Hey folks! And welcome to the first edition of the Legally Gay Book Corner!
Today I will be discussing:
“Covering: The Hidden Assault on our Civil Rights” by Kenji Yoshino"
About the Author:
Kenji Yoshino is a Japanese American attorney and professor of law at the New York University School of Law. He received his BA in English literature in 1991 from
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“Covering” is an essential guide to understanding the ways in which society exerts a pressure to conform to the “mainstream” – AKA, the white, heterosexual, male, upperclass, Protestant American worldview. Focusing on his own identity as both a gay man and a Japanese Man, Yoshino manages to un-“cover” one of the most intrusive, yet socially acceptable, forms of oppression in the
So, what is covering? Yoshino has adopted the term from sociologist Erving Goffman. In his 1963 book Stigma, as referenced by Yoshino, Goffman describes covering as the process whereby “persons who are ready to admit possession of a stigma…may nonetheless make a great effort to keep the stigma from looming large” (18). In essence, even if an individual has accepted or admitted to having a specific trait that conflicts with the “mainstream,” they are expected to mute that trait and not “flaunt” it. Using homosexuality as an example, a businesswoman who is an out lesbian may hide pictures of her family in her office and purposefully refrain from talking about her partner or her own sexuality in an attempt to appease those around her.
Yoshino introduces the concept of covering by detailing a brief American history of homosexuality and assimilation. When homosexuality first became a prominent social ill, gays were asked – or sometimes forced – to “convert,” or to change their actual selves from homosexual to heterosexual, attempted through various conversion techniques (most of which have been deemed inhumane and/or ineffective). When society stopped requiring that gays convert, they were expected to “pass” – essentially, to deny their homosexuality and make no public display or mention of their sexuality. Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is a perfect example of this concept – we will not ask you if you’re gay, but if you are and we find out, its sayonara sucka!
As gays have become more accepted in society and the expectation for passing has begun to dissipate (though it still exists, as does conversion), gays are now faced with a new form of identity oppression – they are asked to “cover.” It’s now okay if you’re gay – you can be out – but don’t “flaunt” it in our faces! The popular television show Family Guy, however satirically, makes reference to such covering demands in their Star Wars parody episode titled “Something, Something, Something, Dark Side,” replacing the famous franchise opening of “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…” with “"A long time ago, when the gays weren't all in your face about it..." Although meant as a sarcastic joke (given that Seth MacFarlane, the show’s creator, is an avid supporter of gay rights), this ridiculous statement actually exemplifies Yoshino’s point quite well. First, they wanted us to become straight. Then, they just didn’t want to know we existed. Now, they know we exist, but they just want us to shut up about it.
Making note of the plurality of views and beliefs one individual can possess, Yoshino asserts that covering demands, then, do not simply affect us in one way. He even states that “…I have come to see myself as normal on some issues and queer on others” (79). He takes this notion one step further in the next paragraph: “This suggests gays can cover along many axes. I believe there are four. Appearance concerns how an individual physically presents herself to the world. Affiliation concerns her cultural identifications. Activism concerns how much she politicizes her identity. Association concerns her choice of fellow travelers – lovers, friends, colleagues. These are the dimensions along which gays decide just how gay we want to be” (79).[Italics as appeared in the book – also, note his use of feminine pronouns rather than male or ambiguous ones]
Yoshino then explores these four points further, examining just how diverse these covering demands can be. The following chapters in the book are monumentally important to his main argument, though, that covering is not just expected of queer individuals, but rather that we all experience covering demands at some point. He devotes entire chapters of his book to the discussion of sex-based covering (such as the demands placed on women to cover their “status” as females in a male-dominated workplace) and racial covering (such as the pressures felt by African American individuals to downplay their “blackness” in order to become accepted in a predominantly white society). However, covering demands don’t end there, for as Yoshino notes, even straight, white, Protestant, men sometimes feel the need to cover.
This leads the reader to Yoshino’s ultimate point of view concerning the face of civil rights in our country today, which is primarily a system of group-based politics. Instead of deciding that any two consenting adults may get married, this right was first protected for whites, then eventually for blacks, even though miscegenation laws were instilled in order to preserve the races. Eventually, those were overturned, but now we’re left to debate whether or not two men or two women can marry. Instead of fighting for the right for two men or two women to marry, doesn’t it make more sense to advocate for laws that allow any two consenting adults to marry?
Okay, so maybe marriage is a bad example (what, with objections to incest and all), but it touches upon the concept of universal equality, what Yoshino believes will ultimately be an effective “new civil rights” movement that is all-inclusive rather than separatist. He references the “melting pot” concept here, and brings out an important point – do we want to be, as we have historically been, a society of individual group-based political bodies (African Americans, Italian Americans, Caucasian Amerians, gays and lesbians, Christians, Jews, disabled Americans, etc.), or do we want to be something greater – a society that has enmeshed all of these identities and their individual struggles, and recognized that excluding any one group from the pursuit of happiness is, to evoke the beliefs of MLK, “…an injustice to all.” It’s quite a profound statement, and certainly an ideal that could not materialize overnight, but it gives us a glimpse into the type of society we could become – a society that actually values “liberty and justice for all.”
Throughout the book, Yoshino provides various examples of Supreme Court cases that challenge covering demands yet fail to recognize that they are as blatantly oppressive and unjust as outright discrimination itself. Although for the most part, this book is a critique of the lagging legal process when it comes to civil rights, Yoshino cautions the reader that law will not be the panacea of all social ills. “While I have great hopes for this new legal paradigm, I also believe law will be a relatively trivial part of the new civil rights” (192). He points out, and I think rightfully so, that the law is limited in its capacity to create change, and that it is in the hands of the people to push forward and make this conceptualization of “new civil rights” a reality. “The real solution lies in all of us as citizens, not in the tiny subset of us who are lawyers. People who are not lawyers should have reason-forcing conversations outside the law. They should pull Goffman’s term ‘covering’ out of academic obscurity and press it into the popular lexicon, so that it has the same currency as terms like ‘passing’ or ‘the closet’” (194).
The “hidden assault” that Yoshino references in his title is something we all need to be aware of as American citizens. The Supreme Court is failing to provide us protections from covering demands in a society whose methods of systematic oppression become more refined and unique every day. “Covering: The Hidden Assault on our Civil Rights” provides us a look into a world of inequality that we may not have even been aware of, and challenges us to confront such covering demands with an approach that is accepting and universal.
Purchase the book on Amazon!
Well folks, that's all for now! I hope you enjoyed this very first edition of the Legally Gay Book Corner! Look out for edition 2, where I will be reviewing Martha Nussbaum's brilliant book "From Disgust to Humanity: Sexual Orientation and Constitutional Law" - a must read!
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