Googling the requester: Identity‐questing and discrimination in public service provision

Innovating upon previous field experiments and theories of identity‐based discrimination, we test whether public officials are using searches (“identity‐questing”) to profile citizens and acting on latent biases. Pairs of “institutional” and “noninstitutional” requesters send lower and moderate burden freedom of information (FOI) requests—providing no identity cues apart from undistinctive names, e‐mails, and ID numbers—to nearly 700 of Brazil's largest municipalities. Results show institutional requesters receive one‐fifth more responses than noninstitutional comparators. For moderate versus lower burden requests, noninstitutional requesters are 11% less likely to receive a compliant response than their institutional comparators. The only plausible explanation for these results is identity‐questing, a phenomenon that has far‐reaching policy implications. Most of the world's FOI laws, for example, contain vague ID obligations, which translate incoherently from laws to regulation and practice. Results enjoin public service providers to protect the identities of citizens by default or upon request.     

Complex Congenital Heart Malformation Including Transposition of the Great Vessels,Presenting as Sudden Unexplained Infant Death

Transposition of the great vessels (TGV) is a common congenital heart defect that is difficult to diagnose before birth. Antenatal diagnosis is associated with increased survival. Unusual features such as anomalous pulmonary artery origin may delay cyanosis, decreasing clinical suspicion. A three‐week old female infant who had never been cyanotic presented for forensic autopsy due to onset of unresponsiveness at home. History included risk factors for TGV and signs of heart enlargement that were not recognized during life. Cardiac pathology consultation identified D‐type TGV with additional rare anomalies. TGV may present as sudden unexplained infant death (SUID) for forensic autopsy if variant features prevent development of cyanosis. Cardiac pathology consultation is helpful in clarifying these features.     

Lee v Ashers Baking Company Ltd and Others: The Inapplicability of Discrimination Law to an Illusory Conflict of Rights

Providers of customised goods and services do not directly discriminate against a customer when their refusal to fulfil an order is based on their objection to the message requested by the latter and not on any protected characteristics of the person. This is the conclusion reached by the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom when faced with a claim of direct discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and religious beliefs or political opinions contrary to two Northern Ireland Statutory Rules against a bakery which objected to incorporating the message ‘Support Gay Marriage’ into a cake. In this case comment it is argued that the Supreme Court correctly identified the crucial distinction between a message and a person for the purposes of discrimination law. Each of the two grounds of discrimination at issue is examined and an explanation for the inapplicability of a finding of discrimination on either is offered.     

Performing the Filipina “mail-order bride”: Queer neoliberalism,affective labor,and homonationalism

The 2005 video/performance art piece, Always a Bridesmaid, Never a Bride, by the Filipina American performance-art ensemble, the Mail Order Brides, examines the role of affective labor in constituting gay marriage as a form of US homonational belonging. In a contemporary context of capitalist globalization, Always a Bridesmaid, Never a Bride critiques the subjugation of the third-world woman worker within a queer neoliberal logic, highlighting the inability of the mainstream US LGBT movement to address issues of race, migration, and labor. The Mail Order Brides enact forms of feminist camp and ethnic drag to denaturalize the affective labor that is embodied within the figure of the Filipina “mail-order bride.” In doing so, Always a Bridesmaid, Never a Bride links an analysis of transnational Filipina labor with a critique of queer cultural politics in the US In its critique of queer neoliberalism, Always a Bridesmaid, Never a Bride builds on and contributes to queer of color social movements committed to racial and economic justice.     

The cholera epidemic of 1833 and mortality in Mexico City

The author examines the impact of the 1833 cholera epidemic in Mexico City, Mexico, on social, economic, and political aspects of life in that city. She finds that some five percent of the population died during the epidemic, and enumerates them by age and sex.     

The UN decade for women in Peru

Peru will see the International Decade of Women come to an end with some real achievements tempered only by doubts as to their endurance and long-term impact on the conditions of life of the great majority of poor women, in cities, towns, and the rural countryside. To evaluate the likelihood of a lasting effect it is useful to review some of the actions which were taken under the stimulus of the international call to give priority to the concerns of women in public and private institutions.     

Human Cutaneous Myiasis by the Australian Sheep Blowfly,Lucilia cuprina (Diptera: Calliphoridae), in Oklahoma

This case report describes an incident of myiasis in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Paramedics treated a 53‐year‐old man in the field when he suffered cardiac arrest. He was intubated by the paramedics and transported to an emergency room, where he received two stents and a balloon pump. He was found to have a GCS of three and remained in the hospital for 7 days before passing away. After his death, the breathing tube was removed, revealing the presence of several maggots. On closer inspection, the dipteran larvae were found in both the oral and nasal cavities. Four of these larvae were reared to adulthood and identified as Lucilia cuprina (Weidemann) (Diptera: Calliphoridae), commonly known as the Australian sheep blowfly, by the Biology Department of the University of Oklahoma. Based on the fly's life cycle and rate of development, the infestation is suspected to be hospital acquired.