When I began teaching at Yale Law School in 1998, a friend spoke to me frankly. "You'll have a better chance at tenure,'' he said, ''if you're a homosexual professional than if you're a professional homosexual." Out of the closet for six years at the time, I knew what he meant. To be a ''homosexual professional'' was to be a professor of constitutional law who ''happened'' to be gay. To be a ''professional homosexual'' was to be a gay professor who made gay rights his work. Kenji Yoshino, New York Times, January 15, 2006
We have come to some consensus against penalizing people for differences based on race, gender, sexual orientation, religion and disability. But society still demands that we "cover" or manage these stigmatized identities: tone them down, not be too obtrusive, conform more to conventional norms. Kenji Yoshino challenges us to consider that the civil rights revolution has stalled and that the law has generally ignored the threat posed by "covering" demands. Don't miss meeting an important new voice in our national dialog on diversity, inclusiveness and civil rights.
This program has been approved for 2 hours of MN elimination-of-bias credit. We will apply in other states based on attendance.