Bisexuality, Slippery Slopes, and Multipartner Marriage

This paper explores the position of polyamory in slippery-slope arguments directed against the campaign for same-sex marriage rights in the United States. In the rhetoric of right-wing opponents granting same-sex marriage rights is seen as the first step on a long spiral downwards toward moral decay, which will successively normalise a whole range of problematic and ‘unwanted’ practices. Polygamy and, in its close proximity, polyamory are usually the first items on a list that may also include adultery, adult incest, bestiality and pedophilia. The paper highlights the mobilisation of racist and nationalist tropes at the heart of anti-polygamy sentiments and considers the impact of this legacy for poly politics. Concentrating on the analysis of essays published by the Conservative journalist Stanley Kurtz, the paper explores the connection between bisexuality and polyamory in some slippery slope arguments. Slippery slope arguments have been a constant feature of the debates about same-sex marriage rights in the USA. Their relative prominence and strong hold within the public imagination have also impacted upon the discourses deployed by poly activists, resulting in common dis-associations from polygamy and an a reluctance to engage with questions regarding the legal recognition of multi-partner relationships at all. Understanding the slippery slope dynamic is important for grasping the conditionality that contributes to the persisting hostilities against polyamory, polygamy, and LGBTQ intimacies and that shape social movement politics

Comparative queer methodologies and queer film festival research

This paper examines how a critical examination of the queer politics of comparison can inform queer film festival research. The discussion of the queer politics of comparison draws on a qualitative study of five queer film festivals in different European cultural geopolitical contexts which examined these festivals as sites for the reproduction of queer visibility, solidarity and queer space. We propose an approach of relational comparison within a framework that highlights regional contextuality. We further argue that queer approaches to comparative research should be informed by postcolonial critiques that challenge hegemonic notions of temporality and spatiality within political geographical imaginaries of Europe. We therefore suggest that poststructural and postcolonial informed perspectives on ‘cultural translation’ are key to the queering of comparison. Such an approach to cultural translation critical self-reflexivity within a transversal hermeneutics that at the same time pay attention to geopolitics, positionality and difference

Modification of 40X13 steel at high-intensity nitrogen ion implantation

This paper presents the results of the formation of deep modified layers in 40X13 steel using a high-intensity repetitively pulsed nitrogen ion beam with a current density up to 0.25 A/cm2. An arc generator with a hot cathode provided the DC nitrogen plasma flow. A plasma immersion approach was used for high-frequency, short-pulse very intense nitrogen ion beam formation. A grid hemisphere with radii of 7.5 cm was immersed in the plasma. Negative bias pulses with an amplitude of 1.2 kV, a pulse duration of 4 µs, and a pulse repetition rate of 105 pulses per second were applied to the grid. The substrates were implanted at the temperature of 500 °C and various processing times ranging from 20 to 120 minutes with 1.2 keV nitrogen ions using a very-high current density up to 0.25 A/cm2 ion beams. The work explores the surface morphology, elemental composition, and mechanical properties of deep-layer modified 40X13 steel after low ion energy, very-high-intensity nitrogen ion beam implantation

The politics of age and generation at the GAZE International LGBT Film Festival in Dublin

Despite their global proliferation, queer film festivals, like film festivals more broadly, are somewhat understudied within the social sciences. This is despite scholarship within film studies that argues that they are significant sites of queer collectivity and sociality. This article examines queer film festivals as sites for the production of community and queer bonds. The authors argue that questions of age, temporality and intergenerationality are central to discourses of community mobilized by festival organizers. The article draws on empirical material from a qualitative study of the GAZE International LGBT Festival in Dublin – which formed part of a larger comparative study of the cultural activist politics of queer film festivals in Europe. Ken Plummer has argued for a greater appreciation of the role of time and generation within sexuality studies. Age, temporality and intergenerationality emerged as important issues within interviews conducted with organizers and volunteers at the festival. The analysis of these issues focuses on three key themes: (1) GAZE as a site of intergenerational community; (2) GAZE as a site of remembrance; and (3) demography and the sustainability of the festival. The article argues that the festival provides a distinctive site of intergenerational queer bonds; and that despite the creation of transnational spaces and discourses, references to the nation and national identity remain central to bonding experiences at the festival