Thursday February 19, 2009. 6-7:30PM (reception to follow hosted by OUTLaw), Kimmel Center 802 [60 Washington Square South]
Kenji Yoshino, Chief Justice Earl Warren Professor of Constitutional Law, NYU School of Law
In this presentation, Professor Yoshino will discuss the concept of "covering" as it applies to marriage, in the contexts of race and sexual orientation. "Covering" is a term used by sociologist Erving Goffman to describe how individuals downplay stigmatized identities, even when those identities are known. Yoshino focuses on the case of marriage as a paradoxical case with respect to covering. On the one hand, both interracial marriage and same-sex marriage are seen as forms of assimilation, given that marriage has been a traditional institution among whites and heterosexuals. On the other hand, however, both interracial marriage and same-sex marriage are perceived as acts of "flaunting" because they allegedly disrupt the nature of that traditional institution. Drawing both on Loving v. Virginia (1967) (the case in which the Supreme Court invalidated bans on interracial marriage) and current litigation around same-sex marriage, Yoshino describes the role the politics of assimilation has played in both civil-rights struggles.
Sponsors: Center for Multicultural Education & Programs; Center for the Study of Gender & Sexuality; Office of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, & Transgender Student Services; OUTLaw; Shades (LGBTQ Students of Color); Steinhardt's Commission on Gender, Race, and Social Justice
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