Gay Middle East responds to smear campaign
Slurs undermine our work and LGBT activists
False allegations endanger LGBT campaigners
gaymiddleeast.com
19 June 2011
Since the establishment of the Gay Middle East (GME) website in
Germany in 2003, we have been able to give a voice to a growing
network of LGBT activists across the Middle East.
Our goal has always been to provide a platform for LGBT
activists to discuss relevant developments throughout the Middle
East. We publish contributions from anybody and have never
censored an article because of the writer’s political leanings
or national identity. We have no hidden agenda - political,
financial or otherwise.
All of our editors do this work voluntarily and often at
considerable personal risk to themselves and their families. It
is for this reason that GME and its contributors are so saddened
by a wave of dangerous and untrue smears currently being spread
on blogs, Twitter, Facebook, mailing lists and Wikipedia. These
smears are designed to damage GME and our work by describing us
as Zionists. False allegations are also being made in ways in
which we cannot respond, such as on closed lists. This amounts
to censorship.
In some Middle Eastern countries the accusation of links with
Zionism can get activists arrested, tortured, jailed and in
extreme circumstances even killed. These false accusations of
Zionism are putting the freedom and lives of our courageous GME
contributors in danger. They also risk creating a homophobic
backlash in the Arab world which would cause huge damage to LGBT
rights, activists and campaigns throughout the region. This is
reckless in the extreme. We appeal to our critics to think of
the people they are endangering and stop these untrue
allegations.
The individuals behind this campaign include the Lebanese
websites Meemblog and bekhsoos.com, the blog ‘Pinkwatcher’ and
Scott Long, a Visiting Fellow in the Human Rights Program of
Harvard Law School.
Some of these individuals making smears have approached key
journalists concerned with LGBT issues to try and directly
undermine our work.
We do not understand why they have decided to launch these
smears, especially at a time when Middle Eastern LGBT activists
are facing so many challenges and threats. In particular, we and
fellow LGBT activists across the Middle East are still
struggling to undo the damage done by the ‘Amina Al-Araf’ hoax.
Tom MacMaster’s fake blog brought the work of LGBT activists in
Syria to the attention of the authorities in a dangerous and
unnecessary way. Now is a time for unity and common cause, not
making completely unfounded allegations that make our editors’
work in Syria even more dangerous.
It is for this reason that we make this statement to clear up
the false and dangerous accusations currently circulating about
GME.
• GME is not an Israeli organisation. Nor is it Zionist. It is
not owned or run by an Israeli.
• The site’s executive editor is Dan Littauer, a German citizen
(with only a German passport) who lives in London. Littauer is
also the Human Rights and Press Director of the Association of
British Muslims.
• GME's local editors are all residents of the countries from
which they report.
• GME is a loose association and has no commercial existence or
assets. All the people who contribute to it do so voluntarily in
their own spare time. We are entirely self-funded and have never
received any external funding whatsoever. To make this
absolutely clear, we have not received (and never will) any
money from the State of Israel.
• GME’s website was registered in Germany in 2003 by Shabi
Gatenio, GME’s Israel Editor on behalf of a number of Arab LGBT
activists. They feared for their and their families’ safety if
their names were linked to an LGBT website, which is why Gatenio
did this registration. Although over the past year Gatenio has
contributed only one article to GME, an interview with a
Palestinian movie maker, he is our valued Israel Editor. A copy
of his CV posted online does incorrectly say that he has been
the ‘Manager’ of GME since 2002, however he has been asked to
amend this to 'Israel Editor'.
• Some of our critics have focused on an article which GME
published about the 2010 Tel Aviv Pride event. It is just one of
several hundred articles we have published covering news about
LGBT people all across the Middle East.
• GME does not publish defences of Israeli policies nor do we
present Israeli society as somehow better than Arab societies.
We are an LGBT website and reporting service - we have no other
political agenda and do not endeavour to address other political
issues. We are an open platform for the LGBT community of the
Middle East.
• We invite any Middle East or North African activists to
submit articles about their situation and struggle and we will
publish them.
• We want to make clear that all GME Editors are completely
opposed to the denial of rights to the Palestinians. As a group,
we do not have a political position on any of the proposed
solutions to this conflict. Because of our general support for
human rights we are all agreed that any solution must guarantee
peace, justice and security for everyone in Israel and Palestine
and include an independent Palestinian state.
• We are committed to human rights and democracy for all,
whatever their race, nationality, religion, gender or
sexualities. We do not support regional dictators - as has been
claimed - and fully support democratisation across the Middle
East. At the same time, it would be dishonest and irresponsible
to ignore that this positive change might also create
circumstances in which unrepresentative extremist groups could
make life even more dangerous for LGBT people.
• The accusation that the GME Editor, Dan Littauer, has a close
friendship with the right-wing Zionist pornographic film
producer Michael Lucas is incorrect. The two have never met in
real life and their only ever interaction occurred when Littauer
wished him a happy birthday on Facebook - before he was aware of
Lucas's extremist views. This accusation is classic ‘guilt by
association’.
The smear campaign against GME first emerged when we voiced our
concerns that 'Amina al-Arraf’s blog 'A Gay Girl From Damascus'
was a fake. After we tried to verify ‘her’ existence through our
sources, we were subjected to a barrage of attacks from those
promoting her blog who claimed we did not support 'Amina'
because of 'her' anti-Zionist views.
Scott Long, in a post to the Euro-Queer activist mailing list on
7 June that attacked GME, said "those of us who are friends of
Amina”, which implied that he knew her personally. Based on this
misleading impression, people rallied to the cause of a fake
person.
Our warnings on 'Amina' were based on the first-hand knowledge
of LGBT life in Syria of our Syrian Editor, Sami Hamwi. He
correctly warned that the stories recounted on her blog were
implausible. It was for this reason that we waited to further
verify her existence before joining the ‘Free Amina’ campaign
(which was then being promoted by those who are now smearing
us). This verification of a non-existent person was perilous for
Hamwi, yet he has received no apology from those who attacked us
for listening to Hamwi's warnings.
Although 'Amina' has been shown to be a hoax and our caution was
proved right, the same people are still calling us Zionists -
even after it is clear how much damage Tom MacMaster’s hoax has
done to LGBT campaigns in the Middle East.
We have tried our best to remedy this damage by both publishing
genuine LGBT Syrian bloggers/activists on GME and facilitating
their access to other publications to tell the real story of
LGBT life in Syria. This smear campaign is particularly
unhelpful because it casts further doubts about – and places in
further danger – activists such as these in the Middle East.
We will continue our work with LGBT activists and groups across
the Middle East. We call for an end to these baseless smears.
Sectarian attacks and unfounded allegations against other
activists give comfort to homophobes and undermine the struggle
for LGBT rights. They have no place in any humanitarian or
liberation movement. We urge everyone to stop infighting and
concentrate on solidarity with LGBT people in the Middle East.
This statement is endorsed by all GME Editors:
Executive Editor: Dan Littauer
Lebanon: Roy Khoury
Jordan: Sami Al Ali
UAE: Shamil
Morocco: Jamil
Israel: Shabi Gatenio
Syria: Sami Hamwi
Qatar: ‘GayQatar’
For comment please contact:
editor@gaymiddleeast.com
Further information:
Articles containing allegations against GME:
Eurasia Review: Scott Long: After ‘Amina’: Thoughts From Cairo
http://www.eurasiareview.com/after-%E2%80%98amina%E2%80%99-thoughts-from-cairo-oped-17062011/
bekhsoos.com: GayMiddleEast.com’s Zionism (Mirrored by 'Pinkwatcher')
http://www.bekhsoos.com/web/2011/03/gaymiddleeast-com%E2%80%99s-zionism/
Bekhsoos.com: Pinkwashing Assad?
http://www.bekhsoos.com/web/2011/05/pinkwashing-assad/
Bekhsoos.com #lgbtME: We Do Not Live in Vacuums!
http://www.bekhsoos.com/web/2010/10/lgbtme-we-do-not-live-in-vacuums/
MidEastYouth: Whose Gay Middle East(.com)?
http://www.mideastyouth.com/2011/06/17/whose-gay-middle-east-com/
Wikipedia: Amina Abdallah Araf al Omari
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amina_Abdallah_Araf_al_Omari
Wikipedia: Amina Abdallah Araf al Omari: Edit history
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Amina_Abdallah_Araf_al_Omari&diff=434639970&oldid=434485476
Meem:
http://www.meemgroup.org/
Relevant Twitter accounts:
http://twitter.com/pinkwatcher
http://twitter.com/MeemBlog
Background and references:
www.gaymiddleast.com
An Overdue Apology: Human Rights Watch acknowledges attacks on
Brit activist Peter Tatchell “inappropriate, disparaging,
inaccurate”
This article in Gay City News covers Scott Long's apparent/alledged
forced resignation last year as Executive Director of the
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Program at Human
Rights Watch for making false allegations similar to those
currently being made against GME - in that case about the human
rights activist Peter Tatchell.
http://www.chelseanow.com/articles/2010/07/14/gay_city_news/community/doc4c3dfb60a514c553285529.txt
Euro-Queer mailing list
http://www.qrd.org/qrd/electronic/email/euro-queer
The Association of British Muslims
http://www.aobm.org.uk
Gay Middle East whois registration
http://whois.domaintools.com/gaymiddleeast.com
Shabi Gatenio CV
http://www.gatenio.name/gatenio/aboutme.htm
pinknews.co.uk: Comment: What life is really like for gay
Syrians: Sami Hamwi
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2011/06/16/comment-what-life-is-really-like-for-gay-syrians/
