The Pressure to Cover
Kenji Yoshino’s NYT Magazine article, adapted from a forthcoming book, says what I have long believed: that the right to be yourself as long as it doesn’t harm anyone is the one basic civil right.
As Yoshino puts it, “the aspiration of civil rights - the aspiration that we be free to develop our human capacities without the impediment of witless conformity - is an aspiration that extends beyond traditional civil rights groups.”
Civil rights must rise into a new, more inclusive register. That ascent makes use of the recognition that the mainstream is a myth. With respect to any particular identity, the word “mainstream” makes sense, as in the statement that straights are more mainstream than gays. Used generically, however, the word loses meaning. Because human beings hold many identities, the mainstream is a shifting coalition, and none of us are entirely within it. It is not normal to be completely normal.
“It is not normal to be completely normal.” Indeed.
