Kenji Yoshino

I heard a brilliant law professor named Kenji Yoshino tell his story at a conference in Denver last week. I have never, as far as I know, been in the same room with someone who could unequivocally affirm that he was in the process of changing the world. In response to an audience member's question about the need for federal protection against discrimination in the workplace based on sexual orientation or gender identity, Yoshino said in so many words, "We're working on it. ENDA will pass - give me three years." It was thrilling to be in that room at that moment.

He recently published a book called Covering: The Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights and spoke to us about the concept of covering. I am still exhausted from traveling, grading, and wrapping up the semester, so I am going to cut some corners and post here what others think of this book. I plan to read it over the break as soon as I can get my hands on it...


“This brilliantly argued and engaging book does two things at once, and it does them both astonishingly well. First, it’s a finely grained memoir of young man’s struggles to come to terms with his sexuality, and second, it’s a powerful argument for a whole new way of thinking about civil rights and how our society deals with difference. This book challenges us all to confront our own unacknowledged biases, and it demands that we take seriously the idea that there are many different ways to be human. Kenji Yoshino is the face and the voice of the new civil rights.”
--Barbara Ehrenreich, author of Nickel and Dimed

“This stunning book introduces three faces of the remarkable Kenji Yoshino: a writer of poetic beauty; a soul of rare reflectivity and decency; and a brilliant lawyer and scholar, passionately committed to uncovering human rights. Like W.E.B. DuBois’s The Souls of Black Folk and Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique, this book fearlessly blends gripping narrative with insightful analysis to further the cause of human emancipation. And like those classics, it should explode into America's consciousness.”
--Harold Hongju Koh Dean, Yale Law School and former Assistant Secretary of State for Human Rights

“Who’d expect a book on civil rights and the law to be warmly personal, elegantly written, and threaded with memorable images? [T]he beauty of Yoshino's book lies in the poetry he brings to telling his own story.”
--O Magazine