Francesco Serri

The Sound of Silence. Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Discrimination in ‘Inclusive Organizations’

Most studies on diversity and discrimination in the workplace have focused on ‘visible’ minorities such as gender or race, often neglecting the experiences of invisible minorities such as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) workers. In this paper we explore the practices of inclusion/exclusion of LGBTs in the workplace in Italian social cooperatives, which are specifically founded to create employment for people who are disadvantaged in the labour market. The study examines how organizations, which have an ethos focused on inclusion and mainly employ workers from specific social minority groups, manage the inclusion of LGBT workers. We also explore the experience of LGBT workers within these organizations. The paper reports that the culture of silence existing in the five organizations studied prevents LGBT employees from constructing a work identity which encompasses their sexual identity and prevents the organizations from achieving their aim of being fully inclusive workplaces.

Effects of antiestrogen and progestin on immune functions in breast cancer patients

Several immunologic variables were evaluated in 14 patients with untreated primary breast cancer and 20 postmastectomized patients undergoing tamoxifen (TAM) or high‐dose medroxyprogesterone acetate (MPA) treatment. Immunologic evaluation in the peripheral blood included lymphocyte count, definition of T‐lymphocyte subsets by monoclonal antibodies (OKT3, OKT11, OKT4, and OKT8), and lymphocyte blastogenic response to phytohemagglutinin (PHA) and Concanavallin A (Con A). Moreover, the in vitro effect of TAM and MPA on the blastogenic response of peripheral lymphocytes from normal female subjects was tested. Primary breast cancer patients did not differ from controls in any of the variables tested. Similarly, the immunologic variables of the group treated with TAM were normal, with the exception of a slight reduction of the OKT4+/OKT8+ ratio. In MPA‐treated patients, a reduction of the percentage of OKT4+ cells and a decrease of the OKT4+/0KT8+ ratio were observed. Moreover, response to PHA was reduced sharply. However, the addition of interleukin‐2 (IL‐2) to the culture medium restored PHA response. Likewise, the in vitro addition of MPA to peripheral blood lymphocytes from normal female subjects resulted in a sharp dose‐dependent depression of PHA response while TAM was ineffective completely. The inhibitory effect of MPA was not evident when IL‐2 was added simultaneously to the culture medium. These results show that the administration of high‐dose MPA may alter immunocompetence as defined by T‐lymphocyte subsets and response to mitogens. The latter effect may be related to a diminished production of IL‐2. In contrast, TAM does not appear to have a significant immunodepressant action either in vitro or in vivo.

Evidence that granulosa cells inhibit interleukin-1α and interleukin-2 production from follicular lymphomonocytes

ObjectiveRelationships between immune and endocrine systems seem to occur in ovarian follicular fluids (FF). Lymphomonocytes have been found in preovulatory follicles and their specific products, cytokines [interleukin-1 (IL1), IL2], were demonstrated to inhibit steroidogenesis. Ovarian steroids, in turn, reduce the cytokine production from immune-competent cells. In the present study we evaluated whether lymphomonocytes are present in FF, and if both their subset distribution and their IL1α and IL2 secretions, after activation with phytohemagglutinin (PHA), are similar to those of peripheral blood. Interferences of IL1α and IL2 production by FF lymphomonocytes caused by isolated granulosa cells were also evaluated.ParticipantsThe study was performed on 86 FFs obtained from follicles containing mature oocytes that were aspirated at the time of ovum pickup from 27 women undergoing controlled ovarian hyperstimulation with exogenous gonadotropins for an in vitro fertilization (IVF) program [IVF—embryo transfer (IVF-ET) or gamete intrafallopian transfer (GIFT)].ResultsLymphocytes were found in FF. The distribution of CD8+ and CD3+ lymphocyte subsets is equal to that in peripheral blood, but the percentage of CD11b+, CD16+, and CD4+ cells (its trend) is higher in FF than in peripheral blood. The amount of IL2 and IL1α deriving from PHA-activated FF lymphomonocytes is similar to that of peripheral blood PHA-activated lymphomonocytes. Granulosa cells significantly blunt IL2 and IL1α production by FF lymphomonocytes.ConclusionsThese results suggest that preovulation, a migration of lymphomonocytes from the peripheral compartment to the follicle occurs. However, unfavorable effects of IL2 and IL1α, cytotoxic and antisteroidogenetic activities, are counteracted by the products of granulosa cells. The higher amounts of CD11b+, CD16+, and CD4+ in FF suggest that they could be involved in other immune processes.

Des-acetyl-α-MSH and not α-MSH is the major form of α-MSH in amniotic fluid

Immunoreactive or-melanocyte stimulating hormone (IR-or-MSH)-like activity was measured by radioimmunoassay (RIA) in at term pregnancy amniotic fluid prior and after adsorption on a Sep-pak C18 cartridge. a-MSH activity was 3—4 times lower after Sep-pak purification but, unlike the levels of IR-α-MSH in the fluid analyzed in toto, increased linearly with the volume of fluid analyzed. Furthermore, fractionation by high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) revealed that IR-α-MSH recovered from the Sep-pak was due to several peptides rather than to a single peptide. The most abundant of them (50% of total activity) behaved like authentic des-acetyl-α-MSH. Since des-acetyl-α-MSH is also the most abundant α-MSH-like peptide in the fetal pituitary gland, the present results suggest that the fetal pituitary is a main source of des-acetyl-α-MSH in the amniotic fluid.

β-Endorphin in Amniotic Fluid in Normal and Hypertensive Gestations: Relationship with Maternal Blood Pressure Parameters

beta-Endorphin (beta-E) immunoreactivity was measured in the amniotic compartment of 52 normotensive and 45 hypertensive gestations. All the fetuses of the normal group were healthy and showed appropriate intrauterine growth, whereas only suffering and growth-retarded fetuses were included in the pathological group. As expected, amniotic beta-E concentration was found to be significantly higher in hypertensive than in normotensive pregnancies (mean +/- SEM: 129.1 +/- 8.15 vs. 59.1 +/- 2.68 pg/ml; p < or = 0.005). A positive correlation between the hormone levels and the diastolic as well as the mean maternal blood pressure (r: 0.554; p < or = 0.05 and r: 0.525; p < or = 0.05, respectively) was present only in pregnancies complicated by hypertension. Furthermore, a negative correlation (r: -0.555; p < or = 0.05) linked amniotic beta-E and the pulse pressure in normal but not in complicated pregnancies. Unless beta-E in the amniotic compartment is also of amniochorial origin, our results suggest that the fetal endorphinergic tone is either activated by elevated diastolic and mean maternal pressure levels or lowered by increased pulse pressure values in normally elapsing pregnancies.

The Italian public debate on same-sex civil unions and gay and lesbian parenting:

After many years of heated debate, in 2016 the Italian parliament approved a law to regulate same-sex civil unions. Although this can be considered a significant step towards the equality of lesbian and gay couples, the law preserves legal differences between heterosexual marriage and homosexual union and does not guarantee the rights of lesbian and gay parents and their children. In this article, we analyze the public debate on same-sex couples and gay and lesbian parenting that occurred in Italy while the parliament was discussing the law. Findings highlight that the ‘natural order’ argument and the irreducible differences between heterosexual marriage and same-sex union are the bedrock of the current expression of heteronormativity in Italy.

The organisation of sexuality and the sexuality of organisation: A genealogical analysis of sexual ‘inclusive exclusion’ at work

This article problematises sexual inclusion in the workplace by theorising the social and historical processes that underpin heteronormativity in organisations. Drawing on a genealogical analysis of sexuality and inclusion in four Italian social firms that support the work and social integration of disadvantaged individuals, the article provides an in-depth analysis of the historical conditions affecting the management of sexualities in organisations. The analysis exposes the fragility and contradictory character of the notion of inclusion by illustrating how efforts to ‘include’ are often grounded on normative principles. It also shows how heteronormativity works, in practice, to moderate different modalities of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer inclusion, recreating hierarchies and binaries within lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer individuals. The article discusses how the power of heteronormativity produces specific meanings of inclusion within which some lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer workers are included and normalised, and others remain excluded because they do not conform to normative conventions and flaunt their ‘diversity’. The necessity of taking a queer perspective on ‘inclusion’ that scrutinises the heteronormative logic is also discussed. The article concludes by shedding light on how, within a heteronormative regime shaped by neoliberal predicaments, ‘inclusive’ organisations might continue to exclude lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer individuals.

Hegemony and Heteronormativity: Homonormative Discourses of LGBTQ Activists about Lesbian and Gay Parenting

ABSTRACT LGBTQ activists have a crucial role in fighting sexuality-based discrimination. However, homonormativity can lead activists to adhere to hegemonic heteronormativity, thus threatening their efforts to widen the concept of family. Drawing on the Gramscian notion of hegemony, this article analyzes the notion of heteronormativity and its homonormative facet as a form of hegemony that impacts activists, sustaining the premises of heteronormativity and seeking inclusion within such norms. This research investigates the hegemonic heteronormative assumptions that endure in the discourses of Italian LGBTQ activists when they talk about lesbian and gay parenting. Findings highlight the presence of heteronormative traces in their discourses, namely in terms of access to reproduction, the parents’ place within the regime of gender, and the right standards for child rearing. Hegemonic heteronormativity appears in multiform ways, and as largely consensual even to those it more directly oppresses, making it difficult to detect and therefore to deconstruct.

Noradrenaline and Dopamine in Fetal Compartment in Physiologic and Hypertensive Pregnancies

In pregnancy induced hypertension an alteration in the function of sympathoadrenergic system occurs, whose role appears to be secondary in determining this pathology.In view of this we have addressed our interest to the study of the two main vasoactive catecholamines noradrenaline and dopamine, in the fetal compartment of physiologic pregnancies with normal materno-feta I flows and pregnancies complicated by hypertension with altered flowmetric pattern. No significative difference between the main values of noradrenaline and dopamine in the two groups examined were found. Moreover in both groups the ratio noradrenaline: dopamine was unchanged.