Kenji Yoshino

I came to the realization that I was gay fairly early in my life. And I think I knew that from a very young age, but was still in this phase of...

I came to the realization that I was gay fairly early in my life. And I think I knew that from a very young age, but was still in this phase of...

hoping that this would go away and one of the ways in which i willed it to go away was by having a girlfriend and of course this has collateral consequences on other people so i look back with regret on what i put her through because i wasn't able to be my fully authentic self but this was in the mid 80s and i think that this is unfortunately a very common narrative

hoping that this would go away and one of the ways in which i willed it to go away was by having a girlfriend and of course this has collateral consequences on other people so i look back with regret on what i put her through because i wasn't able to be my fully authentic self but this was in the mid 80s and i think that this is unfortunately a very common narrative

hoping that this would go away and one of the ways in which i willed it to go away was by having a girlfriend and of course this has collateral consequences on other people so i look back with regret on what i put her through because i wasn't able to be my fully authentic self but this was in the mid 80s and i think that this is unfortunately a very common narrative

Yes, I think that this is something that I have heard in a lot of LGBT individuals and perhaps more generally individuals who are kind of overachievers in one domain of their life in order to compensate for some perceived lack in another domain. Poetry was a great solace for me because it allowed me to articulate what I was going through without necessarily being so public about it.

Yes, I think that this is something that I have heard in a lot of LGBT individuals and perhaps more generally individuals who are kind of overachievers in one domain of their life in order to compensate for some perceived lack in another domain. Poetry was a great solace for me because it allowed me to articulate what I was going through without necessarily being so public about it.

Yes, I think that this is something that I have heard in a lot of LGBT individuals and perhaps more generally individuals who are kind of overachievers in one domain of their life in order to compensate for some perceived lack in another domain. Poetry was a great solace for me because it allowed me to articulate what I was going through without necessarily being so public about it.

So poetry was more public than thought, but it was more private than prose. And I found a great comfort in being able to express myself without feeling I was completely exposed.

So poetry was more public than thought, but it was more private than prose. And I found a great comfort in being able to express myself without feeling I was completely exposed.

So poetry was more public than thought, but it was more private than prose. And I found a great comfort in being able to express myself without feeling I was completely exposed.

It was a very, very dark time in my life. The only consistent foray I made from my college rooms in the first months I was there was to go to the college chapel, where I prayed to gods I wasn't even sure I believed in for conversion to heterosexuality. So this is the most aggressive form of assimilation where you desire to change the underlying identity altogether.

It was a very, very dark time in my life. The only consistent foray I made from my college rooms in the first months I was there was to go to the college chapel, where I prayed to gods I wasn't even sure I believed in for conversion to heterosexuality. So this is the most aggressive form of assimilation where you desire to change the underlying identity altogether.

It was a very, very dark time in my life. The only consistent foray I made from my college rooms in the first months I was there was to go to the college chapel, where I prayed to gods I wasn't even sure I believed in for conversion to heterosexuality. So this is the most aggressive form of assimilation where you desire to change the underlying identity altogether.

And it's very difficult, Shankar, for me to remember that young man knelt down in prayer because he so ardently wished the annihilation of the human being I have become. So I'm now currently happily married. My husband and I have two kids and so on and so forth. But that would have been unimaginable to that young man. This is 1991.

And it's very difficult, Shankar, for me to remember that young man knelt down in prayer because he so ardently wished the annihilation of the human being I have become. So I'm now currently happily married. My husband and I have two kids and so on and so forth. But that would have been unimaginable to that young man. This is 1991.

And it's very difficult, Shankar, for me to remember that young man knelt down in prayer because he so ardently wished the annihilation of the human being I have become. So I'm now currently happily married. My husband and I have two kids and so on and so forth. But that would have been unimaginable to that young man. This is 1991.

He just thought, if I'm going to have any kind of life at all, not just a professional life, but also, perhaps more importantly to him at the time, a personal life of marriage and children, that it was inconceivable that you could be an openly gay person and have that life. So what I desperately wanted was to convert and to change the underlying identity.

He just thought, if I'm going to have any kind of life at all, not just a professional life, but also, perhaps more importantly to him at the time, a personal life of marriage and children, that it was inconceivable that you could be an openly gay person and have that life. So what I desperately wanted was to convert and to change the underlying identity.

He just thought, if I'm going to have any kind of life at all, not just a professional life, but also, perhaps more importantly to him at the time, a personal life of marriage and children, that it was inconceivable that you could be an openly gay person and have that life. So what I desperately wanted was to convert and to change the underlying identity.