Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyDecember 18th, 2009
Gareth Thomas is not just a rugby player; he’s a legend in what is probably one of the toughest, most macho of sports. He was the first Welsh player to earn 100 caps and served as captain of Wale’s team. And he’s gay.
He told BBC:
“I just happen to be gay,” he added. “It’s irrelevant.
“What I choose to do when I close the door at home has nothing to do with what I have achieved in rugby.
“It’s pretty tough for me being the only international rugby player prepared to break the taboo.
“Statistically I can’t be the only one, but I’m not aware of any other gay player still in the game.
“I’d love for it, in 10 years’ time, not to even be an issue in sport, and for people to say: ‘So what?'”
Thomas is a welcome addition to those few other sports stars that have come out. He is especially welcome in that he is still a professional player in a sport that has not been historically seen as particularly welcoming to gay athletes or fans.
December 18th, 2009
It may seem odd to point to a statement by Republican legislators stating that they will vote against marriage equality as evidence that we have won the argument in New Jersey. But it is what they added which convinces me of the inevitability of equality. (NJ.com)
In an effort to solidify opposition to gay marriage legislation currently pending in the state legislature, five Senate Republicans today said they will be supporting the civil union law and work instead to make sure it is enforced.
Senate Minority Leader Tom Kean (R-Union) along with Sens. Chris “Kip” Bateman (R-Somerset), Jennifer Beck (R-Monmouth), Sean Kean (R-Monmouth) and Andrew Ciesla (R-Ocean) asked for Democratic senators to join them, saying it’s “unlikely that a bill redefining marriage can pass the Senate.”
“Moving testimony in Senate hearings suggests that New Jersey\’s civil union law is not always understood or followed,” Kean said in an email statement. “We need to educate the public about the law, and enhance it if necessary so that no civil union partner is turned away from the hospital bed of a loved one.”
I am not so cynical as to say that these legislators are motivated purely by political machination. In reality, some of them have decent records on gay issues and they probably all of them genuinely wish for gay couples to be able to achieve full civil equality.
But they are politicians. And, as such, they know a convincing argument and the shift of popular opinion when they see it. And they know that it is becoming increasingly evident that the current status of recognition for same-sex couples in New Jersey is inadequate in the eyes of the electorate.
These politicians do not want to enact marriage equality at this time. Perhaps they fear primary challenges or the rage of national anti-gay conservative activists (such as happened to Dede Scozzafava). Or perhaps they personally cannot bring themselves to view the relationships of gay people as truly being comparable to the relationships of straight people. But clearly they know that the only way to deny marriage equality is to offer a compromise position.
And this has been the strategy now for several years. Offer a substitute, a lesser status, an alternative. But looking at the alternatives offered over the years tells us that we’ve won the argument.
When Hawaii offered a handful of reciprocal benefits in 1997, it was generally seen by the public as adequate. California’s 1999 Domestic Partnerships were revolutionary. Vermont’s 1999 Civil Unions resulted in nationwide outrage.
Since that time, Civil Unions have become the fall-back position. “No, not marriage”, say reluctant legislators, “but I can support civil unions”.
Now New Jersey Republicans have upped the ante. Their fall-back position is Super Duper Civil Unions. But surely they can see, as I can, that eventually there is nothing left to fall back on.
Marriage equality is coming.
December 18th, 2009
Bill James is the Mecklenburg County Commissioner who slurred the dead gay son of a fellow commissioner. In a follow up communication, James declared that North Caroline flaunts the US Supreme Court and refers to gay men “infesting” areas. From Q-Notes.
James wrote: “Homosexual conduct is illegal in NC (even after Lawrence V Texas). We arrest 250 homosexuals each year in Mecklenburg alone for either a ‘crime against nature\’ or ‘solicitation of a crime against nature\’. Unlike prostitution (exchanging money), even suggesting homosexual sex is a criminal offense in NC. If we were all that ‘progressive\’ would we be arresting 250 homosexuals a year? Setting up sting operations to de-infest areas where they congregate? Point is, if you want to delude yourself that homosexual conduct is ‘ok\’ go ahead. The law, the police and the DA however have a different view.”
I have inquired with Peter Gilchrist, the Mecklenburg District Attorney, and Ken Miller, Deputy Chief of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, as to whether their departments agree with Mr. Jones.
December 18th, 2009
The United States is urging Uganda to stop a bill that would criminalize homosexuality, saying its passage could encourage other African countries to make similar moves, a top U.S. diplomat said on Friday.
“We believe that this legislation is a violation of human rights,” Assistant Secretary of State Johnnie Carson told reporters after a meeting with gay and lesbian activists at the State Department.
“We are concerned that if this legislation passes that it could in fact encourage others to do this. We will not have a double standard on human rights. We are opposed to this kind of legislation whether it is in Rwanda or any other country in Africa,” he said.
At this point it appears that the state department is acknowledging that this draconian bill will pass the legislative vote and are asking President Museveni to use his veto power.
Click here to see BTB\’s complete coverage of recent anti-gay developments in Uganda.
December 18th, 2009
AFP is reporting that Johnnie Carson, the US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, told reporters that he has met with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni twice since October to urge him to “to do everything he can to stop this particular legislation.” But that urging comes without an important stick:
He added that it is premature for US government to consider withdrawing aid from Uganda because Museveni himself said he does not support the legislation and the battle is not yet lost. “We won’t make any threats (about withdrawing aid) but we are strongly opposed to this legislation,” Carson said. “And we’re looking to President Museveni to show the same kind of leadership that he’s shown in the fight against AIDS, in the fight to protect the rights of all adults,” whatever their sexuality, he added.
The European Parliament yesterday passed a resolution warning that Uganda’s proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill would put at least part of the EU’s $250 million development aid to Uganda in jeopardy. Sweden had made a similar announcement last month, putting its $50 million at risk.
Click here to see BTB\’s complete coverage of recent anti-gay developments in Uganda.
December 18th, 2009
The British medical journal The Lancet has just published an article warning about the detrimental effect Uganda’s proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill would have on that nation’s fight against HIV/AIDS.
Reporter Zoe Alsop describes a talk that MP David Bahati, the prime sponsor of the anti-gay bill, gave before a cheering audience at Makerere University in Kampala (subscription required):
Before ceding the podium, Bahati had one last point to make. “This is not a Ugandan thing”, he said, his chest swelling with indignation. “Homosexuals are using foreign aid organisations to promote this. If an organisation is found to be promoting homosexuality, then their licence should be revoked.”
Shoulder to shoulder with Bahati’s supporters a half dozen or so Ugandans listened quietly. Several were doctors who had spent much of their careers toiling against a disease that has taken the lives of more than a million Ugandans. Their faces were stoic as they contemplated the implications of Bahati’s bill for the fight against HIV/AIDS not just among gay men but also among the wives and children of men who also have sex with men. They considered the long, lean years that had been spent quietly setting up networks to disburse information on HIV/AIDS to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex Ugandans.
“As a doctor, the law infuriates me”, said one general practitioner, who is much sought after by sexual minorities for his willingness to treat them, and who asked that his name not be used for fear that he would be arrested for working with sexual minorities. “We are only now getting to a point where people understand there is a problem. This law is going to erase all of that.”
Zoe reports that in much of Africa, where AIDS is predominantly a heterosexual disease, many people including doctors believe that it’s impossible for gay people to become infected with HIV. Bahati’s proposed legislation, which would impose draconian penalties including death on anyone who is gay, would have a chilling effect on LGBT people seeking medical care from health authorities. And the bill’s provision requiring anyone who knows someone who is gay to report them to police within twenty-four hours would only serve to reinforce those fears among Uganda’s gay community.
All of that is only compounded by another provision of the proposed bill which punishes anyone who “promotes or in any way abets homosexuality and related practices” with seven years imprisonment. Medical doctors providing safe-sex information or who simply treats someone who’s gay can be seen as promoting or abetting “homosexuality and related practices.” These proposals have already had a chilling effect on HIV/AIDS workers:
In past years, Wamala says, Icebreakers (Icebreakers Uganda is an LGBT HIV/AIDS service organization) travelled around Kampala to meet with sexual minorities and sex workers. They offered counselling, condoms, lubricant, and medical referrals. This year, though, has been different. People seen attending meetings were blackmailed by neighbours, who threatened to report them to the police. “Nowadays, people are hiding”, Wamala said. “The blackmail and the arrests skyrocketed and we saw that it was not safe. At meetings we saw the number had really fallen, and even for those who came we were not sure whether we should be able to come the next time.”
Other groups say they have been able to work as long as their activities are carefully disguised. Thomas Muyunga, a doctor in the Most at Risk Populations Network, says he always makes sure that testing and counselling events include people who are heterosexual. “Originally we wanted to go to these people directly”, Muyunga said. “We realised that it was impossible. So the disguise is to address that. That’s why we have managed to even work today.”
Click here to see BTB\’s complete coverage of recent anti-gay developments in Uganda.
December 18th, 2009
From the Washington Continent:
Dec. 18, 2009, 3:30 p.m. – D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty, joined by members of the District of Columbia City Council and residents, signed into law historic legislation granting all residents the legal rights and privileges of marriage.
“Marriage inequality is a civil rights, political, social, moral, and religious issue in this country and many nations,” said Fenty. “And as I sign this act into law, the District from this day forward will set the tone for other jurisdictions to follow in creating an open and inclusive city.”
Congress will now have 30 days from the time that the bill is provided to the Speaker of the House and the Senate President to pass legislation blocking the bill. That is not expected to happen.
December 18th, 2009
While it’s not without precedent, it may seem odd for an American municipality speaking out on foreign affairs. But Minneapolis has a special interest in the Anti-Homosexuality Bill due to its “sister city” status Minneapolis maintains with Kampala. Today, the Minneapolis City Council passed a resolution condemning Uganda’s proposed legislation.
Click here to read the full resolution by the Minneapolis City Council.
December 18th, 2009
NPR’s East Africa Correspondent Gwen Tompkins reports on NPR today:
Scott Lively’s philosophies have been deeply internalized here among those who are proponents of the law, and for people who are listening to these public dialogues on homosexuality, they’re hearing Scott Lively’s words reiterated by Ugandan Evangelicals and others who are proponents of the bill. And they believe it to be Gospel. They believe it to be scientific fact, what they’re listening to.
NPR’s Michel Martin then spoke to Scott Lively about the March conference, in which he defends his role in the events in Uganda. Lively acknowledges being “a consultant” on the law before it was drafted. Here is the audio:
As you can hear, this is a typical soft-ball NPR interview. There’s no mentioning of the fact that Scott Lively has played a leading role in three of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s ten anti-gay hate groups. There’s no examination of Lively’s Holocaust revisionism aside from an oblique reference to his “controversial” book at the beginning. In fact, none of his controversial beliefs surrounding Nazi Germany and the Holocaust came up. Instead, Lively pretends that he was simply asked for his opinion and he gave it. Whatever happens after that is none of his concern.
But here’s the kicker (at the 4:47 mark), when Lively said:
“It’s racist to suggest that Africans have no will of their own to produce public policy to suit their own values, and that three little-known, not very influential figures from American could come in and basically dominate this process. That’s pretty racist. We don’t have that kind of influence. We gave our opinion. And if it was true that our opinion was so weighty, then they would have backed off immediately, hearing all of us saying that we don’t agree with what they did.
L-R: Unidentified woman, American holocaust revisionist Scott Lively, International Healing Foundation's Caleb Brundidge, Exodus International boardmember Don Schmierer, Family Life Network (Uganda)'s Stephen Langa, at the time of the March 2009 anti-gay conference in Uganda.
The problem with that is that he’s constructed a very easily defeated strawman, as he is wont to do. First, we have long reported that Uganda’s violent hatred of its LGBT citizens had already provided fertile ground for the March anti-homosexuality conference to take root. It was that awareness of Uganda’s recent violent history that made the conference by Lively, Exodus International board member Don Schmierer and International Healing Foundation’s Caleb Brundidge so alarming. Lively’s rhetoric — which Gwen Tompkins reported had been repeated and accepted “as Gospel” among influential religious leaders in Uganda — included blaming gays for a “pedophilia” problem in the country, blaming gays for Fascism and the Holocaust in Nazi Germany, and blaming gays for the Rwandan genocide of 1994. And we know through video evidence that Lively’s historical revisionism has played a role in this year’s anti-gay hysteria.
But not only does he discount his own inflammatory rhetoric he also ignores the repeated assertions by Ugandan politicians that “homosexuality is a learned behavior” (which comes straight out of Schmierer’s and Brundidge’s talks in March). He also he also ignores the very real influence his pronouncements continue to have in Uganda. Uganda’s political and religious leaders are now talking about including Livey’s forced conversion therapy option as a possible amendment to the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. That was his idea, which he proudly owns.
Click here to see BTB\’s complete coverage of recent anti-gay developments in Uganda.
December 18th, 2009
Ugandan MP David Bahati, the prime sponsor of the proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill, appeared in an interview on BBC’s World Service yesterday. It’s worth listening to, if only to hear first-hand how the draconian bill is being sold in Uganda.
Uganda MP David Bahati, prime sponsor of the Anti-Homosexuality Act
There are two key points here worth mention. First, beginning at about the 5:25 mark, the BBC interviewer tries to get Bahati to say whether or not he is a member of the U.S.-based secretive Christian group known as The Family:
BBC: Is it true that you’re a member of The Family, also known as the Fellowship?
Bahati: [pause] Uh, these are the facts on the ground. Do we have friends that are beyond Uganda? Yes, we have them. Did they have an input to this bill? No, they didn’t.
BBC: Okay. The reason I ask that for the listeners who aren’t familiar, this is a very well-connected, pretty hard-core Christian group based in the United States with friends in many countries. If course, the reason I asked it is if you are a member, are you getting help from America?
Bahati: No, we are not getting any support. This is a home-grown bill. It’s a bill made by Ugandans for Ugandans, and for the good of mankind in the world. And we are saying, who are we to condone what God condemns?
BBC: You didn’t answer whether you are a member of the family or not, Mr. Bahati.
Bahati: Since we moved this bill, there has been a lot of manipulation and deception, especially by the pro-gay groups to try and spin the story.
BBC: A simple no would suffice if it is not the case.
Bahati: I just wanted to put it into context because the world we live in is not as simple as you are suggesting. But what I am saying is, did I get … am I getting any support from abroad? I’m saying no. Do I have friends abroad? Yes, I have them. Are they supporting or praying for me? I hope that some people are really praying for me on this one.
A second important event occurs at the about the 3:33 mark in which the BBC interviewer, after having listened to Bahati’s justification for the bill, observes:
The language you are using, Mr. Bahati, is redolent, frankly, of Nazi Germany. You’re talking about reclaiming people who have been corrupted. You’ve got another clause about forcing people to tell the authorities about anybody they know who is gay.
Interesting that Bahati didn’t take offense at the comparison, nor did he try to draw any contrasts between himself and Nazi Germany.
[Hat tip: Andy Harley at UK Gay News]
Click here to see BTB\’s complete coverage of recent anti-gay developments in Uganda.
December 18th, 2009
When I first learned that the Anti-Homosexuality Bill would be brought back to Parliament, I suspect that this might constitute a “second reading.” The BBC now reports that the second reading will take place in February. Grove City College professor Warren Throckmorton confirmed that through a Ugandan MP. While it appears that the legislation may be brought up for debate today either before a Parliament Committee or the full Parliament, this is not the required second reading.
Click here to see BTB\’s complete coverage of recent anti-gay developments in Uganda.
December 18th, 2009
[Update: This post has been updated to include a brief statement MP David Bahati made to NPR.]
Katie Paul pulls the microscope off of Uganda and looks at the climate for LGBT citizens throughout Africa. It doesn’t look good. Much of the continent is rife with homophobia. Last year, Burundi criminalized homosexuality for the first time, with penalties of up to two years in prison. In Senegal, we’ve seen people arrested for homosexuality (many of them LGBT advocates). The president of Gambia threatened to cut off the heads of all gay people in his country. And Nigeria has its own draconian bill languishing in its legislature that ostensibly outlaws same sex marriage, but goes much further by banning any gay people from living together and all advocacy on behalf of LGBT people. Meanwhile, Rwanda, which lies on Uganda’s southwest border, is currently debating a bill to criminalize homosexuality with five to ten year’s imprisonment, along with all advocacy and counseling of LGBT people. The International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission says that a vote may occur in Rwanda’s lower House sometime this week.
But despite all that, some have suggested that if the Anti-Homosexuality Bill becomes law, Uganda will represent the first domino to fall. One of those suggesting this is none other than Ugandan MP David Bahati, the prime sponsor of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. He told NPR:
“Once this bill passes, you’re going to see country by country learning from this, continent by continent. It’s a crucial time and a crucial bill, not only in Uganda but in the world.”
But as Paul points out, pointing to Uganda as the first domino as some have done is, as she puts it, “a tough sell”:
While the historical origins of anti-gay legislation are debatable, antipathy to homosexuality is by now a home-grown phenomenon throughout most of Africa. ABC’s Dana Hughes, writing from Nairobi, points out that such opinions on homosexuality are already widespread on the continet. “While American evangelicals are being examined for their role in the origins of the bill in Uganda,” she writes, “East Africa, and for that matter Africa as a whole, is decidedly, virulently against homosexuality.” In total, 37 countries in Africa have laws on the books criminalizing same-sex relations.
We’ve been on this story every since we first noticed that three American anti-gay activists were about to put on an anti-gay conference in Kampala. We did not believe and we have never suggested, as some have charged in probably the flimsiest strawman ever erected, that conditions weren’t already ripe for an anti-gay pogrom even without the meddling of three Americans who presented themselves as “experts” on homosexuality. We knew very well the conditions that already existed in that country, and that was the subject of the very second post we put up in the series.
We took notice and followed this story through the present day, and we’ll continue to follow it because Uganda has a very violent history. That violence in recent years has been directed toward that country’s reviled LGBT community. And now Ugandan leaders aim to take its violent legacy and codify it into law, turning LGBT people into candidates for the noose and a nation into an army of informers.
No, that conference didn’t start this fire, not by a longshot. The fire was already burning, but the conference was the napalm that burst the fire into the conflagration that we see today. And Uganda is hardly ground zero in Africa’s war against LGBT people. It’s just where the spotlight happens to shine at the moment. And with Ugandans’ extremely close geographical, cultural, and religious ties to Rwanda, Burundi and Kenya, these events bear very close scrutiny.
Click here to see BTB\’s complete coverage of recent anti-gay developments in Uganda.
December 18th, 2009
I will be on the Michelangelo Signorile this afternoon at 3:30 EST to talk about Uganda’s proposed Anti-Homosexuality Act. You can catch the interview on OutQ Sirius 109 or XM 98, or you can listen online. If you are not a subscriber, you can still listen online with a one-day pass.
December 17th, 2009
Martin Ssempa
Ugandan pastor Martin Ssempa, who had met several times with Saddleback pastor Rick Warren, is positively livid over Warren’s statement calling on Ugandan pastors to oppose the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. In a letter addressed to Warren (PDF: 88KB/4 pages) and obtained by Christianity Today, Ssempa acknowledges receiving a letter from Warren asking Ugandan pastors to speak out against the bill, and counters with a deliberately misleading and convoluted defense of it.
After nearly three pages of ranting, Ssempa says that two amendments will be proposed for the bill:
At a special sitting of the Uganda Joint Christian Council taskforce sat and reviewed the bill to make comments. We resolved to support the bill with some amendments which included the following:
a. We suggested a less harsher sentence of 20 years instead of the death penalty for pedophilia or aggravated homosexuality.
b. We suggested the inclusion of counseling and rehabilitation being offered to offenders and victims. The churches are willing to provide the necessary help for those who are willing to undergo counseling and rehabilitation.
L-R: Unidentified woman, American holocaust revisionist Scott Lively, International Healing Foundation's Caleb Brundidge, Exodus International boardmember Don Schmierer, Family Life Network (Uganda)'s Stephen Langa, at the time of the March 2009 anti-gay conference in Uganda.
This revives the forced therapy proposal brought up last March during a three-day anti-gay conference in Kampala. That conference, organized by Stephen Langa of Kampala-based Family Life Network featured Holocaust revisionist Scott Lively, Exodus International board member Don Schmierer, and International Healing Foundation’s Caleb Brundidge.
The Ugandan Parliament will reportedly bring the Anti-Homosexuality Bill up for a second reading debate on Friday. It’s unknown whether these proposals will be brought up during that debate.
Ssempa also recounts Warren’s 2008 trip to Uganda in support of the Anglican Church of Uganda’s boycott of the Lambeth Conference over the U.S. church’s ordination of Rev. Gene Robinson as the denomination’s first openly gay bishop. Ssempa lectured Warren:
When you came to Uganda on Thursday, 27 March 2008, and expressed support to the Church of Uganda’s boycott of the pro-homosexual church of England, you stated; “The Church of England is wrong, and I support the Church of Uganda”. You are further remembered to say, “homosexuality is not a natural way of life and thus (its) not a human right. We shall not tolerate this aspect at all.”
Ssempa later returns to this subject at the end of his letter with a reference to Warren’s PEACE plan for Africa:
We note with sadness the increasing levels of accepting of the evil of homosexuality. The ordination of Mary Glasspool a Lesbian as a bishop in Los Angeles without any condemnation from you, has increased the widening gap between the global south church in Africa and the global north church in Europe and America. In these increasingly dark days, we encourage you not to give into the temptation to water down what the bible says so as not to offend people. Jesus’s gospel is a stumbling block, and a rock of offfense. Rick you are our friend, we have bought many of your books and have been blessed by them. Do not let the pressure of bloggers and popular media intimidate you into becoming a negotiator for homosexual pedophilia rights in Africa. As you yourself say about evil, — “the Bible says evil has to be opposed. Evil has to be stopped. The Bible does not say negotiate with evil. It says stop it. Stop evil.” Since the bible says that the giant of homosexuality is an “abomination” or a great evil, you cannot achieve the peace plan without a purpose driven confrontation with evil.
Ssempa has been a leading promoter of harsher treatment for that country’s LGBT citizens. He has also accused rival pastors of homosexuality. These allegations were found to be false, and Ssempa found himself under investigation for filing false reports. That investigation was apparently halted when President Yoweri Museveni intervened.
Rick Warren recently distanced himself from Ssempa:
Martin Ssempa does not represent me, my wife Kay, Saddleback Church, nor the Global PEACE Plan strategy. In 2007, we completely severed contact with Mr. Ssempa when we learned that his views and actions were in serious conflict with our own. Our role, and the role of the PEACE Plan, whether in Uganda or any other country, is always pastoral and never political. We vigorously oppose anything that hinders the goals of the PEACE Plan: Promoting reconciliation, Equipping ethical leaders, Assisting the poor, Caring for the sick, and Educating the next generation.
Click here to see BTB\’s complete coverage of recent anti-gay developments in Uganda.
December 17th, 2009
Honduran LGBT activist Walter Tróchez was murdered earlier this week. He was a member of the National Resistance Front, a group opposed to the right-wing coup d’etat. He was shot and killed on December 13 in a drive-by shooting. Veteran reporter Doug Ireland says that Honduran security forces were likely responsible for Tróchez’s murder:
Trochez, who had already been arrested and beaten for his sexual orientation after participating in a march against the coup, had been very active recently in documenting and publicizing homophobic killings and crimes committed by the forces behind the coup, which is believed to have been the motive for his murder. He had been trailed for weeks before his murder by thugs believed to be members of the state security forces.
(AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
Tróchez was buried on Tuesday. His coffin was draped with a rainbow flag.
The Center for the Investigation and Promotion of Human Rights in Honduras (which goes by the Spanish acronym CIPRODEH) has more information about his earlier kidnapping and beating:
On December 4th the human rights advocate Walter Tróchez, member of the LGBT community and active member of the Resistance Front was kidnapped and savagely beaten outside the “El Obelisco” Park in Comayaguela, by four hooded men who drove a gray pickup, without plates, presumably of the DNIC [national criminal investigation directorate] (a vehicle of similar description, as he denounced publicly several months ago, had been staking out his house, obligating him to move).
On that day the kidnappers told him they knew him well and they were going to kill him. They hooded him, insulted him, and began to interrogate him about the resistance, asking for information about its leaders and its movements. At that time he managed to escape alive, and the next day he filed a complaint with national and international authorities.
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