Mystery Surrounds Missing Syrian Blogger

News for the Week Ended June 8, 2011
BY ANN ROSTOW


Mystery Surrounds Missing Syrian Blogger

Has the Syrian-American blogger of “Gay Girl In Damascus” been kidnapped? On Monday, the blogger’s cousin wrote that Amina Abdallah Araf had been snatched on the street, and thrown into a car by three armed men on her way to meet some activists. A month or so earlier, Amina had blogged about a confrontation between her father and some government thugs, who came to the house to arrest her but were later convinced to leave. Amina, who was allegedly born in Virginia to an American mother and a Syrian father, had been in hiding since that incident.

Yet there may be something strange going on. The photos of Amina on Facebook and elsewhere in the press are actually shots of a London-based woman named Jelena Lecic, who saw her own picture in the Guardian and called the newspaper.

Further, it seems as if no one has actually met Amina, including her close friend, a Canadian woman named Sandra Baragia, who tells the press that she and Amina have only exchanged emails. No one in the press has been able to reach a family member, or confirm the details of Amina’s abduction.

But look. Someone has been writing “Gay Girl in Damascus” since it started in February. And someone wrote Amina’s earlier blog back in 2007. Maybe Amina used Lecic’s photo for anonymity. Maybe she didn’t like her own image. Or maybe “Gay Girl in Damascus” is written by a 60-something man or an articulate ten-year-old. I’m just saying that someone wrote it, and for all we know that person was kidnapped.

Or not.

As far as I’m concerned, I’d rather believe the kidnap story and be wrong than sit around badmouthing “Amina” for the faux photo while she’s being tortured or raped by Syrian henchmen. Plus, she has a theoretical mother in Virginia, or at least from Virginia. Can someone not track this woman down and shed some light on the situation?

I just hope whoever was writing the blog is okay.
--


Men Behaving Badly

I probably read too many trashy thrillers, but there was one detail about that last story that caught my eye. Amina and Sandra were supposed to go on a trip together in the near future. Given that Amina presumably does not resemble her picture, is it possible that she disappeared rather than meet Sandra face-to-face? (Cue: First nine notes of Bach’s Tocata in D minor or whatever. You know the one.)

Before we move on to GLBTLMNOQ news, can we all agree that there are a lot of childish grown men making headlines for themselves these days? I mean, WTF?

Don’t get me wrong. Maturity is not synonymous with sober, prudent behavior. You can be mature and wild and crazy at the same time, a combination that many of us seek to perfect, like the ingredients of a fine cocktail. But sexting boyish boasts and sending pictures of your knickers to online strangers when you’re a member of Congress?

I can’t help wondering why Anthony Weiner didn’t strip off the briefs and bare all to his naughty cyber friends. Did Mr. Fancy Pants think that nudity would be “going too far” and that he should be using a little discretion? What. A. Moron.

And I’ve also been listening to earnest debates about whether or not racy correspondence counts as “cheating.”

Hello? You either have a spouse who loves you and is fundamentally honest about your marriage and your life together, or you don’t. You cannot parse profound infidelity. In some cases, extramarital sex could be nothing more than a forgivable error of judgment. In other cases, a faithful marriage of decades could be one long emotional lie. Vocabulary really doesn't enter into it.
--


‘Til Wyoming Do Us Part

In legal news this week, there was an interesting ruling out of the Wyoming Supreme Court, where justices unanimously reversed a lower court and gave the green light to a same-sex divorce. The two women seeking to end their marriage were wed in Canada in 2008. A lower court had issued the typical antigay decision, ruling that since same-sex marriage wasn’t recognized in the Cheney State, a same-sex divorce was similarly out of the question.

But Wyoming is one of those states that has yet to pass a draconian anti-marriage amendment. True, gay couples can’t get married in the state, but as the high court said in its (unanimous) five-page opinion, there’s no reason why a same-sex marriage can’t be formally severed in Wyoming, much as state courts had previously dissolved common law marriages that would not have been honored under Wyoming law.

The court made clear that its ruling would have no impact on marriage itself, only on divorce. But it’s true as well that allowing a same-sex divorce is indeed a back door way of recognizing a same-sex marriage. There’s no need for a divorce if you’re not married to begin with, right? Did I mention that the court was unanimous?

There’s also another ruling in our favor in a joint bankruptcy case. Do you remember that we talked about a joint bankruptcy case in New York a few weeks ago?

No?

Color me not surprised. These bankruptcy cases are the Tim Pawlentys of DOMA law. Still, every day that a judge takes a look at the Defense of Marriage Act and rolls his or her eyes is a good day for our side.

This time, New York law professor Art Leonard informs us, a California couple wanted to start over and had nearly completed their joint filing when the government agent filed a motion asking the bankruptcy court to stop the proceedings based on the Defense of Marriage Act. The couple, married in the 2008 window of opportunity, were not separating like the couple in the New York story which you’ve forgotten all about. So the notion of splitting them up into two legal entities and trying to mess around with the unnecessary complications that would entail did not pass muster with the court.

Bankruptcy cases don’t stir the heart like bi-national couples or sad widows. But they serve as an example of the myriad problems we encounter as a society when we try to treat a married couple, with all their intricate shared legal and personal connections, as if they were single strangers under the law.

And what the anti-marriage crusaders forget is that we are married. Even when we can’t tie a legal knot, we get married anyway, have children, share bank accounts, buy houses together, shop together, rack up debt and assets together and create a shared life that no constitutional amendment can force back into separate fields. Banning recognition of these realities doesn’t keep gay couples apart. It just makes life difficult for everyone involved, from bankruptcy judges to corporate employers to divorce courts to bank lenders, funeral homes, hospital staff, mortgage companies, school officials and who knows who else? No wonder the rest of society is getting sick of this nonsense.
--


The Ick Factor

So, did you read about the glass staircase in the new Columbus courthouse that opened this week?

Can you believe an architect would put a glass staircase in a public building? But worse, can you believe that out of the hundred or two hundred or how ever many people who checked the blueprints and approved the expense, not one of them would wonder how a woman in a dress or skirt would be able to use those stairs?

And while I was researching this provocative design feature, I couldn’t help but notice that an ice cream store in Columbia, Missouri whipped up a batch of cicada ice cream, made from insects collected by the employees in their back yards.

According to the Associated Press, the staff of Sparky’s Homemade Ice Cream ripped the wings off the iconic insects, boiled the bodies and covered them in brown sugar and milk chocolate to make a base for the confection. The cicada ice cream went on sale June 1 and was quickly sold out. Public health officials issued a statement of disapproval, but stopped short of banning future production.

Sorry, that’s just gross. And yes, there are people who will eat insects. But indeed, there are people who will eat anything, now aren’t there? Does that make it right? Shave your cat and throw the fur into a stew pot with half a chicken and some carrots and people will eat it. Toss the old sponge from under the sink into the blender with some rum and orange juice and it’s party time somewhere.

Just sayin’.
--


Ware’s the Prop 8 Case?

I’ve been ignoring a hearing date in the Prop 8 case, because it’s just not an interesting story. Not like cicada ice cream or glass staircases at any rate.

Next Monday, Judge James Ware, who inherited the lower court jurisdiction for the Prop 8 case after Judge Vaughn Walker retired, will consider whether or not Judge Walker should have recused himself from hearing the Prop 8 case because he was (and is) in a gay relationship.

Newsflash! The answer is no, and there’s no way Judge Ware will come to any other conclusion. Please. Only straight judges can hear gay civil rights cases? Only men can judge women? Only whites can judge blacks?

Judge Ware will also consider a motion to bar public release of any of the video coverage of the trial. Naturally, that motion comes from the losers who reportedly looked foolish and absurd throughout the proceedings.

Suffice to say that nothing much is happening with this case. As you know, the litigation went off into the wilderness last year after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit asked the California Supreme Court to mull over a question of standing under state law for the indefinite future. Once the California court produces an opinion, the Ninth Circuit will return to its deliberations and may well end up tossing the Prop 8 appeal on technical grounds.

That would be fine with me. Prop 8 would be dead, and marriage would resume in California. As for the rest of the country, we have half a dozen direct challenges to the Defense of Marriage Act in progress. But these seem bogged down a bit as courts wait for filings from the U.,S. House of Representatives. I suppose I could look up the exact status of all these cases, but since nothing significant is happening right this week, I don’t see the point.

Mel just made me a “Southern Fly,” which consists of “spring water” and Firefly Sweet Tea Vodka with a twist. I’m not sure she actually used “spring water,” but the result is not half bad. We are officially on summer vacation, because she is a high school teacher, and we acquired a large plastic pool from Academy for $29.00 for the season. Life is good.

Now that I think about it, I’m sure she did not use “spring water.” I did not see her with a bucket, and plus, there are no “springs” in our neighborhood and as such, we rely on the kitchen sink or the refrigerator for water.
--


The End is Nigh

So let’s see what else is going on. Or, considering that this column is almost over, let’s see some of the stories we ignored this week.

The end of the military ban is slowly approaching, emphasis on slowly. The House version of the Defense Appropriations bill includes some amendments aimed at delaying the repeal of Don’t Ask, but they will probably be killed by the Senate. We are still waiting for “certification” by the President and the Defense Secretary that repeal will not interfere with military readiness. After that we will wait a couple of months more for no reason and then Don’t Ask will be dead.

Someone actually got discharged from the Air Force under Don’t Ask recently, but apparently it was a service member who was begging to leave.

The Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond pulled the rainbow flag up its official flagpole to celebrate Pride and got an earful from a conservative lawmaker. But apparently the Richmond Fed is a private operation so it was none of his business. Who knew?

And a corrections officer in SoCal asked if he could march in uniform in the West Hollywood Pride parade and was told no. Paging Gloria Allred! After the famed defense lawyer took up his cause the decision was reversed and the proud officer was free to parade to his heart’s content.

That’s enough for one week, don’t you think? We don’t want to sate our limited appetite for GLBT news in one gluttonous snarf, now do we? Better we pace ourselves.
--