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LOVE

Happy Valentine's Day

Relationships|Couples

Marriage Equality

Dating and Courtship

Romantic Orientation

Platonic Relationship

Physical and Sexual

Sensual|Seductive

Love Notes

"The love that dare not speak its name."

-Lord Alfred Douglas

"It is that deep spiritual affection that is as pure as it is perfect. It is beautiful, it is fine, it is the noblest form of affection. There is nothing unnatural about it."
-Oscar Wilde

"What the world needs now is love sweet love. It's the only thing that there's just too little of. What the world needs now is love sweet love. No not just for some but for everyone."

-Hal David

In a Heartbeat: Animated Gay Love Story

Simply The Best: Patrick's Version

Something Strange Called Love by Boy George
Modern Love by Matt Nathanson

Ian McKellan: Call Each Other Love
Incredible Ways Queer People are Redefining Valentine's Day
LGBTQ-Friendly Gifts To Celebrate Your Love This Valentine's Day
Celebrating Valentine's Day with These LGBTQ-Owned Brands
What the World Needs Now is Love Sweet Love by Sara Bareilles

Looking For Some On-Screen Passion? Watch These Queer Romances
Paige and Holly: How We Became Girlfriends

"Everyday I see you walk toward me, I feel my heart speed up and I smile. You love me for me and I love you for you. You're the best thing in my life!"

-Blogger Comment

"Gay and lesbian people fall in love. We settle down. We commit our lives to one another. We raise our children. We protect them. We try to be good citizens."

-California Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa Monica 

"We love because it's the only true adventure."

-Nikki Giovanni

"No government has the right to tell its citizens when or whom to love." 

-Rita Mae Brown

“No one in America should ever be afraid to walk down the street holding the hand of the person they love.”

-President Barack Obama

Love Me Tender

Lesbian Love Languages

Love Panky: What Kind of Lover Are You?

Things You Should Be Telling Him Other Than 'I Love You'
The One I Love by Ellen Krauss

Endless Love: Audrey and Camille

Love is Love by Starley

Paige and Holly: Celebrating Two Year Anniversary

Handsome Man

Info: Same Sex Marriage

My College Roommate Became a Close Friend... Then I Started to Develop Feelings

True Definition Of Love In A Relationship, According To Experts
Tina and Bette: All My Life

Signs He's Actually Into You (and Not Just Being Polite)

Dare to Love

"Straight Americans need an education of the heart and soul.  They must understand, to begin with, how it can feel to spend years denying your own deepest truths, to sit silently through classes, meals, and church services while people you love toss off remarks that brutalize your soul."

-Bruce Bawer, The Advocate, 1998

"Who would give a law to lovers?  Love is unto itself a higher law."

-Boethius, Consolation of Philosophy, AD 524

"There's this illusion that homosexuals have sex and heterosexuals fall in love.  That's completely untrue.  Everybody wants to be loved."

-Boy George

"Love is at the root of everything. Love or the lack of it."

-Fred Rogers

"I say that homosexuality is not just a form of sex, it’s a form of love, and it deserves our respect for that reason."
-Christopher Hitchens

Falling in Love With My Boyfriend

Aisha and Yiren

Lesbian Couple Marries Atop Empire State Building

Endless Love: Audrey and Camille

My Dear Friend

True Definition Of Love In A Relationship, According To Experts
Signs You've Met Your Soulmate

Daisy and Taylor: The Story of How We Met

My College Roommate Became a Close Friend... Then I Started to Develop Feelings

Jen and Judy: You Mean the World to Me

Info: Sensuality and Desire

Paige and Holly: Our First Time

How a “Grass Is Greener” Mentality Ruined My First Queer Relationship
 

Defining Love

You're the peanut butter to my jelly...  the gin to my tonic...  the strawberries to my cream...

What is love?  According to Merriam-Webster, love is defined as "a strong affection for another arising out of kinship or personal ties. It is attraction based on sexual desire. It is affection and tenderness felt by lovers.  It is affection based on admiration, benevolence, or common interests.  It is an assurance of affection.  It is warm attachment, enthusiasm, or devotion.”

According to Wikipedia, love encompasses a variety of strong and positive emotional and mental states, ranging from the most sublime virtue or good habit, the deepest interpersonal affection and to the simplest pleasure. Most commonly, love refers to a feeling of strong attraction and emotional attachment. Love can also be a virtue representing human kindness, compassion, and affection, as the unselfish loyal and benevolent concern for the good of another.  It may also describe compassionate and affectionate actions towards others or one's self.

Love has always either escaped definition on the one hand or was the subject of infinite definitions on the other hand.  Love can be romantic, platonic, or familial.  It can be about admiration, dedication, or altruism.
 

True Definition Of Love In A Relationship, According To Experts
Really Cute and Gay True Stories About How You Met Your Partner
Intimacy: Whys, Hows, How-Nots, So-Nots

Amanda and Amber's Wedding

Mel B of the Spice Girls: I Fell in Love With a Woman and Was With Her for 5 Years
Ways to Celebrate Valentine's Day as a Queer Person and Feel Good About it

Love Story: Hattie & Amorie

Could It Be I'm Falling in Love

LGBTQ Celebs Who Celebrated Valentine's Day With Their Partners

Info: LGBTQ Dating

Looking For Some On-Screen Passion? Watch These Queer Romances

NPR Story Corps: First And Lasting Love, Long Before The World Would Let It Live
Signs You've Met Your Soulmate
TED Talk: Love is Love

Love in its various forms acts as a major facilitator of interpersonal relationships and has been postulated to be a function to keep human beings together against menaces and to facilitate the continuation of the species.
 

Comments gleaned from the Urban Dictionary describe love as the most spectacular, indescribable, deep euphoric feeling for someone.

Love is an incredibly powerful word. When you're in love, you always want to be together, and when you're not, you're thinking about being together because you need that person and without them your life is incomplete.

This love is unconditional affection with no limits or conditions: completely loving someone. It's when you trust the other with your life and when you would do anything for each other. When you love someone you want nothing more than for them to be truly happy no matter what it takes because that's how much you care about them and because their needs come before your own. You hide nothing of yourself and can tell the other anything because you know they accept you just the way you are and vice versa.

How Do You Know It's Love?

Jen and Judy: You Mean the World to Me

Lizzie and Grace's Wedding

Signs He's Actually Into You (and Not Just Being Polite)

Info: LGBTQ Relationships

Ruth and Jade

She Means Everything to Me

Psychological Signs Someone Likes You

Paige and Holly: Proposal

Somebody to Love

Short LGBTQ Film: Let Me Love You

It's when they're the last thing you think about before you go to sleep and when they're the first thing you think of when you wake up, the feeling that warms your heart and leaves you overcome by a feeling of serenity. Love involves wanting to show your affection and/or devotion to each other. It's the smile on your face you get when you're thinking about them and miss them.

Love can make you do anything and sacrifice for what will be better in the end. Love is intense, and passionate. Everything seems brighter, happier and more wonderful when you're in love. If you find it, don't let it go.

LGBTQ Celebs Who Celebrated Valentine's Day With Their Partners

Paige and Holly: First Kiss
Can I Call You Baby

Really Cute and Gay True Stories About How You Met Your Partner

Love Story: Dick & Bob

Signs You've Met Your Soulmate

Info: Sensuality

True Definition Of Love In A Relationship, According To Experts
To The Girl I Love

Love Panky: What Kind of Lover Are You?

To Love Somebody

Comment on Commitment
What the World Needs Now is Love Sweet Love by Broadway Actors

Love is Love: Free to Be Me

Edie and Amanda: Falling in Love

Mel B of the Spice Girls: I Fell in Love With a Woman and Was With Her for 5 Years

Blame it on the Girls

Info: LGBTQ Dating

Put Your Arms Around Me and I'm Home

NPR Story Corps: First And Lasting Love, Long Before The World Would Let It Live

Blind Date: Two Guys With Great Chemistry

The Meaning of Love

My College Roommate Became a Close Friend... Then I Started to Develop Feelings

Anni and Jasmin

TED Talk: Queer Vision for Love and Marriage

Flor and Jazmin

To Love Somebody

Dani and Sophie: Tell Her You Love Her

You Make Me Happy

Really Cute and Gay True Stories About How You Met Your Partner

Love Wins: The Faces of Marriage Equality

Paige and Holly: Hugs and Cuddles

Love Panky: Types of Relationships

Different Kind of Love Song
TED Talks: Love is Love

LGBTQ Rom-Coms to Stream for Valentine's Day

Things You Should Be Telling Him Other Than 'I Love You'

Shakespeare Quotes About Love
Video: Love is Love

I love you so much, I deleted Grindr...

The psychoanalyst Erich Fromm said that we expend too much energy on "falling in love" and need to learn more how to "stand in love."

Psychologically speaking, there is a difference between compassionate and passionate love. Compassionate love is characterized by mutual respect, attachment, affection, and trust. Compassionate love usually develops out of feelings of mutual understanding and shared respect for one another. Passionate love is characterized by intense emotions, sexual attraction, anxiety, and affection.

According to Thought Catalog, "Love means not needing constant contact, in person or via text, to feel secure. It means trusting them in every way possible and earning their reciprocal trust in you. Love means loving yourself, too. It means always being your organic self and never shifting to fit another person's standard."

My Love My Life: Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Pride: Gay Love Stories

She Means Everything to Me

Video Advice: Honesty, Tenderness, Loving Relationships

Info: Sensuality and Desire

Things You Should Be Telling Him Other Than 'I Love You'

Paige and Holly: First Kiss
Short Film: Together Forever

Arne and Alex's Wedding

According to the New Testament, “Love is patient. Love is kind and envies no one. Love is never boastful, nor conceited, nor rude. It is never selfish. It is not quick to take offence. Love keeps no score of wrongs. It does not gloat over another's sins, but delights in the truth. There is nothing love cannot face. There is no limit to its faith, its hope, and its endurance. There are three things that last forever: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of them is love.”

Thomas Aquinas described love as, "to will the good of another."

Plato defined love as an appreciation of the beauty within a person. Plato does not talk of physical attraction as a necessary part of love, hence the use of the word “platonic” to mean, "without physical attraction."

According to Sophocles, “One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: That word is love.”

Love Story: Jan & Lauren

Rules for LGBTQ Dating

NPR Story Corps: First And Lasting Love, Long Before The World Would Let It Live
In a Heartbeat: Animated Gay Love Story

Rock and Archie: Rescue My Heart

True Definition Of Love In A Relationship, According To Experts

Lesbian Love Languages

Endless Love: Audrey and Camille

Info: Marriage Equality

Video: Love Advice to My Younger Self

Julia and Abby's Wedding

James Corden: Teaching Children About Gay Relationships

Info: LGBTQ Relationships

Francis and Nicholas

Mel B of the Spice Girls: I Fell in Love With a Woman and Was With Her for 5 Years

Carmilla and Laura: Beautiful Moments

What is Your Love Language?

Cosmo: Lesbians Reveal Exact Moment They Fell in Love

Jen and Judy: Hold Me While You Wait

Love Panky: Types of Relationships

How a “Grass Is Greener” Mentality Ruined My First Queer Relationship

Essence: Liberated and Loved

Signs You've Met Your Soulmate

Signs He's Actually Into You (and Not Just Being Polite)

Love Story: Jon & Robert

Psychological Signs Someone Likes You

How do you know if someone has a crush on you?

They ask how your day has been
They ask for your advice
They give you a LOT of compliments
They look at you when you talk to them
They laugh at your jokes
They step up in romantic situations
They want to hang with you regularly
They tell others how great you are
They touch you a lot (without being creepy)
They make effort with your friends and family
They look beyond your appearance
They want to make plans about your future together
They’re happy to spend some one-on-one time with you
They call when they say they will
They’re not afraid to make the move
They take an interest in the things you like
They think about you when you are apart and send you things that remind them of you
They get a bit nervous around you
They smile at you a lot
They try to impress you
Your bodies touch during conversations
They try to catch your eye in group situations
They will ask about your past life and personal history

Psychological Signs Someone Likes You
Dani and Sophie: Tell Her You Love Her

Paige and Holly: Proposal

Secrets for Lifelong Romance From a Gay Couple Together 24 Years

What True Love Really Is

He Loves Me He Loves Me Not

My College Roommate Became a Close Friend... Then I Started to Develop Feelings

Ruth and Jade

Wikipedia: Love

Queer Couple Talk Love and Poetry

Celebrating Queer Love: Longtime LGBTQ Couples Share Their Stories

Somebody to Love

Anni and Jasmin

Nothing Taboo: Love Song for the Outcast

Love Sweet Love

I have discovered that we all want to be loved, and to love. That is, we all desire to be deeply cared about and to care about others. True love is unconditional. No matter what you or another person says or does, express your love and then deal with the specific disliked behavior.

What the world needs now is lots of love which is the opposite of fear. Accept your and others’ differences. Take the time to love yourself and others unconditionally, spread deep caring that is the key to loving relationships and to a loving world.

There are certain characteristics we show when we are in love. Selfless behavior shows that you are not just thinking about yourself, but that you’re also concerned about your partners needs as well. You will be concerned about your partner’s growth in life, and become more supportive and understanding, even if you feel like being critical. You will have a desire to forgive, and realize that no one is perfect in life.

In a Heartbeat: Animated Gay Love Story

Modern Love by Matt Nathanson

Kissing Around the World

David and Patrick: Simply the Best

That Kind of Love

Your love grows when you are able to focus on the good things about someone. You will see both the positive and the negative side of someone, but you will love them no matter what. When your partner does that little thing that irritates you, it will be easier to look past it. You will realize that it’s not worth getting angry over, and causing a scene. Love allows for anger, but in a controlled manner. Love is about being able to compromise. If emotional pain was caused you’re allowed to let your partner know when they have done wrong.

Love is about caring and showing affection and intimacy towards the other person. You will have a romantic desire towards your partner, not a lustful desire. With a romantic desire to be intimate and affectionate towards your partner, an emotional bond will grow between the two of you. It will become stronger overtime and will bring you closer together.

[Source: Love Z]

What the World Needs Now is Love Sweet Love by Sara Bareilles

Info: LGBTQ Relationships

Psychology Today: Love and Relationships

Paige and Holly: Proposal

Video: Love is Love

Things You Should Be Telling Him Other Than 'I Love You'

Put Your Arms Around Me and I'm Home

The One I Love by Ellen Krauss

Introvert's Guide to Talking to Your Crush

Really Cute and Gay True Stories About How You Met Your Partner

Endless Love: Audrey and Camille

Fans of Love: Love Has No Labels

Info: LGBTQ Dating

Love is Love by Starley

Paige and Holly: Celebrating Two Year Anniversary

Can I Call You Baby

Video Advice: Honesty, Tenderness, Loving Relationships

Dancing in the Living Room

Essence: Liberated and Loved

Psychological Signs Someone Likes You

GLAAD: LGBTQ-Affirming Ways to Talk About Valentine's Day

MEDIA TIPS

Valentine's Day receives a great deal of media attention. Print and electronic press outlets nationwide share stories of couples proclaiming their love and commitment for one another. However, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer couples are often excluded from Valentine's Day media coverage—and LGBTQ couples of color receive even less attention in both mainstream and people of color media. GLAAD hopes that the following resources will help you produce Valentine's Day stories that reflect the true diversity of our society by including LGBTQ couples in the coverage of this romantic holiday.

LANGUAGE
 

LGBTQ people and relationships are often excluded by the kinds of language media professionals choose to use. Consider the language used to describe couples in general: Does it assume that all couples are heterosexual? Does it allow for non-traditional families? Does it subtly endorse opposite-sex relationships while marginalizing same-sex commitments? GLAAD encourages media to use words and descriptions that can be universally applied to all couples (gay and straight) and that respect the significance of their commitments.

LGBTQ people use a variety of terms to describe their relationships and significant others, including: partner, spouse, girlfriend/boyfriend, lover, husband/wife, companion, same gender loving couples (for couples from communities of African descent), marriage, partnership and family, among others. We encourage you to ask people which term they would like you to use. Also, please do not put quotation marks around the description, as this implies the described relationship is somehow illegitimate.

Famous Same Sex Couples

Love Me Tender

Paige and Holly: Celebrating Two Year Anniversary

David and Patrick: Simply the Best

Could It Be I'm Falling in Love

True Definition Of Love In A Relationship, According To Experts
Introvert's Guide to Talking to Your Crush

Music Video: Kiss Like a Woman

Signs You've Met Your Soulmate

Paige and Holly: Our First Time
Love is Love by Starley

Video Advice: Unique LGBTQ Dating Problems

RECOGNIZING SAME-SEX UNIONS
 

A growing number of newspapers and other media outlets are committed to reporting on weddings, civil unions and commitment ceremonies for gay and lesbian couples. In 2008, six years after persuading The New York Times to open its Weddings/Celebrations pages to same-sex couples and launching its Announcing Equality campaign, GLAAD now reports that 1,049 newspapers – nearly 72 percent of all daily newspapers in the United States – now accept wedding and/or commitment ceremony announcements for gay and lesbian couples. In late 2002, only 70 newspapers said they would print such announcements.

DIVERSITY
 

In reporting on LGBTQ couples, please also remember that they are as diverse as the rest of society, crossing lines of gender, race, age, income, class, family structure, religion, geography and political affiliation. We encourage you to reflect this diversity in your coverage.

Below, you will find statistics and demographic information on couples in communities of color.

The 2010 US Census describes couples by the race or ethnicity of the "householder" on the Census form. The Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law and Public Policy, a UCLA-based think tank, has conducted extensive research on the US Census and what it reveals about LGBTQ couples of color. According to the 2012 Williams Institute study, "Same-sex couples in Census 2010: Race and Ethnicity," research found that:

The 2010 Census showed that, in general, the racial/ethnic distribution of same-sex couples by householder was similar to that of different-sex couple householders.
 

The number of same-sex couple households in the United States grew by more than 80 percent from 2000 to 2010, from 358,390 households in 2000 to 646,464 in 2010.

The rate of increase in same-sex couple households was much higher than that in all households, and in different-sex couple households.
The states with the largest percentage of interracial or interethnic same-sex couple households include: Washington, California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma, Alaska, and Hawaii, and the District of Columbia.

Be My Honeypie by the Weepies

Paige and Holly: Celebrating Two Year Anniversary

TJ and Cyrus: Crush

Love Story: Beautiful Florida Lesbian Wedding

Introvert's Guide to Talking to Your Crush

NPR Story Corps: First And Lasting Love, Long Before The World Would Let It Live

Lesbian Love Languages

Paige & Holly: Kissing Moments

Info: LGBTQ Dating

Petra and Jane: I Love You

Kiss Cam: Girls Kissing Girls

BISEXUAL AND TRANSGENDER RELATIONSHIPS
 

As stories of same-sex couples in the mainstream media are growing in number, they often do not include the experiences of bisexual and transgender people in relationships. Bisexual and transgender people who are part of a couple may be in same-sex or different-sex relationships. It is important that these members of the larger LGBTQ community see their relationships reflected in coverage of Valentine's Day, and that audiences see that their families are valued parts of our communities.

Below are some important things to keep in mind when reporting on bisexual and transgender people in relationships.

Rather than relying on stereotypes about bisexual or transgender people in relationships, allow couples to tell their story.
In stories involving a bisexual member of a couple, avoid making inaccurate links between bisexuality and in infidelity, promiscuity, or indecisiveness.

In stories involving a transgender member of a couple, be sure to refer to the transgender person with the correct name and pronouns.
Couples that have bisexual or transgender members should not be referred to as a "gay couple" even if they are of the same gender.
When reporting on the relationship of a transgender person that lasted through their transition, avoid unnecessary and exploitative statements such as, "Once a husband, now a wife..."

Paige and Holly: First Kiss
Francis and Nicholas

True Definition Of Love In A Relationship, According To Experts
Blind Date: Two Guys With Great Chemistry

Amelia and Luisita

Love is Love: Free to Be Me

Natasha and Elise: I'll Have You

Introvert's Guide to Talking to Your Crush

How a “Grass Is Greener” Mentality Ruined My First Queer Relationship

Things You Should Be Telling Him Other Than 'I Love You'

All I Want is You from Juno Soundtrack

Really Cute and Gay True Stories About How You Met Your Partner

TED Talk: Queer Vision of Love and Marriage

My Summer of Love

Edie and Amanda: Falling in Love

What the World Needs Now is Love Sweet Love by Broadway Actors

Love Me Tender

Video Advice: What Should We Expect From Love?

Love Panky: What Kind of Lover Are You?

The One I Love by Ellen Krauss

LGBTQ Love Songs
 

My Love My Life: Somewhere Over the Rainbow

I Choose You by Sara Bareilles

Rock and Archie: Can't Take My Eyes Off of You

NPR Story Corps: First And Lasting Love, Long Before The World Would Let It Live
Gail and Audrey: Unexpected Love Story

Psychology Today: Seven Types of Love

Meant to Be

Daniel and John's Wedding

Signs He's Actually Into You (and Not Just Being Polite)

LGBTQ Celebs Who Celebrated Valentine's Day With Their Partners

Short LGBTQ Film: Let Me Love You

Info: LGBTQ Relationships

Dani and Sophie: Tell Her You Love Her

James Corden: Teaching Children About Gay Relationships

Paige and Holly: Hugs and Cuddles
What the World Needs Now is Love Sweet Love by Sara Bareilles

Nina: You Love Me Entirely

Love Notes

"Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage."
-Lao Tzu

"Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity."
-Henry Van Dyke

"Immature love says: I love you because I need you.

Mature love says: I need you because I love you."
-Erich Fromm

"Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive."
-Dalai Lama

"Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction."
-Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"A loving heart is the truest wisdom."
-Charles Dickens

"The one thing we can never get enough of is love. And the one thing we never give enough is love."
-Henry Miller

Flor and Jazmin

Psychological Signs Someone Likes You

LGBTQ Celebs Who Celebrated Valentine's Day With Their Partners

Comment on Love

Jen and Judy: You Mean the World to Me

Info: Passion

David and Patrick: Simply the Best

Make Me Complete

Love Wins: The Faces of Marriage Equality

Signs You've Met Your Soulmate

Lesbian Love Languages

"What are you trying to protect heterosexual marriages from?  There isn't a limited amount of love.  It isn't a non-renewable resource.  If Amy and Barbara or Mike and Steve love each other, it doesn't mean that John and Mary can't."

-Ed Fallon

"Somebody, your father or mine, should have told us that not many people have ever died of love. But multitudes have perished, and are perishing every hour, and in the oddest places, for the lack of it."

-James Baldwin

"I met a young man who was wounded in love, I met another man who was wounded in hatred."

-Bob Dylan

In a Heartbeat: Animated Gay Love Story

Modern Love by Matt Nathanson

Really Cute and Gay True Stories About How You Met Your Partner

Kissing Around the World

David and Patrick: Simply the Best

Paige and Holly: Our First Time

That Kind of Love

What the World Needs Now is Love Sweet Love by Sara Bareilles

Info: LGBTQ Relationships

Psychology Today: Love and Relationships

It’s All Greek to Me

The Greek language distinguishes at least seven different ways as to how the word love is used. Ancient Greek has distinct words for love: eros, philia, storge, ludus, pragma, philautia, and agape. However, as with other languages, it has been historically difficult to separate the meanings of these words when used outside of their respective contexts. Nonetheless, the senses in which these words were generally used are as follows:

Eros - Sexual passion. Intimate love. Romantic love. Erotic desire.

Philia - Affectionate regard or friendship. Dispassionate virtuous love. Brotherly love. Comradery.  Loyalty to friends, family, and community, and requires virtue, equality, and familiarity.

Storge - Common or natural empathy, like that felt by parents for their children. Tolerance and acceptance.

Ludus - Playful love. Flirting and teasing. Laughing with friends. Socializing.  Dancing with strangers.

Pragma – Longstanding love. Mature love. Deep understanding that develops between couples that have been together for a long time. It is about making compromises to help the relationship work over time, and showing patience and tolerance.

Philautia – Love of one’s self.  Self-esteem.  The idea is that if you like yourself and feel secure in yourself, you will have plenty of love to give others. All friendly feelings for others are an extension of one's feelings for one’s self.

Agape – Charity. Unconditional and unselfish love. Spiritual love. Love for everyone.

Romeo and Julio
Billboard: Love Letters to the LGBTQ Community

Audrey and Camille

She Means Everything to Me

Love Wins: The Faces of Marriage Equality

Paige and Holly: Proposal

What Does it Feel Like to Be in Love?

Info: LGBTQ Relationships

Somebody to Love

Dani and Sophie: Tell Her You Love Her

Love Story: Octavia & Deborah

Ian McKellan: Call Each Other Love

Blame it on the Girls

Alex and Dustin's Wedding

Say I Love You

Deities of Love

 
Greek/Hellenic

Aphrodite - goddess of love, sex and beauty
Eros - god of love and procreation

Hedone - goddess of pleasure
Himeros - god of sexual desire and unrequited love
Hedylogos - god of sweet talk and flattery
Hermaphroditus - god of hermaphrodites and effeminate men
Hymen - god of marriage, weddings, and the bridal hymn
Pothos - god of sexual longing, yearning, and desire

Peitho - god of persuasion and seduction
Philotes - goddess of affection and intercourse
Priapus - god of sexual intercourse, genitalia, nature, fertility, and lust

Incredible Ways Queer People are Redefining Valentine's Day
LGBTQ-Friendly Gifts To Celebrate Your Love This Valentine's Day

Signs You've Met Your Soulmate

Lesbian Love Languages

True Definition Of Love In A Relationship, According To Experts
Ways to Celebrate Valentine's Day as a Queer Person and Feel Good About it
Love Story: Vaibhav and Parag

Things You Should Be Telling Him Other Than 'I Love You'

To Love Somebody

Roman

Venus - goddess of love, sex and beauty

Cupid - god of love 

Voluptas - goddess of pleasure

Aurora - goddess of lust and sex
Suadela - god of persuasion and seduction

Egyptian

Bastet - goddess of felines, love, protection, perfume, beauty, and dance
Bes - god of music, love, and dance
Hathor - goddess of love, beauty, and music
Min - god of reproduction, love, and sexual pleasure
Qetesh - goddess of love, beauty, and sex

Chinese

Jiutian Xuannü - goddess of war, sex, and longevity
Yue-Lao - god of love, who binds two people together with an invisible red string
Tu Er Shen - god of love between homosexual men
Qian Keng (Peng Zu) - god of health-focused sex
Chuanggong and Chuangmu - god and goddess of the bedchamber, sex, sleep, and childbirth
King Zhou - god of sodomy

Weird and Annoying Questions Gay Couples Get Asked
Everybody Wants to Be Loved by Ingrid Michaelson
TED Talks: Love is Love

Carmine and Ryan's Wedding

Jen and Judy: Hold Me While You Wait

Info: Sensuality

Paige and Holly: Celebrating Two Year Anniversary

Really Cute and Gay True Stories About How You Met Your Partner

Somebody to Love

Romeo and Julio

Info: LGBTQ Relationships

Psychological Signs Someone Likes You

Celtic/Irish

Áine - goddess of love, summer, wealth, and sovereignty
Cliodhna - goddess of love and beauty

Hindu/Vedic

Kamadeva - god of love and desire
Rati - goddess of love, carnal desire, lust, passion and sexual pleasure
Ushas - goddess of lust

African

Anansa - goddess of the sea, allure and beauty
Baron La Croix - god of the dead and sexuality
Baron Samedi - god of the dead, sex, and resurrection
Erzulie Freda Dahomey - god of love, beauty, jewelry, dancing, luxury, and flowers
Oshun - goddess of luxury, pleasure, sexuality, fertility, beauty, and love

Natasha and Elise: I'll Have You

TJ and Cyrus: Can't Help Falling in Love With You

Info: Sex, Attraction, Attachment

Signs You've Met Your Soulmate

Video Story: Lover's Night Routine

I Choose You by Sara Bareilles

Love Story: Eric & Stan

Signs He's Actually Into You (and Not Just Being Polite)

To Love Somebody

Paige and Holly: Our First Time

She Means Everything to Me

Info: LGBTQ Dating

Endless Love: Audrey and Camille

Introvert's Guide to Talking to Your Crush

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Fred Berger, 74, and his husband, Ken Merrifield, 79, both have significant birthdays in February 2022. But before then, the couple will celebrate Valentine's Day together, as they have done 24 times previously.

The two met on a windswept beach in Provincetown on a January afternoon. It wasn't just the romantic setting that sparked their mutual attraction.  Fred recalls, "It was a connection that we felt... just sort of an initial attraction. I don't know how to describe it, really."

A natural question might be how the two men came to be on that beach at all. After all, Provincetown might be a center of gay culture, but it's much more a summer destination than a wintertime haven. "Well, I was living in Boston," Fred, a retired social worker, recalls, "and Ken was living in Provincetown. And it was Martin Luther King weekend."

Picturesque as the scene might have been, the frigid wind off the ocean hastened things along. "We had a short conversation, and then we went to, I think it was my guest house." Fred recounts. "And really, yeah, we've been together since then. I moved to Provincetown about nine months later."

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In the near quarter-century that's elapsed since then, the pair have traveled extensively. "Santorini, Greece," Fred says when asked about a favorite destination. But love, and life together, have been the biggest adventure of all.

"You do make a lot of adjustments," Fred notes. "I think one thing we learned is to stop trying to change the other person. Stop seeing their faults and wanting them to be more like you, and just accept each other. And I know that sounds easy to say, but I think it's really significant."

"It's a lifelong project," Ken chimes in.  "A lot of our interests are similar, but our personalities are not similar," Fred adds, "so that's where the acceptance comes in. But," he adds, "we complement each other. We balance each other out. It works."  Such relationship success doesn't happen without mindfulness and a handful of foundational principles. For Fred and Ken, those came down to just a few essentials.  "I think honesty is one of the best qualities of Fred," Ken volunteers.

"Honesty, trust, acceptance," Fred adds, going on to explain that efforts to cultivate those qualities in their relationship include more than just the two of them. That acceptance, he says, expanded to include "all the people around us — Ken's family, and my family."  Though Ken was married to a woman in his younger days, "it was mainly because he wanted to have kids," Fred explains. "So, they were married about seven years, and then they divorced, and Ken was always very open with his kids. He has a gay son who came out when he was about 16."
 

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And there's more to the family saga: Fred recounts how, after Ken moved out, a friend of his wife "moved in. And they've been in a committed relationship for 35 years!"  Fred details that "Ken has three kids. When we met, they were already in college, and we never lived with them, but they're really great people, and they're pretty much my family as well. We're very close."

So essential are those family bonds that when the couple was asked if any particular Valentine's Day stands out for them from the last quarter-century, it's not an intimate getaway or a trip to some distant locale that they recall.  "Two years ago, Ken's gay son got married on Valentine's Day," Fred says. "That was really special for everybody."

Honesty, trust, acceptance. It sounds like a winning formula, but haven't they also shaped one another over the years? "I think so," Fred allows. "People say couples grow to look alike. Especially while traveling, people first meeting us have thought we were brothers or twins. A couple of times, recently, they asked if Ken was the father and I was the son, though there's only four years' difference!"

That admission prompts some hearty laughter, but Fred addresses the fact that while time might make a couple more closely resemble each other, it also, inevitably, involves health issues.  "The big change has been in recent years," Fred elaborates. "Ken has the diagnosis of Parkinson's, and I'm his caretaker. And that has brought us really close. And just a few months ago, we moved into senior housing together. I'm still a caretaker, but it's a different way of living now."

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COVID made a move necessary, Fred explains. Both men got sick during the pandemic, and Fred couldn't keep on as caretaker without help. Even before they got ill, the men had contemplated senior housing.  "We live in Fort Lauderdale, and we have lived here for 17 years," Fred explains. "I had visited a place that was new about a year or so ago, and it was a very short distance from where we lived before." As Fred recovered from his bout with COVID, "one of Ken's daughters came down and did all the research, visited the place, looked at the specific room they were interested in."

Now Fred and Ken reside at Belmont Village Senior Living Fort Lauderdale.  Given the too-common stories of LGBTQ elders facing disparities and even bias-driven abuse, was there concern around how welcoming their new home would be?  "As far as being gay here, we've been totally comfortable," Fred says. "There's not been a hint of any kind of non-acceptance. So it was a very good decision."

Happy 25th Valentine's Day together, Fred and Ken!

[Source: Kilian Melloy, Edge Media Network, Feb 2022]
 

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Intimacy

To be intimate means to make known, to get close, or to open up. Intimacy is about seeking or having closeness of some kind with someone. When we're being intimate with another person, we're letting them (or they're letting us) get closer by inviting and allowing each other into places beneath the visible surfaces of ourselves; places we don't show to just anyone, or places people can only really come into if we invite them.

Healthy intimacy involves intentionally, willingly and safely sharing more private, vulnerable parts of our hearts, minds, bodies or lives with each other, and having others share with us in ways we want and feel comfortable with. Intimacy asks for transparency (being open and honest), vulnerability (letting our guard down), trust, and a means of communicating or connecting. When we're experiencing healthy intimacy, we'll tend to feel accepted or accepting, known or more knowing, valued just as the people we are, not because we did something important or something that someone wanted, and, since so many of us keep so much of our inner selves reigned in tightly so much of the time, we'll tend to feel a certain sense of peace or release by loosening those reins.

 

Intimacy is something that can happen in a brief period of time and can be built over time, so it becomes deeper, there's more of it, or it's something we experience more often. A truly shared intimacy involves both or all people involved sharing and being shared with. Shared intimacy requires all people involved be open and receptive, vulnerable, trusting and trustworthy, sharing and communicating together, not just one person.

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Romeo and Julio

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Real Love

Boy George is quoted as saying, "There's this illusion that homosexuals have sex and heterosexuals fall in love. That's completely untrue. Everybody wants to be loved."

This unfair misconception among some members of society represents a narrow-minded view that same-sex couples are guided by lustful desires, while heterosexual couples, motivated by purer intentions, are oriented towards real relationships. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

LGBTQ people are no different in their pursuit of love and relationships than straight people. The myopic focus on just the physical sex act is ignorant and insulting, and totally misses the point. That kind of skewed perspective views the love and affection of same-sex couples as illegitimate, less valid, less real. Such an opinion devalues and dismisses the caring, affection and romance that is exchanged between two people who are truly in love with each other.

According to the website, AllRiot, "As an integral part of human society, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex individuals have the right to free expression, free love, and yes, overpriced wedding cakes. We should have the freedom to choose a partner. Love is all around, and your choice of who to share it with is more important than the orifice you choose to use."

As society becomes more educated and open-minded on the subject, hopefully it will soon come to understand that love is love, and that real love is experienced by all definitions and manifestations of relationships. With a more enlightened insight into the personal lives of everyday LGBTQ people, society will begin to see that same-sex interactions are more than just the physical sex act and more than what couples do in bed.

In the LGBTQ community, deep, genuine love is an important and profound element of a real, day-to-day, committed relationship. As with any serious relationship, LGBTQ couples seek to enjoy a loving bond based on mutual respect, emotional depth, and spiritual connectedness.

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Dani and Sophie: Tell Her You Love Her

The Love That Dare Not Speak its Name

"The love that dare not speak its name" is a phrase from the last line of the poem "Two Loves" by Lord Alfred Douglas, written in September 1892 and published in the Oxford magazine The Chameleon in December 1894. Douglas, nicknamed Bosie, was a British poet and journalist and best known as the lover of Oscar Wilde. 

The verse from Douglas' poem was mentioned at Oscar Wilde's gross indecency trial and is usually interpreted as a euphemism for homosexuality. To this day the iconic verse has come to be a poetic description of same-sex love.

In Wilde's definition, "the love that dare not speak its name" was: "a great affection of an elder for a younger man ... such as Plato made the very basis of his philosophy ... It is that deep, spiritual affection that is as pure as it is perfect ... There is nothing unnatural about it. It is intellectual, and it repeatedly exists between an elder and a younger man, when the elder man has intellect, and the younger man has all the joy, hope and glamour of life before him."

Today, Oscar Wilde's love letters to Douglas are well-known.

Later, Robertson Davis would exclaim, "The love that dare not speak its name has become the love that won't shut up."

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How Gay Hearts Can Beat the Valentine's Day Blues

Dear Adam, I truly hate Valentine’s Day. As soon as Valentine’s Day ads start I get moody and cranky. I think it’s worse for gay people, don’t you? Signed, Bitter and Alone in Boston.

Dear Bitter and Alone in Boston, I get it. Valentine’s Day can be a pretty lonely day. Research shows that loneliness is an epidemic in our country. And it’s not just a gay thing. Straight people are lonely too.

One in six people are lonely and the numbers keep increasing. Only one-half of young people have daily, meaningful interactions with others. The UK has even appointed a minister of loneliness. It’s so common and normal, and yet so stigmatized. That makes the pain of loneliness even worse.

Are gay people more lonely than straight people? There aren’t any research studies specifically on LGBTQ loneliness, but the answer is probably “yes.” Sadly, the math equation is pretty simple: social stigma + family rejection + religious rejection + Republican party political rejection = more loneliness, more suicide, more substance abuse for LGBTQ people.

And what did most parents in the 1970s and earlier say when their children came out? “You’ll grow old alone.”  No one over 30 grew up with cultural themes of gay people surrounded by loving friends and family. As LGBTQ people, we have a lot to unpack and relearn.

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Here are my three suggested steps to moving beyond loneliness and towards the connections you are dreaming about:

Step 1: Be a Much Better Friend to You

Most good stuff in life starts with examining and improving your relationship with you.  That means quieting your inner critic. This is a life-long process. You’ll never fully be done. And that’s okay. However, once you are kinder to yourself it becomes much easier to navigate the complicated and scary world of other people. You don’t have to fully love yourself to love others. But you will get there faster as your compassion for yourself grows.

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Step 2: Unpack the Current Culture

We have relationships with ourselves, with others, and also with the culture. Most of us downplay the role of culture in our behavior, but it is profound. The first step is acknowledging that the culture is based on some unhealthy assumptions. Here are some of the messages of contemporary culture which leads to our increasing loneliness:

-Texting and electronic communication is good enough

-Look happy and popular on social media, even when you are not

-Lots of sex with new people makes you happier and happier

-If you spend most of your time at work making money will get you what you want

-The answer to feeling more connected is one more drink

-Work remotely, away from your colleagues, and get everything delivered so you don’t interact with your local people.

Most LGBTQ folks eventually earn to push against the dominant beliefs of their time as they come out. Can you push against these lonely cultural practices and work towards something different even though it seems like everyone is doing them? It takes bravery and a little discipline to push against the culture. But that’s how you inoculate yourself from the loneliness epidemic.

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Step 3: Take One of These Practical Steps or Try on One of These New Beliefs

Eventually, you’ll need to go where the people are if you want to feel less lonely. Here’s what works:

-Join groups even though you really, really, really don’t want to.

-If the group activity is disappointing, make a commitment not to torture yourself afterward and instead give yourself amazing, generous credit for trying.
-Expect the process of connection to take a long time. Only children and college students make friends fast. Kids are open. Grown-ups are not.
-If you are uncomfortable in groups just ask people questions and authentically compliment them. That’s all you have to do.
-Time + vulnerability = love + friendship. Give it time, but also take mini-risks in revealing slightly vulnerable things. No vulnerability = no love.
-Catch yourself when you start to think you are the only lonely one. That is a distorted thought. Remember, you are living in an epidemic.
-Realize you only need two close friends as confidants. And you also need community. Community means people who know your name, smile when they see you, but maybe don’t know that much about you.
-Notice when you start to think everyone is judging you at an event. This is a cognitive distortion. Unless you are a celebrity, people are not thinking about you. They are thinking about themselves.

[Source: Adam D. Blum, Relationship Expert, Marriage & Family Therapist, Founder of Gay Therapy Center, Advocate Magazine, February 14 2020]

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What the World Needs Now is Love Sweet Love by Broadway Actors

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Paige and Holly: Our First Time
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Love is in the Air

Five couples share their secrets to a long, happy, and healthy relationship...

--Nelson Roman and his partner Manny Hernandez

--John Trobaugh and his husband Jeroan Allison

--Mason Dunn and his wife Lauren Willford

--Andi Wheeler and her fiancée Meredith Munn

--Paul Fahey and his partner Benny Chan

When asked about the secret to a healthy relationship. Roman and Hernandez, who have been together for over six months, said many ingredients go into the recipe of relationships. “To me, the secret to any relationship begins with trust,” Roman said. “Add in some respect, genuine friendship, open and honest communication, fun, laughter, romance, and random acts of showing each other you love one another, and you should have the foundation.”  “It all begins with communication,” Hernandez added.

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Fahey, who has been with Chan since July of 2014, said communication was the key to getting through the good and bad times. “Obviously openness and honesty is important, but just as much so are those occasions where one or both of us makes a mistake and has to address something that can be embarrassing or painful,” he said.

Trobaugh, who has been with his husband for 25 years and has a 10-year-old son named Ryan, said that acting out of love and compromise were most important.  “People say love is a verb and I believe it,” Trobaugh said. “When we were just friends and dating we made sure that our core values were in line with each other’s. We both have a strong sense of contributing to society and giving back in a variety of ways.”

Andi Wheeler, speaking of her fiancée Meredith Munn, said making space for your significant other to grow is “super important.” “Being part of a couple is wonderful and fun, but it’s also important to grow as separate individuals,” Wheeler said. “If you hold your partner back or put your own needs on the back burner, it can hurt the relationship.”

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For Dunn and Willford, who met at summer camp while in college, the “secret” is no secret at all. “I don’t think it’s as easy as one thing, nor should it be a secret,” Dunn said. “For us, it’s been about communication, patience, and authenticity.”  Willford believes a strong relationship requires something deeper. “One of the secrets for us is that while we are partners, we started out, 11 years ago, as friends,” Willford said. “Her compassion is towards the top of my list,” Dunn said of Willford when discussing their long-last relationship. “She has a never-ending well of kindness and compassion that extends to children, animals, and people.” Willford said she loved Dunn’s work ethic and drive. “He’s not afraid of challenges, or getting into the struggle of problem solving,” Willford said. “He’s a bit of a perfectionist, but he works hard to bring out the best in everything he puts his mind to.”

Trobaugh said the differences between he and Allison were what attracted them to each other. “Our personalities couldn’t be more different,” Trobaugh said. “I’m an artist and he is a scientist. My favorite part of my husband’s personality is his genuine inquisitive nature.”  He said Allison is prone to asking questions to get to the root cause of a problem or a bad mood or simply commit a random act of kindness.

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Fahey said he admires Chan’s sense of humor and his approach to life. “He is passionate about travel, which we share, and music, which we don’t,” Fahey said. “I love seeing him express that passion and share those feelings with me. I do the same with him about books and politics.”

Wheeler said she is fortunate to have a fiancée with an ability to prepare for the future. “She’s always working to make our future together better,” Wheeler said. “She’s able to see how things will evolve and do the planning that I’m so bad at. We have such a bright future together and it’s all because of her.”

Roman agreed that Hernandez’s sense of humor is important. “He knows how to make me smile and laugh,” he said. Hernandez said he found Roman’s youthful and passionate spirit the most attractive and that the personality traits were so numerous he didn’t know where to begin. “The first thing that comes to mind is Nelson’s sincere heart,” Hernandez said. “Nelson continues to wear his heart on his sleeve. Also, Nelson has the heart of a child and like myself enjoys the simple things in life.”

[Source: Alex Gentile, Rainbow Times]

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Info: Sensuality

In a Heartbeat: Animated Gay Love Story

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Paige and Holly: How We Became Girlfriends

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Aisha and Yiren

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What the World Needs Now is Love Sweet Love by Sara Bareilles

Say I Love You

Info: LGBTQ Relationships

Crazy Love

Love is insane. Really. Finally there is scientific validation for the insanity one feels when we fall in love. Researchers have discovered that the brain's chemistry of infatuation is akin to mental illness, which gives new meaning to the phrase "falling madly in love."

The research findings, reported in National Geographic, found that the cocktail of brain chemicals that spark romance are not the same as the ones that foster long-term commitments. So, every year as we celebrate Valentine's Day, we might want to think (which is almost impossible when one's brain is flooded with the delirium of passion) about the longer-term consequences of our libidinous desires.

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Those who have felt the unrelenting craziness of passionate love know that reason and reality fly out the window once one's true love enters the scene. Work, bill paying, responsibilities, sleep (even getting regular food) can all fall apart, and we find we have unlimited energies to devote to our beloved. The good news is that the brain has a built in protection mechanism. The insanity doesn't last.

Researchers found that the brains of people in love respond similarly to when it gets a surge of dopamine. Cocaine users describe an increasing tolerance for the drug as time goes by, and a need for more and more of a fix, and lovers' brains do the same thing. After a while the high just wears off. Although the loss of the rush can be a letdown, for those who need to hold down a job and keep the utilities on, it is probably a good thing.

That is not to say that passionate love cannot morph into long-term happiness. Many couples in the studies reported that their first blush of passion was overwhelming, but that as time went on the irresistible urge to bed each other became tempered by another desire, to talk to each other and spend time having fun together in other ways. The relationships that stand the test of time are the ones in which the lovers discover that they actually like each other, as well as drive each other mad with desire.

As each of you celebrate this day of love, we encourage you to enjoy the unquenchable thirst that our brain chemistry provides when we find the one that turns us into that lunatic we hardly recognize as ourselves. Relax and enjoy it. It should be a relief to know that you are not permanently insane, just crazy in love.

And if you're lucky in love too, the one that drives you mad between the sheets will be the same person that you like to talk to across the dinner table.

[Source: PrideSource, 2006, Between The Lines News]

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True Definition Of Love In A Relationship, According To Experts
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Four Weddings and a Funeral: Funeral Scene

Endless Love: Audrey and Camille

What the World Needs Now is Love Sweet Love by Sara Bareilles

Info: LGBTQ Relationships

Signs He's Actually Into You (and Not Just Being Polite)

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NPR Story Corps: First And Lasting Love, Long Before The World Would Let It Live
Info: Sensuality, Libido, Lust, Desire

TED Talks: Love is Love

What is Your Love Language?

Secrets for Lifelong Romance From a Gay Couple Together 24 Years

Five Year Anniversary

Lovestruck: Lesbian Short Film

My College Roommate Became a Close Friend... Then I Started to Develop Feelings

What True Love Really Is

Shakespeare Quotes About Love

Wikipedia: Love

Info: Making Love

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