“You'll have a lot smoother ride to getting tenure if you are a homosexual professional rather than a professional homosexual. … What he meant was, you'll do much better if you are the mainstream constitutional law professor who just happens to be gay on the side as an extracurricular activity than if you are the gay rights professor who teaches gay rights subjects and writes on gay rights cases.”

So the advice that I got when I started teaching as a junior professor was by a very well-meaning, very kind colleague who wanted only good things for me. And he put his arm around me as we were walking down the hall. And he said, you know, Kenji Yoshino have a lot smoother ride to getting tenure if you are a homosexual professional rather than a professional homosexual. And I knew exactly what he meant. What he meant was, you'll do much better if you are the mainstream constitutional law professor who teaches separation of powers and federalism and judicial review and just happens to be gay on the side as an extracurricular activity than you will. if you are the gay rights professor who teaches gay rights subjects and writes on gay rights issues and works on gay rights cases. Unfortunately, of course, it was the latter that I wanted to do. This was now 1996, a time when the ice was finally breaking up on the LGBTQI plus landscape. The Romer versus Evans case had just been decided. It was really clear that we were barreling our way towards Lawrence versus Texas in 2003, which was the Brown v. Board of the gay rights movement. And I did not want to be on the sidelines for that.…