LGBT Equality and Sexual Racism

Bigots such as the trial judge in Loving have long invoked religion to justify discrimination. We agree with other scholars that neither religion nor artistic freedom justifies letting businesses discriminate. However, we also want to make manifest the tension between the public posture of LGBT-rights litigants and the practices of some LGBT people who discriminate based on race in selecting partners. We argue that some white people’s aversion to dating and forming relationships with people of color is a form of racism, and this sexual racism is inconsistent with the spirit of Loving. Part I provides a review of empirical literature on the prevalence of racial preferences in intimate relationships and shows that racial preferences are particularly pronounced among gay men. Part II supplements this overview with a qualitative exploration of how race informed the intimate experiences of people who sat for interviews as part of our ongoing study, LGBT Relationships and Well-Being. We also offer a theory that may partially explain sexual racism in the LGBT community. Specifically, exposure to mainstream gay culture may teach sexual minority men that race and desire are closely intertwined. In Part III, we propose ideas for further research, including a study that would test our theory

An ion probe study of the sulphur isotopic composition of Fe-Ni sulphides in CM carbonaceous chondrites

From the Introduction: The CM chondrites have endured variable degrees of aqueous alteration [1] which has changed their original mineralogy. A detailed study of the petrology and mineralogy of the sulphides in a suite of increasingly aqueously altered CMs, combined with sulphur isotope data measured in situ, can provide clues as to whether differences in the CM group are a result of different degrees of aqueous alteration, or whether they are the result of nebular heterogeneity

Petrography and bulk composition of Miller Range 05035: a new lunar VLT gabbro

Miller Range (MIL) 05035 is a crystalline lunar mare gabbroic meteorite collected in Antarctica in 2005 [1]. It is an important new sample in the lunar meteorite (LM) collection as it is only one of ~8 to be classified as basaltic in nature. MIL 05035 is coarsely grained with large pyroxene grains ( 8mm) subophitically enclosing plagioclase grains ( 6mm), and accessory ilmenite, spinel, silica and sulphide phases

Compositional analysis of the very-low-Ti mare basalt component of NWA 773 and comparison with low-Ti basalts, LAP03632 and LAP02436

Abstract not available

Genetic Locus and Structural Characterization of the Biochemical Defect in the O-Antigenic Polysaccharide of the Symbiotically Deficient \u3cem\u3eRhizobium etli\u3c/em\u3e Mutant, CE166

The O-antigen polysaccharide (OPS) of Rhizobium etli CE3 lipopolysaccharide (LPS) is linked to the core oligosaccharide via an N-acetylquinovosaminosyl (QuiNAc) residue. A mutant of CE3, CE166, produces LPS with reduced amounts of OPS, and a suppressed mutant, CE166α, produces LPS with nearly normal OPS levels. Both mutants are deficient in QuiNAc production. Characterization of OPS from CE166 and CE166α showed that QuiNAc was replaced by its 4-keto derivative, 2-acetamido-2,6-dideoxyhexosyl-4-ulose. The identity of this residue was determined by NMR and mass spectrometry, and by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis of its 2-acetamido-4-deutero-2,6-dideoxyhexosyl derivatives produced by reduction of the 4-keto group using borodeuteride. Mass spectrometric and methylation analyses showed that the 2-acetamido-2,6-dideoxyhexosyl-4-ulosyl residue was 3-linked and attached to the core-region external Kdo III residue of the LPS, the same position as that of QuiNAc in the CE3 LPS. DNA sequencing revealed that the transposon insertion in strain CE166 was located in an open reading frame whose predicted translation product, LpsQ, falls within a large family of predicted open reading frames, which includes biochemically characterized members that are sugar epimerases and/or reductases. A hypothesis to be tested in future work is that lpsQ encodes UDP-2-acetamido-2,6-dideoxyhexosyl-4-ulose reductase, the second step in the synthesis of UDP-QuiNAc from UDP-GlcNAc

Quiescent X-Ray/Optical Counterparts of the Black Hole Transient H 1705-250

We report the result of a new Chandra observation of the black hole X-ray transient H 1705-250 in quiescence. H 1705-250 was barely detected in the new 50 ks Chandra observation. With 5 detected counts, we estimate the source quiescent luminosity to be Lx~9.1e30 erg/s in the 0.5-10 keV band (adopting a distance of 8.6 kpc). This value is in line with the quiescent luminosities found among other black hole X-ray binaries with similar orbital periods. By using images taken with the Faulkes Telescope North, we derive a refined position of H 1705-250. We also present the long-term lightcurve of the optical counterpart from 2006 to 2012, and show evidence for variability in quiescence.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures; Accepted for publication in MNRA