The largest survey to date of people living with HIV regarding attitudes toward criminalization of HIV non-disclosure, this study investigates: sources of legal information available to HIV-positive people; perceptions of how criminal prosecutions and media coverage affect understanding of rights and responsibilities of self and others; and where HIV-positive people themselves stand on the role the criminal justice system should play. While mainstream media constructions of criminal iconography do affect PHA views, those who have higher levels of formal education, are active in the dating scene, and have been living longer with HIV hold less punitive views than those who do not. While the overall pattern of agreement on where to draw the line in criminal prosecution holds regardless of demographic characteristics, there is some statistically significant variation in degree of punitiveness according to sexual orientation and gender as well.

Thin films of zirconium oxide (ZrOx) and hafnium oxide (HfOx) were rf sputtered onto fused silica substrates in an oxygen rich argon environment. Pure zirconium and hafnium targets were used, and the oxygen partial pressure was varied to control the oxygen stoichiometry. Measurement of the EPR characteristics of the ZrOx films indicated two peaks corresponding to two orientations of the magnetic field. This anisotropic response suggested the films were polycrystalline with a preferred orientation. This was confirmed by XRD pole figures. The measured g-values for the ZrOx films were less than the free-spin g-value, indicating the defects corresponded to electron traps. It was further shown that the lower the oxygen partial pressure during deposition, the larger the EPR response, strongly suggesting the traps correspond to oxygen vacancies in ZrOx. Hafnium oxide thin films were also characterized by EPR. The EPR measurements indicated the presence of a single resonance peak, suggesting these films were polycrystalline without a preferred orientation or amorphous. XRD measurements confirmed that the HfOx films were amorphous. The g-value for these films was greater than that the free-spin value, indicating the presence of possibly self-trapped oxygen hole centers. These results will be discussed in the context of prior experimental and theoretical work on these systems.

In recent years, there has been a growing realization that the contemporary social organization of homosexuality into lesbian and gay worlds is a socially and historically unique development and that the traditional academic construction of “the homosexual” has participated in this reifying process (Foucault 1978; Hocquenghem 1978; McIntosh 1981; Weeks 1981; Plummer 1981; Faderman 1981). This article seeks to contribute to this understanding by proposing a set of structural characteristics seen as preconditions to the existence of the gay world and by exploring theoretical leads, especially Marxist feminist initiatives, to make sense of these structures. The study of homosexuality has been so long dominated by psychiatry, biology, and theology that the usual tools of analysis provided by political economy (construed broadly) have not been employed to analyze it. This essay puts forward some structural linkages which set homosexuality within the context of the larger histories of gender, family, and production.

This paper reports on the perceptions and practices of men who have frequent unprotected sex with men in a socio-legal environment defined by the 1998 decision of the Supreme Court of Canada in R. v. Cuerrier. HIV-positive people are increasingly finding themselves in court since Cuerrier, and many are trying to take account of legal reasoning in their own conduct. The judicial construction of behaviour likely to transmit HIV relies on a set of presumptions concerning individual responsibility, rational and contractual interaction, and consenting adults that raises a series of ambiguities and uncertainties among HIV-positive people attempting to implement them in everyday life. While some express support for the reasoning in Cuerrier, others struggle with practical dilemmas in sexual interaction, and a minority strand of ethical reasoning advances a “buyer beware” principle. This latter view occurs in a social environment where HIV-positive people experience strong disincentives to disclose in the face of potential rejection or discrimination once their sero-status is known. Examination of the social consequences of Cuerrier raises questions about the viability of relying on the enforcement of disclosure, through threat of criminal prosecution, as an effective method of HIV prevention, especially when most practical, day-to-day HIV prevention occurs when safer sex is practised consistently regardless of disclosure.