Identity In Kenji Yoshino's Covering

Kenji Yoshino's Covering explores what it means to hide elements of your identity in order to succeed in modern American Society. Yoshino analyses the act of covering through many lenses, highlighting it most clearly as an act of assimilation to a dominant norm, in this case the heterosexual norm. Yoshino argues that covering for one's sexual orientation is not meant to disguise one's "gayness" completely, but rather mask it to an extent by which the individual cannot be charged with 'excessive' overtness of their homosexuality. In the author's life he has covered in terms of both his racial identity and his sexual orientation, creating a unique intersectional lens from which he distinguishes types of covering. Yoshino dedicates a majority

Covering in my opinion is one of the greatest examples of internalized homophobia, because it allows me to choose to thrive in a moment by acting less queer; inherently illustrating that occasionally I still think being ''too gay'' is worth hiding. I view passing as lie to others, where I see covering as a way of lying to yourself for the benefit of others. When I feel unsafe expressing my "queerness" I never choose to cover, but rather attempt to pass. My choice to pass is a way of protecting myself at the cost of the truth, what I believe to be a fair price. However, I cover when I feel uncomfortable or embarrassed about who I am, and it is a choice I make at the risk of being ashamed of my actions later. Covering in my view comes at the cost of understanding that occasionally we do not fully know how to accept ourselves, illustrating why some days we chose to cover in the first place. Covering as Yoshino describes is an action that can be demanded by others in society, but at the end of the day I believe it is a choice and the very fact that covering is an experience shared by so many in the queer communities illustrates how there are still stages of social and personal acceptance we have yet to