” As a former Air Force pilot, he also said he used the site to argue in favor of the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell repeal.

Moral Absolutes PING

[Red Badger]

PAUL AND PAULA
“Hey Paula”

[Paul:]
Hey, hey Paula, I wanna marry you
Hey, hey Paula, no one else will ever do
I’ve waited so long for school to be through
Paula, I can’t wait no more for you
My love, my love

[Paula:]
Hey Paul, I’ve been waiting for you
Hey, hey, hey Paul, I want to marry you too
If you love me true, if you love me still
Our love will always be real
My love, my love

[Both:]
True love means planning a life for two
Being together the whole day through
True love means waiting and hoping that soon
Wishes we’ve made will come true
My love, my love

[a fool in paradise]

In the guise of Paula Brooks, Graber corresponded online with Tom MacMaster, thinking he was writing to Amina Arraf. Amina often flirted with Brooks, neither of the men realizing the other was pretending to be a lesbian.

[a fool in paradise]

Over the weekend, as journalists, bloggers and fans of Amina hunted for clues to the identity behind the blog, Brooks came under review as a possible suspect

The 'poofers' see a conspiracy where they want to see one. < /sarc >

Yet "trufers" are told that a conflicting (or absent) paper trail for a 50 year old adult "means nothing".

Skepticism can be a good thing, especially when it comes to blindly accepting what liberal activist "journalistas" are saying.

[livius]

Gads. This is getting wierder and wierder every day.

[circlecity]

Classic post-modern relativism. As long as you feel justified in the righteousness of your personal cause then lying, stealing, cheating or anything else is permissible in furtherance of your objective.

[Huskrrrr]

Dude looks like a lady...

[a fool in paradise]

Related story:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2733838/posts
Syria Gay Girl in Damascus blog a hoax by US man
BBC News ^ | June 12 2011 | BBC Mobile

[Waryone]

Two men pretending to be lesbians trying to hook up? I guess that means they’re doubly gay. Now I’m positive the lesbian population has been overestimated.

[NowApproachingMidnight]

I too am a lesbian trapped in a man’s body.

[a fool in paradise]

Trapped you say? HRUMPH!!! Just another MAN keeping a woman down. < /sarc >

[Brookhaven]

(1) One of the funnist things I’ve read in a long time. Proof truth is stranger than fiction (and certainly a future News of the Wierd story).

(2) I’m sure neither actually realize the damage they’ve done to the causes they support. Every gay blog is now suspect.

[B4Ranch]

>> The ‘poofers’ see a conspiracy where they want to see one. < /sarc >

Yet “trufers” are told that a conflicting (or absent) paper trail for a 50 year old adult “means nothing”.

Skepticism can be a good thing, especially when it comes to blindly accepting what liberal activist “journalistas” are saying.<<

willful ignorance — “A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest”

[B4Ranch]

There’s more of us than the libs realize.

[a fool in paradise]

Both probably thought that 1984 was satire.

[NCLaw441]

school to get through

(obscure Animal House reference)

[Durus]

Why would men pretend to be lesbians online? It doesn’t make any sense.

[ReformedBeckite]

reminds me of dogbook and catbook