Coming across an openly gay lesbian in Syria's like finding an honest drug dealer: impossible. Imagine our surprise, then, when we came across this interview with such a woman named Lina.

She may have been abandoned by her family for loving the ladies, but Lina's just like almost all her country men. She dresses like all the other women, she certainly prays at least five times a day and she definitely, undoubtedly disapproves of most gay rights activists.

When asked about whether she associates with other gay activists, Lina responds.

Firstly, I am against the gay activists who think homosexuality is mostly about sex. To be honest I don’t think I can ever have sex with another female, but when I see groups of activists, a lot of the time all they talk about is sex and I was really disgusted. No wonder why heterosexual people find us abnormal! I don’t like people who over-do their sexuality. Keep it to yourself! I want you to know also that I am not generalizing, because actually I am very fond of the efforts most gay rights activists are doing. I just do not agree with the manner in which some people are homosexuals in, where only sex counts or where they want to be so gay that they dress like women. For me that’s not very normal either. There are limits. We don’t want to be portrayed as freaks. This is a controversial point and I fight about it with homosexuals all the time.

It seems to us that Lina's been inoculated with her country's not-so-queer theory that gays are inherently abnormal. This, of course, cannot be held against her. It's a sad reality, however, one that leads her to say insist no one would ever think her a lesbian (style's very "important" to her), she looks forward to not being "humiliated" when introducing her girlfriend and, finally:

I am sure there are thousands like me across the Middle East who wouldn’t dare to speak or announce these hidden feelings and fantasies to anyone. And I don’t encourage them to, I lost my family. Others lose their lives.

Perhaps if there were more people fighting for gay rights, so many people wouldn't have to hide.