Time for a Change: The Case for LGBT-Inclusive Workplace Leave Laws and Nondiscrimination Protections

When Americans need time off work to recover from illness, bond with a new child, or care for a seriously ill family member, they often discover that their jobs provide little or no support. These important life moments can be especially difficult for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) workers to navigate. LGBT workers who need time off for personal health or family caregiving reasons often find themselves lost in a maze of legal questions:Am I entitled to any leave from work, and if so, is it job-protected and/or paid?Do any federal, state, or local laws provide protection or guarantee paid leave?Are my family relationships recognized under the law or my employer's personnel policies?Can I be fired from my job for disclosing that I am in a same-sex relationship or have an LGBT family?In April 2013, A Better Balance issued a comprehensive report to address these critical questions. Given significant developments in the law regarding LGBT Americans, as well as passage of several new state and local workplace leave laws, A Better Balance released this updated version of the report in November 2013

Search for intermediate-mass black hole binaries in the third observing run of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo

International audienceIntermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) span the approximate mass range 100−105 M⊙, between black holes (BHs) that formed by stellar collapse and the supermassive BHs at the centers of galaxies. Mergers of IMBH binaries are the most energetic gravitational-wave sources accessible by the terrestrial detector network. Searches of the first two observing runs of Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo did not yield any significant IMBH binary signals. In the third observing run (O3), the increased network sensitivity enabled the detection of GW190521, a signal consistent with a binary merger of mass ∼150 M⊙ providing direct evidence of IMBH formation. Here, we report on a dedicated search of O3 data for further IMBH binary mergers, combining both modeled (matched filter) and model-independent search methods. We find some marginal candidates, but none are sufficiently significant to indicate detection of further IMBH mergers. We quantify the sensitivity of the individual search methods and of the combined search using a suite of IMBH binary signals obtained via numerical relativity, including the effects of spins misaligned with the binary orbital axis, and present the resulting upper limits on astrophysical merger rates. Our most stringent limit is for equal mass and aligned spin BH binary of total mass 200 M⊙ and effective aligned spin 0.8 at 0.056 Gpc−3 yr−1 (90% confidence), a factor of 3.5 more constraining than previous LIGO-Virgo limits. We also update the estimated rate of mergers similar to GW190521 to 0.08 Gpc−3 yr−1.Key words: gravitational waves / stars: black holes / black hole physicsCorresponding author: W. Del Pozzo, e-mail: [email protected]† Deceased, August 2020