One step forward, a bunch of steps backwards thanks to cancerous religious extremists whose political reach is always overreaching; this is the story of modern Lebanon.
A few days after Crepaway’s left field ad which featured a same sex couple cuddling by the shore (link), Beirut was in full gear to celebrate its own version of Pride Week, as part of the Lebanese International Day Against Homophobia.
Multiple LGBT NGOs have scheduled multiple events throughout the week for the occasion, from storytelling nights featuring Mashrou’ Leila’s lead singer Hamed Sinno, to a conference on Saturday by HELEM about fighting homophobia, transphobia and biphobia in Lebanon.
Yesterday, however, Lebanon’s establishment dealt a setback to the organization Proud Lebanon which had planned an event this week as part of Beirut Pride Week. The reason was that a Lebanese Islamist organization – hay2at al 3oulama2 al muslimin – decided that such an event was in violation of their own fragile self and what they believe in, which led them to pressure the ministry of interior which prompted the hotel to cancel the event under the guise of them “not being able to keep the participants safe.”
It’s intriguing, isn’t it, that a conference about basic human rights in 2017 cannot be kept safe somehow by security officers. You’d think that they’d be capable of doing the most mundane of their jobs: assign a few officers to the hotel in question, in order to guarantee the well-being of Lebanese citizens who are expressing their constitutionally given right of freedom of expression, but no.
It’s not that they can’t guarantee the participants’ safety, it’s that they don’t want to. Our system is too afraid of irrelevant snowflake Islamists whose entire existence these days is about making sure nothing about this country moves forward in any way that threatens their power. Our system is too terrified of the advances that Lebanon’s LGBT community is making, be it in fighting homophobia to court victories to Lebanon further being the lead Arab country in such issues.
It should come as no surprise that those same Islamists wanted a Coca-Cola poster taken down in Tripoli because it was too “obscene” for their taste. Spoiler alert: it featured two people standing very close to each other. Those same Islamists also objected to a lingerie ad in Beirut under the guise of it being too close to a Mosque. That same ad had been approved previously by the same authorities that were forced to remove it.
The problem is that we have authorities that keep listening to such pests. When will this country stop listening to such cancerous infestations that are hell-bent in keeping everyone in their own dark ages? I guess we’ll never know.
However, those Islamists and other religious extremists who have terrorized the country with their horrendous thought don’t know that the years of struggle that Lebanon’s LGBT community has and is enduring has made them resilient to the hate and discrimination that infests their being.
As such, Beirut’s Pride Week is still underway, and if there’s anything to be proud of, it’s the fact that Beirut is the only Arab city to have such celebrations, in spite of Islamists and religious extremists, and in such an open way. L’Orient Le Jour published an article earlier saying that obscurantism had won. It may have prevented one event from taking place, but that hasn’t stopped the rest of what was planned from still being underway.
Lebanon’s extremists did not win. Their hate won’t win, and it sure as hell won’t find ground this year.
You can check out some of the events at this link. I will be updating this post if any other events are brought to my attention.
A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares 
I share your sentiments, but the issue is that these people are actually needed to keep a lid on the other scarier Islamists. These ‘hay2a’ folks are disturbingly extremist, but these days they are considerate moderate and able to defuse the other crazies. The played a decent part in many situations that could have caused the crazies to gain traction in the Sunni circles. For instance after the Roumieh beatings video surfaced, or after multiple incident in Aarsal. They also played a role in acting as a bridge between the LAF and the locals in sunni towns that felt targeted by the LAF – who by the way turn a big blind eye on Hezbolla’s fighters crossing the borders in hordes. Yes this sucks but I wonder if listening to these guys, politically at least, is a sound thing to avoid having them turn against the state completely. The sunni problem is not going to go away any time soon sadly – it is a miracle that with everything happening next door it is still calm and cool. Ill take this violation of human rights over Islamists running riots on the streets of Beirut and being faced other Islamists in the name of allah….
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Fuck you and your faggot accepting movement. Lebanon will never and should never allow that kind of fucking filth in the as a proud homophobic i say they those cancerous disgusting things should be hunted down and thrown out of lebanon! #killallfaggots.
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Kill all faggots and in 20 year you will have faggots fighting for equality. You can’t kill us.
We are a force of nature
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you are natures mistake, your kind will never be accepted not in lebanon not anywhere in the world. you may have your fag marriage but even that will always be frowned upon. no matter how you look at it your kind is hated and always will be. russia has the right idea and there is no extremist islam. bare in mind that even the most educated, the most humble and the most aware people are the ones who continue to spread the anti faggot agenda. the voices of the ones shouting for gay rights are the most misinformed morons on earth. tell me where is the right for incest? where is the the right for polygamy? where is the right for all those other types of so called ”love”. the majority of the world is straight because that is the normal way to be you cockroaches are literally sick and glorifying homosexual is the same as glorifying any other mental disease. you are better of staying in hiding or killing yourselves.
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Are you aware that not everyone believes in your god and/or ideology? Just asking… As you seem convinced that everyone does.
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lets correct something here, first of all my belief does not dictate my thoughts the idea of two people of the same sex fucking each other has no meaning and makes no logical sense. the whole point of sex is reproduction. putting your dick up an asshole give you nothing but shit. there is more to arguing against something so fucked up like homosexuality then just using religion. there are thousands of atheists who stand against homosexuality a it has nothing to do with religion its because it serves no purpose. the argument of freedom to love is flawed because as i have said. you refuse the freedom of incest because it is considered wrong yet when two people of the same sex want to fuck each other its ok. this logic in itself is flawed and dont bother using the messed up child as an excuse, those faggots cant even have children so incestuous weirdos can also adopt or use surrogacy.
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Music to my ears!
I bet he watches lesbian porn
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Well if non-reproductive sex is out of the question, I hope you will stick this logic and never have oral sex.
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This guy also quite clearly loves gay sex. The lady doth protest too much.
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funny how the gay lover accuses me of being gay as though it were an insult. i suppose this means being gay still counts as insulting someone, which kind of refutes your support to lgbt. i can see you are not the brightest person ( even though you try by quoting hamlet).
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For a good reason! We real heteros are pro gay: less competition to get women laid, and women are rarely 100% lesbian, most of the lesbian are in fact bi, so a gay pride is a good place to meet women and likely to have a threesome with two bi-chicks.
Ever made love to two girls at once? You prefer if they are bi so you don’t end too tired, in need for 3 days to recover.
So the more gay males, the more chicks for real heteros while it has been PROVEN that males that are the most hardcore opponents to the LGBT community are in fact gays who, due to cultural pressures, can’t accept their feelings.
You’re gay, you just don’t know it!
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Hey fuck stick in you bullshit book of god alah it states – animals can not sin! Yet there are 5000 species that interact in homsexual activity? Shove you belief up your ass as all that is is shit. Un educated fuck
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Ufufuf why are you so bothered about homosexuals? You must be like insanely insecure. Homosexuality was declassified as a disease a long time ago, get a newer book. But simpletons like you have the wrong idea obviously. You should be sent to a priest and psychologist because you might be gay yourself with all that anger towards homosexuels, they’ll transform you from heterosexual to homosexual in no time (see how ridiculous that sounds?).
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reminds me of the Orlando massacre shooter … he was gay and closeted, pressured by his conservative family to deny his reality. shame.
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his death just adds more to the count of more dead fags he should have taken more with him
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We’ve established that you have a strong opinion here, I have a strong belief that you’re a rotten waste of a seed that blossomed into an asshole. Unfortunately my belief doesn’t really matter, and thankfully neither does your opinion.
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i am bothered about many things you leftist fucktards deem acceptable, such as abortion or gay marriage that does not mean i am secretly some closeted faggot, i hate spiders does that make me a closeted spider? it is a known fact you gay supporters have the worst argument when it comes to supporting something that is so messed up. if anything the gay supporters are more closeted than the anti-gay supporters since they are just looking for someone to accept a dirty fucked up life style, lebanon remains clean from those parasites yet you fuck ups are ready to destroy it more by allowing them to walk the streets? tell me what exactly do those faggots bring to this world apart from a sick lifestyle? the majority of paedophiles are gays that is fact, a US statistic show that gay and bisexual men, particularly young African American gay and bisexual men, are most affected by HIV. this is the kind of sick filth you support? it is utterly pathetic that your only argument for people who know how fucked up fags are is ” religion” . but in the end this is way idiot leftists like you are to moronic to even talk to.
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By reading your amount of hatred, one can only become pro-abortion
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I hope that you do know that homosexuality isn’t a disease… Some people are just born that way. It’s not about choice AT ALL either! Homosexuality can also be seen in the wild: a lot of birds and other animals form gay couples, which is totaly normal and natural. Who are you to call homosexuals ”natures mistake”? I hope you get more informed on the subject.. clearly you’re not.
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Samer : faggs don’t want to kill you. If you’re handsome, they want smth else. Nevertheless, ALL those I’ve known with your type of reaction ended making love with other males : you react this way because your “education” = brainwashing block you. If it wasn’t the case, you wouldn’t be on this webpage. As a real hetero, LGBTs don’t bother me at all, as long as it’s between consenting adults. Everytime there is a gay pride in my area, I intend in order to find 2 lesb/bi and have a threesome.
Samer : you’re a fag too, and your anger comes from the fact you can’t admit it! As soon you’ll acknowledge your real nature, you will feel way better. A force of nature will surely be the “active” in your gay-marriage, my 2c you’ll be nicknamed the “Arab stallion” in the LGBT community.
BTW I’m here since I look for material to troll Hezbuttocks fanboys 😉
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Hahahahahahahahah your comment is so stupid it actually made me laugh…
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Yeah that’s the best you can comnent because you can’t prove me wrong lol
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wow someone is really bothered by the millions of homosexuals living their normal life (not lifestyle, it’s a normal life) not so bothered by retarded bronze age persons like you. Maybe you should update yourself dear about a lot of things happening in the world and in our era. Let me tell you about some of them:
– anyone in the world can be attacked by HIV virus. Stop linking it to gay people. CHECK SOME SCIENCE BOOK AND NOT WHAT YOUR DICKHEAD CONSERVATIVE PARENT OR BOOK TOLD YOU!
– being homosexual is not a mental health and it’s confirmed by SCIENCE! HOMOSEXUALITY EXISTS IN NATURE (PLANTS, ANIMALS AND FUCKING HOMO SAPIENS) SINCE OUR VERY LONG EXISTENCE AND IT WAS PERFECTLY NORMAL IN ANCIENT ERAS AND SOCIETIES UNTIL RELIGION FUCKED IT UP. and again, CHECK SCIENCE AND HISTORY YOU IDIOT!
– you’re arguing about love and sex referring it to where to put your dick. that’s enough to make me feel stupid for answering you in the first place. get a life dude. you’re sick!
– please, you’re stupid enough to talk about homosexuality which in 2017 is getting normalized BECAUSE THIS HOW THINGS SHOULD BE! so please don’t mention also abortion you sexist dickhead.
the list goes on and on and on, but you’re so stupid to argue with. #BYEFELICIA
PS. excuse me for the words i used. but this is the way to deal with retarded conservatives like you. Hopefully one day societies will get rid of people like you, it may take us a long time to see that day but it’s worth the wait.
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Your reply has absolutely no back up it is just you saying go read this and go read and seriously how stupid can you be for saying plants are homosexual this proves that i am talking to a brain dead idiot lol. I actually provided proof that hiv is linked more to gays what the hell have you provided other than showing that your some dumb chick who lacks evidence to back their claim and who thinks plants have gender to be gay or straight. Its 2017 and homosexuality will never be normalised no matter what fucking liberal country try and make it seem normal it will never happen. Also love and sex work together dumbass or are you one of those childish girls that only wants to hold hands ? Here is a little news flash for you people show their love by having sex and those disgusting gays show their so called fake love by putting their dick where shit comes from. Sure some straight people do it but that is their fucked up choice whereas faggots have no choice but to put it up a shitter picture that in your mind you sick fuck
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The fact that you’re such a hating dark fucking dickhead is beyond me. The fact that you’re comparing pedophilia and incest to homosexuality is sickening. You’re just another phsycopath that needs to be killed and fucked with your own decapitated dick (assuming you have one) so we clean our society from a passive aggressive disrespectful inhumane hating piece of shit like you. If two people loving each other is making you so angry even though they do not affect you and do not give you any disease or affect your stupid empty life then you need therapy. Most successful people on earth are gay. The brand your wearing could be made by a gay man. Fucking Napoleon was gay. Yet we study his achievements and historical past not who he slept with. Incest is not only sick it’s unhealthy. Pedophilia is taking advantage sexually of a child that can’t say no. You’re forcing an innocent child to fulfil your sexual desires!! That’s sick!! Having sex with a kid or a person without their fucking consent is sick. Having a sexual or emotional relationship with another adult willingly and happily is not to be compared you moron! Your facts are so deep up your ass! I do hope you don’t reproduce you should go instinct. Get a fucking life or better yet go die a painful death preferably killed by a bunch on fags. Tfeh
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The fact that you cannot see the similarities between homosexuality and incest shows your own fucking stupidity. If two adults of the same sex are allowed to love each other and conscent to it then two adults that are siblings have the same rights there is no difference you fucking dense pile of human garbage! The fact that you deny that it is a known fact that the majority of pedophiles are gays continues to show your fucking ignorance the whole of nambla was supported by faggots! It is disgusting people like you who supports this gay shit that increase pedophilia seriously fuck you and go fucking kill yourself you pathetic excuse of a human! Also stop fucking making up history to back your sicj arguments napoleon was not a faggot you fucking moron i honestly hope you get shot like the dog you are!
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That’s pretty well articulated (and extremely misinformed) hatred. However, your bark is probably much worse than your bite. If not, and you actually ARE a violent asshole, it’s people like you who help the LGBT cause advance. People like you are likely to commit hate-crimes which in turn will open the floodgates for the entire community to react and have shit hit the fan. Thanks for the support bitch.
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the lgbt cause advanced because of a decrease of people like me. ever sine the liberal leftists took over the first world this messed up system of trying to normalise gays started to spread around the world. logic and reason was completely abandoned for the sake of human emotion. yet human emotion is the very cause of human downfall. homosexuality offers nothing to a world that is nearly overpopulated. the majority of the planet is straight yet this minority is treated special for what exactly? because of their feelings? what advancement does it bring to the human race to justify such a dirty lifestyle? the answer is absolutely nothing. the media portrays the gays as victims yet refuses to show the damages of accepting those gays into society. all it does is create a chain reaction. first the gays get their right, then the incestuous people ( its actually happening in some countries). then all the other weirdos will want their rights. this is what your liberal agenda offers. this is what ignorant idiots like you cause.
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Lol man, you’re brilliant. I’ve never met such an eloquent dumbass, please keep posting more of your butt-hurt emotional vomit (which you criticize in others btw.) Your “facts” are not even facts, and most of us are well aware of Liberal Leftists and their bullshit due to the fact that we live with idiots like you. Alot of us are almost right wingers who want to eliminate your ugly existence because they are a cancer to humanity. How old are you? And how fucking ugly and lonely are you to write all this? You’ll never get the society that you want, ever. It’s not the Inquisition anymore, it’s not 640 AD either. There are a few cities that can accommodate your kind such as Mecca and Raqqa , I can send you the ticket if you want you little whiny pussy boy. Barking behind a screen about morals and values you don’t even uphold.
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you say my facts are wrong yet you fail to provide your own so you end up doing ad hominem to feel better. You failed in your argument you know im right and you have no way of counter arguing.
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You’re a shit eating troll and I owe you NO facts because this isn’t a debate. It’s me bashing your pathetic small-dick syndrome approach to harassing people from behind a screen. Get a dose of your own medicine you lowly loser with no balls.
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Although my wish is that your kind doesn’t breed at all – I pray that karma bears you homosexual children. Maybe then you’ll understand the meaning of uncondtional love for another human being.
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I will never accept my child being one of those disgusting things.
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http://m.huffpost.com/uk/entry/7816390
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BRAVO Jon don !!!
You have to stay that way!
In this way we Westerners can continue to fuck your country!!!
I recommend: NO PROGRESS!
It’s good for us 😉
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you westerners already have fucked up countries with your liberal leftist agenda its no wonder trump got elected and theresa may will remain prime minister of the uk. the leftist agenda is another form of nazism only on the complete left. you hate people that dont agree with you just like the right hate on people who don’t agree on them. you lack the basic knowledge to understand the flaws of homosexuality and use the same useless reason ” the right to love”. in the eyes of the western world its no wonder that you continue to get fucked by terrorist attacks you lack the strength and character to follow your own beliefs and fight back rather you prefer making everyone feelings feel better without even thinking about the consequence of your own. lebanon has gone through a lot of shit through the years with terrorist attacks from those fucking palestinians to those fucking israelis bombing the countries to those pathetic isis right in the door step to the corrupt political system yet the people still remain strong in their belief. the only way you westerners can fuck lebanon is by brainwashing those sensitive pathetic lebanese to follow your weak and cowardly way of living by making them kill their own lebanese identy by accepting something disgusting like homosexuality. but that will never happen the lebanese have more pride about their country and their culture than you pathetic westerners will ever have the lebanese will never accept those faggots in the country. lebanon is part of the ancient world and remain. the west is part of a dying modern world. you will be the end of yourselves while we watch and laugh 😉
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Man don’t project your own beliefs onto all lebanese. When u say the lenanese you mean yourself… i am lebanese, i am not gay but i have no problem with anyone who is. I judge people by their values and the respect they show to others not by the sex they are attracted to. I still do not unserstand why have you got this much hate towards people who did nothing to hurt you. You can disagree with lgbt community and that is your right, but attacking them because they do not comply with you beliefs just make you look weak and insecure.
Do good for the people arround you and contribute to society because that’s what important…
Who you love, who you fuck (and noo fucking is not the same as loving) and what you pray for is none of my business, nor is it my place to judge.
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The smartest thing you can ever do is shut up and kill yourself
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Yeah thats because you know im right;)
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If you’re worried about us “animals” fucking, tell your parents to wear a condom and stop actual pests like you washing out society
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I support 100% the campaigns against homophobia and Co. But seriously, you lost me when you said cancerous Islamists. I’m christian and I know for a fact that there christians as extreme as muslims concerning LGBT groups.
BY HIGHLIGHTING THE WORD ISLAM, YOU CONTRIBUTED TO THE SAME BIGOTRY YOU CLAIM YOU’RE TRYING TO SOLVE. Just say Extremists instead!
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I support 100% the campaigns against homophobia and Co. But seriously, you lost me when you said cancerous Islamists. I’m christian and I know for a fact that there christians as extreme as muslims concerning LGBT groups.
BY HIGHLIGHTING THE WORD ISLAM, YOU CONTRIBUTED TO THE SAME BIGOTRY YOU CLAIM YOU’RE TRYING TO SOLVE. Just say Extremists instead!
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ĹEBANON MUST RESIST AGAINST THIS GAY EVIL WHICH IS TRYING TO SOCIALLY NORMALIZE ITSELF. WE SHOULD NEVER CHOOSE TO ALLOW IT TO CREEP UP ON OUR SOCIETY AND DIRTY OUR CHILDREN’S MINDS. YOU FALSELY CALLING IT “LOVE” AND REPEATING THE PROPAGANDA FED BY CERTAIN MEDIA OUTLETS WILL NOT CHANGE THE FACT THAT IT IS AN ABOMINATION.
A- For a person who claims to be fond of democracy, you (the writer of this blog) terrorise people who have different opinions that yourself especially if they were religious, even in other posts.
B- Democracy is the ruling of the masses and is a BAD JOKE. Just look at who the average voter is electing these days as an example! And look at the marketing and lies of the candidates as another example. So NO, THEY DONT HAVE A RIGHT TO SPREAD THEIRMORALLY WRONG IDEAS EVEN IF YOU DO SOME MARKETING FOR THEM.
Note to the writer: stop followig so-called “liberal” media and stop blindly adopting whatever they throw at you.
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yeah … uhm … we definitely still have a lot of growing up to do and Islamism is hardly our only problem…
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Pingback: Dear Lebanese Homophobes | A Separate State of Mind | A Blog by Elie Fares
Aaah,i’m sorry Lebanon is still conservative Elie , there are some ads playing on facebook for support of LGBT in lebanon ,buut as far as i can advise them , keep that private , so that the dirty mobs in Lebanon don’t use it against them , lets face it ,lebanon is pretty much like Turkey , kuwait ,jordan in the middle east , still too conservative compared to the West, so of course i support diversity buut i advise it to keep to themselves so that it won’t be used against them
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I’m sorryy, i wanted to add , i’ve seen a loot of trolls under the comments section , i advise you to control the comments , some of the blogs i know have done that , and veryy nice posts , i loive your blog 😉
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