The Veils of the Law:
Race and Sexuality in
Nella Larsen's Passing
E. BLACKMER
CORINNE
An assistant
at Southern
English
Connecticut
Blackmer
University,
in Gertrude
sexuality
Stein, Nella
Larsen, Carl
Van Vechten,
She has co-edited
En Travesh:
Gender
Opera
and
Elizabeth
and Ronald
Bishop,
Firbank.
has
on issues of race
published
and
State
Women,
(Columbia
is currently
UP),
writing
and
on
lesbian
litera
ture from The Well
Loneliness
of
to Stonewall.
as
himself
but
"separate
inter
equal"
Caucasian
"seven-eighths
one
and
(1138), was
forcibly
eighth African blood"
to leave voluntarily,
he
after
refused
ejected,
the
first-class,
section
whites-only
a
of
that
railroad car in his home state. Declaring
of colored blood was not dis
"the mixture
in him, and that he was entitled to
cernible
every
20th-century
Court's
Supreme
clause of the
pretation of the equal protection
in Plessy v. Ferguson
Fourteenth Amendment
law for over thirty years.
(1896) had been
on
issue of the constitution
the
Plessy turned
of
so-called
Jim Crow laws, which man
ality
facilities for whites
dated racially-segregated
the South. Homer
and "coloreds" throughout
a
Louisiana
who described
of
resident
Plessy,
from
Subversion,
Larsen, then a prominent
writer
of
the Harlem
young
her second
Renaissance,
published
in 1929,
final novel,
the
Passing,
When Nella
of
professor
recognition,
right,
privilege,
and
immu
to the citizens of the United
nity secured
States of the white
race," Plessy argued that
law violated his constitutional
the Louisiana
and
rights of habeas corpus, equal protection,
the
due process. The Supreme Court denied
validity of this reasoning on several counts,
among them that various state laws forbade
interracial
marriage
on
the
grounds,
as
the
later argued unsuccessfully
State of Virginia
before the Court in Loving v. Virginia (1967),
that "Almighty God created the races white,
50
black,
The
yellow,
fact that he
races
Second,
of
persons
toloical
"for
shows
were
children
of
on
of
sexes
for the
of
blurring
the proposition
submitting
ages,
intend
conceptual
more
intrinsically
most
states
that
argued
different
. . .
continents
separate
that he did not
instance
without
implied,
the Court
them
placed
egregious
males
or women,
schools
"segregated"
that
white
he
the races
in an
that
scrutiny,
non-whites
and
red,
separated
to mix."1
categories
than
and
malay
and
and
'adult'
had
'able'
established
and
colors,
. . .
and neglected
children" (Plessy 1141).2 The Court avoided respon
racism and established
for
institutional
the constitutionali
promoting
sibility
of
de
that
"the
that the enforced
ty
jure segregation
assumption
by stating
a
races
race
two
of
the
the
colored
with
stamps
separation
badge of inferi
...
reason
not
in
is
of
found
the
but
act,
ority
by
anything
solely because
to put the construction
the colored race chooses
it"
(1143).
upon
They made
an invidious distinction
the cultural and political rights of whites
between
for poor
and
'coloreds'
on
the
basis
of
the
intrinsic
of
"reasonableness"
long-estab
for a majority
lished cultural practices.3 Writing
of seven, Justice Henry
Brown allowed
to judge racial identity
that while
the 'officers' empowered
err in their judgment, the "object
by outward appearances might conceivably
was undoubtedly
to enforce
of the [Fourteenth] amendment
the absolute
races
before the law, but in the nature of things it could
equality of the two
to abolish distinctions
not have been
intended
based upon color, or to
as
enforce social,
from political, equality, or a commingling
of
distinguished
to either" (1140).4
the two races upon terms unsatisfactory
In the fifty-eight years between Plessy and the Court's landmark decision
in Brown v. Board of Education
declared
(1954), which
ofTopeka, Kansas
on
race
based
facilities
separate public
"inherently unequal," many African
American
authors
pursued
an
actively
critical
engagement
with
the
convo
terms of racial identity and identification
luted and contradictory
set forth in
one
On
the
onerous
letters
African-American
faced
the
burden
hand,
Plessy.
of proving
the cultural worth of black culture to an often doubting,
conde
and
On
white
audience.
the
other
decision
the
hand,
scending,
largely
legal
an unwelcome
and the Social Darwinism
it provided
underlying
opportuni
ty to thematize the willful
ignorance and blindness
informing racial segrega
tion by exploring how racial stigmas were not founded
in the "natural" supe
riority or inferiority of the races but rather constructed
through historical prej
udices and arbitrary (often illusory) social distinctions. Moreover,
since Plessy
not only denied
the long if publicly unacknowledged
of
interracial
history
sexual unions (which had produced,
among others, Homer Plessy as subject)
but also strengthened
statutes by forbidding the social
existing miscegenation
of the races, narrative treatments of interracial sexual unions
commingling
an ideal vehicle
featuring characters who
"passed" racially became
through
to explore
which
the inevitable
intersection of racism (and, in some cases,
sexism) with sexual taboos.
Seen in the light of the legal and cultural assumptions
informing its pro
the curious plot of which has thus far eluded sat
duction, Larsen's Passing,
Corinne
E Blackmer
51
isfactory
and
narrative,
thetic,
urbane
a
becomes
analysis,
exploration
incoherences
that
ideological
woman
African-American
and
searching
author
who
of
critique
eschewed
racial
aes
the
as
Larsen
confronted
an
separatism
in part explain
and nineteenth-century
'racial uplift' rhetoric?which
might
career
she
abandoned
her
after
this novel5
promising
why
writing
literary
a
this
late
of
of
American
Indeed, Passing,
topos
relatively
example
writing,
an
both
represents
original
of
reconfiguration
and
on more
commentary
con
ventional
plots of racial "passing," which
typically center on a psychologi
and
divided
mulatto"
"tragic
cally
culturally
figure, in such novels as James
an
Weldon
The
Ex-Colored Man
and Jessie
Johnson's
of
Autobiography
Fauset's
Plum
tiques of
of
Bun,
over
crossing
'color
and
line,'
thus
in some
in an equally
stresses
in contrast,
Passing,
these
the
interpretive
offer
novels
they also emphasize
racism,
racial division
of
sequences
the
While
others.
among
institutional
measure
anxieties
personal
the
reinforce
"national"
separatist
and
cri
trenchant
the heavy
sexual
costs
con
literature.
paranoias
reluctant to allow others the freedom to
that make convention-bound
people
the
travel freely throughout
and sexualities
of
many worlds,
identities,
American
inter
society. Larsen's novel not only explores a legally fraudulent
racial union in the marriage between Clare Kendry and John Bellew, but also
the intraracial
sexual attraction of Irene Redfield for Clare,
subtly delineates
while
the former projects her taboo desires for Clare onto her husband Brian.
evinces
Ironically, Brian Redfield, who the text implies might be homosexual,
no sexual interest in women,
to
but Irene nonetheless
suspect that
begins
Brian
Clare
are
carries
the
and
"passing"
the title of
appearances
the novel
and
an
conducting
connotation
serves
practices
of
illicit,
being
as a metaphor
that
encompass
clandestine
accepted
something
for a wide
sexual
Since
affair.
for
the
one
term
is not,
range of deceptive
as well
as
racial
"passing."
principally on the operation of chance and accident as well as the
crises of unknowability
that result from self-silencing
and
epistemological
Focussed
self-repression,
tive
of
racial
Larsen's
novel
ostensibly
"passes"
for
a
conventional
narra
"passing."
a light
Irene Redfield,
disdains
"passing" and
she has had
by whom
her African racial her
itage, has internalized the "separate but equal" dictum of Plessy as well as the
lead to a notable prudishness
ideology of bourgeois morality, both of which
to
on her part and an obsessive
attention
distinctions
of
seemingly miniscule
is shattered, how
caste and class. The well-regulated
surface of her existence
a light-skinned
African
arrival of Clare Kendry,
ever, by the unexpected
woman
American
who
childhood
from Irene's long-forgotten
has,
past
and familial mishaps,
of personal
adventurousness
through a combination
a prosperous
white
who
businessman
ended
up marrying
John Bellew,
she has had a daughter.
knows nothing of her racial identity and by whom
friends are simultaneously
these once intimate childhood
Hence,
separated
story is narrated from the point of view of
woman who
African-American
skinned, middle-class
to a successful doctor, too dark to "pass,"
is married
two sons. Irene, although
proud of
self-consciously
The
52
College
Literature
so to speak, by the divergent
tethered together,
stratagies
they have
as
to
to
their
racial
and
with
identities
their
adults
cope
options
adopted
vast
Homer
The
fact
that
like
but
unlike
the
they are,
"pass" racially.
Plessy
to "pass"
light-skinned
majority of their fellow African-Americans,
sufficiently
and distinctive
marks them out as relatively privileged
individuals,
ideally sit
the Janus-like duplicity of social arrange
uated to both embody and expose
to "discernible" outward appearances
ments
that divide the races according
and
and,
"inner
hence,
nature."
Larsen connects
the arbitrarily segregated
lives of these two married
women
in the rooftop restaurant of a
them meet
accidentally
by having
their husbands,
and
Chicago hotel, where
they are not in company with
where
in
Irene,
this
has
instance,
to
resorted
to
"passing"
a
escape
swelter
Clare's chance meeting with her long-lost childhood
friend
ing heat wave.
in an effusive
letter intertwining
instigates a potent desire in her, described
romantic and racial longings for Irene, to escape
the isolated life of decep
tion and secretiveness
forced upon her by "passing":
. . . cannot
to be with
you again,
help
lonely
longing
for anything
and I have wanted
before;
many
things
in this pale
in my
I am all the time
life
know
how
life of mine
to be
Iwas
the bright
of that other
that I once
seeing
pictures
thought
glad
. . . It's like an
a pain
ceases.
..."
free of.
that never
(174)
ache,
"...
as
I am
For
lonely,
so
never
I have
longed
. . .You
can't
to return to
These profound
somewhat
inarticulate yearnings
if, significantly,
the conditions
of her childhood,
before
she and Irene "fell" into the self
near the end
in her decision,
culminate
divided condition of adult women,
of the narrative,
to abandon
her husband
to
and child and return home
As
Harlem.
Clare's
African-American
reassume
to
plans
Irene
crystallize,
her
earlier
convinces
as
identity
herself,
with
an
unmarried
evi
inconclusive
dence at best, that Clare actually intends to steal her husband Brian, a dis
contented
ifwittily urbane man who expresses
periodic disgust with United
States
racism
emigrating
place
couple
on
and
with
a
who
Clare,
rooftop,
ironically
cherishes
his family
named
Irene,
the
a dream,
to Brazil.
and
suppressed
actively
In the denouement,
Brian
Freelanders.
for
assemble
John
Bellew,
who,
by
which
a
party
of
Irene,
again
hosted
takes
by
unbeknownst
a
to
save Irene, has accidentally
discovered
the racial identity of his
everyone
too dark to "pass," bursts into the
wife by running into Irene with a woman
initial reaction of
apartment. Before the scene can develop beyond Bellew's
Irene "accidentally" pushes Clare from the win
pained horror and outrage,
dow, and she falls to her death. In the end, Clare?whose
death, the text
indicates, is interpreted and dismissed
by the authorities as an "accident" or
a poignant
"suicide"?becomes
symbol of the victory of de jure segregation
and narrow social conformity over integration and self-creation,
and thus a
of
the eclipse
woman
and
the Harlem
Corinne
E. Blackmer
symbol
of
the potential
Renaissance
as
of both
an
artistic
Irene
as an
independent
movement:
53
Gone!
soft white
The
the
eyes,
dreaming
been
Clare Kendry.
The mocking
daring,
the bright
face,
smile,
caressing
That
beauty
the disturbing
hair,
the whole
torturing
torn at Irene's
that had
of her
the gallantry
the
pose,
ringing
scarlet
loveliness
the
mouth,
that had
life. Gone!
placid
bells of her laugh
ter. (272)
nature of this plot, which
Given
the unconventional
conjoins Larsen's
and accident with her use of an unre
interest in the operation of contingency
an artistic failure that rep
liable narrator, earlier critics have judged Passing
an
resents
uneasy
of
admixture
issues
"public"
of
race
racial
and
"passing"
the more
"private" ones of sexual jealousy. The gender bias of this cri
to detect, and subsequently
several African-American
tique is not difficult
feminist critics focused on Larsen's use of irony to critique, through the char
notions of feminine propri
acter of Irene Redfield,
conventional
bourgeois
(see Fuller, Youman,
Ramsey, T?te,
ety and racial identity and identification
to the reissue of Larsen's Quicksand
In her 1986 introduction
and Christian).
with
and
feminist
African-American
moreover,
Passing,
E.
Deborah
McDowell
in
these critical interpretations
broke from (and, in some senses, extended)
an atmosphere
most
Walker's
The
Color
Alice
that, influenced
by
prominently
and Audre
Purple
of
lesbian
sexuality
ble
that
concern
the
with
novel's
Lorde's
and
essays
in African-American
inconsistencies
apparent
literature.
as a rhetorical
racial passing
new
gave
poems,
to
importance
Passing's
Treating
contended
cover, McDowell
Larsen's
from
resulted
issues
ostensi
actual
con
to this
desire. According
against
exploring
concerns
white"
and
related
for
novel
the
"passing
"superficially"
analysis,
the safety of that surface is the more
issues of racial loyalty, but "underneath
cern with
the
not
story?though
dangerous
lesbian
taboos
named
Irene's
explicitly?of
awakening
sexu
al desire for Clare" (xxvi).
This interpretation
elucidates many of the otherwise
quixotic motives
Irene's highly contra
that impel the narrative and serves in part to explain
to Clare as instances of what Patricia Juliana
reactions
dictory and volatile
Smith has termed "lesbian panic," which
finally impels Irene to destroy her
friend in order to prevent disclosure,
perhaps even to herself, of her taboo
in effect substitutes
McDowell's
sexual desires.6 Nevertheless,
analysis, which
somewhat
mischaracterizes
and
sexual for racial passing, both dehistoricizes
an
lesbian desire becomes
the text, in which
aftereffect, or, perhaps more
of
an
of
racial
inevitable corollary
panic and the sexualization
accurately,
an
and
contacts
in
the
environment
legal
governed
by
socially taboo racial
of Plessy. In a narrative centered on the emotionally
cultural presumptions
both
two light-skinned African-American
relations between
women,
as
an
intimate
and
secret
racial
of
Clare's
hold the
poten
identity
also becomes
bond between
them, their friendship
fraught
tially explosive
for
and alluring Clare becomes
with secret sexual fantasies as the mysterious
dread of and
of her profound
Irene both an exotic object and a projection
from
taboo desires for sexual pleasure, worldly
experience,
independence
charged
of whom
men,
54
and
escape
from
the
narrow
conventions
of
the marriage
College
plot.
Clare's
Literature
liberation from the constraints
legally proscribed
through marriage
implies, for Irene, the equally
ation from those of "feminine" and heterosexual
be
intensely
curious
about?and,
both
indeed,
of racial identity configured
of liber
terrifying possibility
as
well.
Irene
may
propriety
desirous
and
envious
of?the
capacity of an "exotic" person like Clare to resist or evade the forces of dom
like a
ination, but her fear of freedom eventually
impels her to act much
and thus to force this representative
Social Darwinist,
of sexual and racial
"exoticism" to lose the battle for survival.
Larsen, in 1929, uses the term "passing" to connote both racial
Although
and sexuality masquerading,
the recent shift in criticism from issues of racial
to sexual "passing" can itself be historicized,
for "passing" now refers almost
to the self-protective
of identity practiced
exclusively
disguise
by lesbians
and gays in a society presumed
and enjoined
to be universally
heterosexu
al. Moreover,
continue
homosexuals
to occupy
both
in
law
and
an
culture
to that held by the minority
if not parallel position
of African
analogous
were
Americans
who
under Plessy
to "pass" for
sufficiently
light-skinned
are signifi
white and thus to hide their "innate" inferiority. The differences
cant inasmuch as the vast majority of African-Americans
under Plessy could
not (or chose not to) "pass" for white, whereas
the vast majority of lesbians
to be (unless declared otherwise),
and gays do pass for, and are assumed
heterosexual.
however,
The
similarities
as when
inasmuch
the groups
between
Larsen
wrote
Passing,
are equally
blackness
compelling,
and
homosex
the bearers of these
uality were both held to be stigmas that disqualified
labels from freedom from undue social burdens and equal protection
under
the Constitution.
For Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry, the social deployment
of racial identities (and homosexual
of the hidden knowledge
in
desires)
contexts presumed
to be universally white
takes a form
(and heterosexual)
uncannily
similar
to what
Richard
D.
Mohr
calls
"The
Secret,"
or
that
infor
contract of complicity and deception which
the
characterizes
community
epistemological
regime of the majority of lesbian and gay lives (30).7 That
Larsen inextricably
intertwines both forms of "secrets," like both forms of
the interrelationship
of racial
"passing," indicates her interest in stressing
and homoerotic
identification
desire. That tragedy ensues
once
in Passing
Irene Redfield misinterprets
her own attraction for Clare Kendry, however,
also clarifies
the complex
cultural
and historical
of recent
precedents
Court
as an
decisions
the hatred of homosexuals
that, deploying
Supreme
a mode
"invisible" fulcrum, have developed
of historically-based
legal rea
to
recent
that
threatens
erode
extensions
of Constitutional
soning
relatively
to both women
and racial minorities.
protections
mal
Since the late 1930s, the Supreme Court has identified several consider
ations for determining
which
classifications
governmental
require "height
ened scrutiny" under its three-tier equal protection
analysis of the Fourteenth
or invidious; that
Amendment:
the discrimination
is unjustifiable
(1) whether
on
an
or
based
trait
that frequently
is,
obvious,
immutable,
distinguishing
bears no relation to the ability to contribute
to society; (2) whether
the class
Corinne
E Blackmer
55
historically
has suffered
class
the
lacks
from purposeful
and (3) whether
discrimination;
to obtain
necessary
power
political
from
protection
the
the
polit
But most courts have ignored purposeful
ical branches of government.
his
torical discrimination
and lack of political power and have simply conclud
in
ed, without
scrutiny is inapplicable
supporting
authority, that heightened
an
cases
is
not
and
because
lesbians
gays,
involving
homosexuality
"immutable characteristic."8 The very mode of framing this debate as one of
a
decision
voluntary
one
between
heterosexual
(i.
on
behavior
"moral")
e.,
and homosexual
(i. e., "immoral") behavior on the other
as
it
assigns arbitrary values to the intrinsically
homophobic,
deeply
of
category
orientation.
sexual
debate
This
moreover,
has,
the
is itself
neutral
hand
some
encouraged
to ascertain a biological
basis for homosexual
scientific researchers
identity
to meet the legal criterion for equal protection.9 By framing the issue in bio
as a "crime against nature"
logical terms that implicitly regard homosexuality
of homosexual
and reducing
the cultural dimensions
identity to criminal
"acts," the courts have thus far evaded a broader ethical debate concerning
"embodies
the moral fact that a person belongs
the right to privacy, which
to himself and not others nor to society as a whole."10 Therefore,
the present
States give
laws of the United
bians
and
as
gays,
once
they
to societal
force
and lesser mortals who have
objects of contempt
(and inferior) "nature" from other human beings,
under
protection
equal
the
les
by defining
homophobia
African-Americans
defined
and
as
women,
a fundamentally
different
and thus do not deserve
law.
for sexual orientation
has
The fact that the law offers no protection
to adopt costly and self-damaging
forced most homosexuals
stratagies of
Court's
of
the
and
before
as,
adoption
secrecy
"heightened
self-disguise,
just
Clare Kendry
"passes" racially and adopts
scrutiny" of racial classifications,
to elude "recognition" by American
society.
deceptions
similarly destructive
the fact
has also obscured
The peculiarly exposed
condition of homosexuals
that whereas
race,
ened
scrutiny
recently
argued
that
courts.
For
these
Kurt
reasons,
not
characteristic"
"immutable
like
can,
illegitimacy
sexual
orien
in recent
these former conditions
have,
and thus compel height
characteristics"
or concealed,
as "immutable
the
by
and
alienage,
gender,
tation, be changed
times, been defined
be
D.
Hermansen
as
treated
has
a presum
category defined
through history, culture, and politics, but
ably biological
to a particularly
form of discrimination
rather in reference
reprehensible
inflicted upon minorities
qua minorities:
While
sexual
average
central,
expense
entation
56
one
might
orientation,
individual.
be
able
that
The
to alter
or
conceal
can
as race, gender
or
such
at a prohibitive
cost
to the
are
immutable
traits, which
traits
occur
only
change
to the
court only
looks
one
which
of personhood,
traits
defining
of significant
damage
fulfills
the requirement
to one's
that
the
identity.
identifying
alter
may
In this context,
trait be
at the
only
ori
sexual
immutable.
College
(174)
Literature
even
Nevertheless,
tus
of
an
"immutable
if the
courts
to grant
refuse
characteristic,"
must
they
orientation
sexual
make
the
the
more
sta
important
as to whether
of social stigmas against homosexu
decision
the perpetuation
a legitimate
v. Sidoti (1984), for
state interest. In Palmore
als constitutes
father could not sue for cus
the Supreme Court held that a white
example,
a white woman who
tody of the child he had had with his divorced wife,
had
an
remarried
African-American
man,
on
that
grounds
social
recrimina
tion against a mixed-race
the child. In this
marriage would
inevitably damage
Court
the
the
case,
Supreme
ignored
high-tier equal protection
analytic it had
set out for itself, because
that analytic, which holds that promoting
the wel
a compelling
state interest, would
have resulted
fare of children constitutes
to
in giving custody of the child to the father. Making no explicit reference
social prejudices may be outside
the reach of
race, the Court held that while
the law, "the law cannot, directly or indirectly, give them effect." The princi
holds that the perpetuation
if neutrally considered,
of stig
ple in Palmore,
an acceptable means by which
mas does not constitute
the state can carry
v. Cleburne Living Center (1985),
out its interests. Hence,
in City ofCleburne
struck down zoning laws that gave effect to fears
the Court, quoting Palmore,
and biases over having a group home for the mentally
challenged
nearby,
even though the Court refused to broaden
its equal protection
analytic by
that discriminations
against the mentally
"suspect"
holding
challenged were
or
"quasi-suspect."11
in Bowers v. Hardwick
One year later, however,
(1986), the Supreme
to
see
Court not only refused
denied
but also pointedly
the relevance of
of
Palmore or Cleburne for gays and lesbians and upheld the constitutionality
a Georgia
law on the grounds
that "Sodomy was a criminal offense
sodomy
at common
law and was forbidden by the laws of the original thirteen States
a legitimate
when
the Bill of Rights," and that the law expressed
ratified
they
state purpose
in that it promoted
Court
the
which
defined
"morality,"
simply
as
"majority
sentiments
about
. . .
morality."
The
second
opinion,
dissenting
written by Justice John Paul Stevens and joined by Justices William J. Brennan
and Thurgood Marshall, not only pointed out that the original sodomy statutes
and homosexuals,
had applied neutrally both to heterosexuals
and married
in the 20th century,
and unmarried
but also that "at one point
persons,
Georgia's
law was
to permit
construed
certain
sexual
conduct
between
homo
even though such conduct was prohibited
sexual women
between
hetero
sexuals" (2857).12 Since the Court had previously
that a State may
established
as anal intercourse
or cunnilingus)
not prohibit
(here defined
sodomy
or
in
between married
Griswold
between
unmarried
heterosexual
couples
in Eisenstadt,
the Court had to establish why
the selective enforce
couples
ment of the statute against the class of homosexual
persons constituted a com
to advance an adequate rational basis for
pelling state interest. By disdaining
this selective enforcement,
the dissent strongly implied that the Bowers major
ity had,
ironically,
transformed
Justice Harry Blackmun,
Corinne
E. Blackmer
homosexuals
as if to underscore
into
a
"suspect
the majority's
class."
Moreover,
unprincipled
depar
57
ture from presumably
ion
the
(1967),
"almost
uncanny"
the petitioners
regarding morality)
interracial
proscribed
Bowers
between
parallels
in his dissenting
noted
legal precedents,
inwhich
ity opinions
ues"
settled
and
v.
Loving
opin
Virginia
biblical doctrine (as well as major
that "traditional Judeo-Christian
val
employed
to show
marriage.13
to
from biblical morality
and social custom
arguments
By employing
the Bowers decision
lesbians and gays of equal protection,
also
deprive
in greater jeopardy as the rights of
and African Americans
places women
as Passing
both these groups are guaranteed,
amply illustrates, by relatively
recent extensions
law rather than long-standing
of constitutional
tradition.
that Bowers stood behind
Indeed, Richard D. Mohr has argued persuasively
v. Croson (1989), which
in City of Richmond
the Court's subsequent
decision
state
action
and
affirmative
the
programs by establishing
crippled municipal
as
Bowers
of
much
the
fundamental
white
fundamen
rights
people,
upheld
tal rights
of
In City of Richmond,
set-aside
minority
municipal
(or, more
"heterosexuals"
sodomites").
clause
because
protection
are as "suspect"
as
those
notes,
are
programs
racial
with
class
ill-defined
the Court held
unconstitutional
made
classifications
made
the
accurately,
Mohr
under
with
of
"non
that state and
respect
the
equal
to whites
to blacks:
respect
it is those
actions
that are by tradition
averred
that
If, as per Bowers,
socially
are the actions
it is the people
that are performed
whose
priv
by right, then
are by tradition
as a mat
averred
who
have
those privileges
socially
ileges
ter of right.
It is the history
and tradition
of white
that converts
the
privilege
into white
privileges
oped
to deny
protections
rights
afforded
the style of
rights. Thus,
to lesbians
and gay men
to other
minorities
and
devel
reasoning
specifically
to restrict
is now
used
legal
to enhance
majority
privilege.
(72-73)
in which
The peculiarly
insidious manner
social prejudice
against les
to undermine
the basis of civil rights protections,
bians and gays is employed
perhaps
most
for African-American
notably
is exhaustively
women,
illustrat
Irene Redfield's
sexual and racial panic transforms her
ed in Passing, where
into the unwitting
instrument and reinforcer of social prejudices
and legal
women
to
in place.
Americans
and
African
designed
keep
prohibitions
to suggest
evidence
that
Charles R. Larson has recently used biographical
Elmer Imes, a professor
of
Larsen's marital difficulties with her husband,
at Fisk University who
became
involved
subsequently
romantically
physics
are reflected
in the plot of Passing, where
Irene sus
with a white woman,
a
pects her husband of infidelities with Clare and, like the latter, becomes
woman with unspeakable
"secrets" after she destroys her rival. While Larson
rather clois
describes with great insight the mind of an intensely suspicious,
tered woman
implicated
as
who
does
the
central
not fully understand
narrative
consciousness,
the story inwhich
this
critic's
she becomes
"heterosexual
ization" of the narrative not only ignores the fact that Larsen's marital diffi
of Passing, but also repris
culties and divorce occurred after the publication
es the humiliating
in 1932,
Larsen
scandal
that
endured
subsequently
public
58
College
Literature
conflated Larsen with her fictional char
when
the Baltimore Afro-American
acter Clare Kendry and suggested
that the former 'jumped' from the window
affair with a white woman.14
in the wake of her discovery of her husband's
so
not
is
much as it is acute social
fictionalized
Passing
autobiography
of her artistic peer community,
for Larsen fashioned herself as a
observation
writer in the context of the Harlem Renaissance, most of whose major figures
were both racial and sexual minorities.15
In addition, Larsen dedicated Passing
to her literary sponsors, Carl Van Vechten
and Fania Marinoff,
the white
patrons
and
of
promoters
the Harlem
Renaissance.
Since
Van
active
Vechten
lesbian and gay modernist writers such as Gertrude Stein and
ly sponsored
authors like Larsen (whose
Ronald Firbank in addition to African-American
novels he assisted in having published by Alfred Knopf), her imbrication of the
issues of racial and sexual "passing" can be seen as both an appeal to her
and an informed critique of socially
potential audience and literary colleagues
Americans
Irene
conservative
African
like
understandable
Redfield, whose
and security in American
desire to gain marginal
acceptance
society under
to
imitate
dominant
the
of
her
the
society.
Plessy
compels
prejudices
and tragically, Irene reinforces her identity as an 'American' by
Unfortunately
woman much
like herself in outward appear
destroying an African-American
ance and thus diminishes,
and limited
through ignorance, perceived necessity,
moral agency, the value and meaning
of her own selfhood.
Given the secrecy and duplicity enjoined upon Clare and the self-decep
tion unwittingly
by
practiced
a
sidered
morally
exemplary
intractable
limitations,
between
Clare's highly
of
race
and
Irene's
Irene,
or
neither
woman
can,
in any
character.
self-consistent
be
sense,
Within
con
these
Larsen explores
the crucial distinctions
however,
self-conscious
rhetorical deployments
of the fictions
internalization
unself-conscious
of
the
dictum
of
Plessy.
Clare becomes
and eluding capture
adept at subverting expectations
Irene has a self-divided
and camouflage,
through selective
shape-shifting
consciousness
both as an African American
and a woman,
for she believes
she can gain security and meaning
and ignore the
solely through marriage
of living in a racially divided
and segregated
larger implications
society.
Irene finds Clare's refusal of her own "feminine" ideal of self-efface
While
While
ment,
self-denial,
and
service
to men
proof
of
her
selfish,
immoral,
and
"cat
not only
like" disposition
the example
of Clare's nonconformity
(173),
invokes her reluctant admiration but also eventually
shatters her illusions of
the inviolability and 'sanctity' of masculine
propriety and power. Moreover,
Larsen makes
the point about Irene's sexual attraction to (and fear of) Clare
in two crucial scenes that
and the defiant bid for freedom she represents,
an
I
detailed
would
and,
argue, intentional representa
represent
extremely
tion of
uncertainties
the epistemological
attending both racial and sexual
In
both
forms
the
of
imbricated
first,
"passing."
"passing" are inextricably
of
while
second
the
that
the social
illustrates
"exoticism,"
through projections
are
Americans
faced
African
who
predicaments
by
"pass"
structurally analo
to
those
faced
homosexuals
who
gous
by
"pass."
Corinne
E. Blackmer
59
between
Irene and Clare, which
The first occurs in the initial encounter
sets the stage for the action that follows, which
takes place in a rooftop tea
room of the Drayton Hotel
in Chicago.
Irene is away from her
Significantly,
and therefore
in New York City, not in company with her husband,
home
to
"free"
exercise
the
option
of
to
for white
"passing"
a heat
escape
wave.
rivet
Irene's attention becomes
Once settled in this unfamiliar environment,
a "fluttering dress of green chif
ed on a "sweetly smelling" woman wearing
fon [with] mingled
(176) that
pattern of narcissuses,
jonquils, and hyacinths"
associate her with familiar topoi of feminine artifice and French exoticism.
Her aura of illicit sexuality is heightened,
moreover,
by her brief appearance
the
with a white man, neither her husband nor a mere platonic friend, whom
scene
woman
Since
dismisses
this
from
her
if
company.
swiftly
gracefully
is an
takes place in a hotel, an acute reader might surmise that this woman
or
mistress
expensive
discreet
further.
Irene
Instead,
and unobservant
openly
the
although
prostitute,
characteristically
admires
point
narrated
text,
of view,
the woman's
dress,
Irene's
from
not comment
does
"her
almost
dark,
like a scarlet flower against the ivory of her
black, eyes," her "wide mouth
Irene interprets as hovering
skin," and her "odd sort of smile" (177), which
between
has
sexual
been
staring
and
provocation
at this woman,
self-assurance.
she
at
Conscious,
more
is even
last,
that
she
when
disconcerted
the
stranger, in turn, stares back at her, like "one who with the utmost singleness
to impress firmly and accurately each
of mind and purpose was determined
for all time" (178).
detail of Irene's features upon her memory
cannot
she
she sees when
Irene
determine
what
Ironically, although
gazes
at
this
alluring
woman,
the woman
or what
sees
when
she
gazes
at
in
resembles herself
Irene, in reality she looks at someone who very much
not
at
does
when
least
that
outward
Irene,
alone,
appearance,
indicating
Racial identifi
"see" herself as an African American
(or an "exotic" woman).
cation (and self-identification)
is, Larsen hints, a matter of context and social
and fear of
Irene's limited self-knowledge
As if to underscore
convention.
self-disclosure
when
confronted
with
her
mirror
"image"
in another
woman,
and suspects this woman
to question her own outer appearance
she begins
similar to that an
"unmask" her racial identity, an anxiety uncannily
might
in company with another "suspected"
unconscious
lesbian would
experience
Irene
attracted. Although
she found herself unaccountably
lesbian to whom
odious and hatefully familiar" (178),
"a small inner disturbance,
experiences
as "white people were
her fears of racial disclosure,
she promptly dismisses
so stupid about such things" and "always took her for an Italian, a Spaniard,
Irene's fear of racial exposure
a Mexican,
or a Gypsy" (178). In this context,
to herself.
both parallels and masks her fear of sexual exposure,
particularly
Irene,
however,
automatically
assumes
that
the woman
staring
at
her
must
an ineffa
that Irene regards this stranger as possessing
be white,
suggesting
on the
on
one
but
over
distances
her
the
ble power
them,
hand,
which,
an
attraction
and
in
mutual
bond
of
them
ineluctable
draws
other,
together
other
all
In this instance,
racial
fascination.
then,
invisibility camouflages
60
College
Literature
modes
of recognition,
pelling
At
about
this
Having
Kendry.
stranger
with
and,
approaches
and
grace
herself
at distinguishing
expert
the
as Irene's long forgotten childhood
friend, Clare
on
life
both
sides
of
the
'color
line,' and thus
experienced
'unmasks'
warmth,
she sees and finds com
woman.
however,
point,
Irene to deny what
enabling
this mysterious
reality
on
a
Irene
recognizes
diately
or "exotic"
level.
She
launches
from
conventional
and
personal
into a picaresque
appearances,
historical
rather
account
Clare
imme
an
abstract
than
of
accidents
the
and
her since the death of her white
that have befallen
father
removed
her
black
from
the
and
that
have
ironically,
community)
a legal fraud by marrying
a white man who
in her perpetrating
misadventures
(which,
resulted
knows nothing of her racial identity. By the end of this story, Irene, whose
has been far more
limited and uniform
than Clare's, and who
experience
already projects a certain taboo "exoticism" on her friend, longs to ask Clare
how
sustains
she
racial
her
with
but,
masquerade,
her
customary
propriety,
finds herself
phrasing was
that in its context or its
"unable to think of a single question
not too frankly curious,
not
if
actually impertinent" (187). In
other
the
words,
propriate
essential
as
danger
intimate
details
a
questions
for
ignorance
regarding
the
narrative
of
"proper
how
lady"
Clare
the
other
Irene
retains
therefore
Clare's
inap
an
fraught with
increasingly
hand,
are
for white
"passes"
and
that becomes
On
progresses.
Clare
to ask,
of
knowledge
the profundity of others' capacities
for self-deception
and the complexity
of
on
or
to
her own experience
her
exoticize
has obviated
part
temptations
in which
others. Nevertheless,
the manner
the accidents of her
primitivize
in both the white and African
personal history have made her unacceptable
American worlds becomes
illustrated in the next major scene of the novel,
after
Clare
in her
convinces
a
highly
reluctant
Irene
an
to attend
tea
afternoon
party
apartment.
a childhood
Clare and Irene are joined by Gertrude,
friend of both
women who has pursued yet another social configuration
of racial identifi
cation inasmuch as, like Irene, she does not "pass" for white,
although she
too,
like
tomed
Clare,
Clare,
to being
with
her
has
married
"out of place,"
almost
ludicrous
a white
man.
In
this
context,
feels both outnumbered
attention
to environmental
Irene,
unaccus
and defensive,
disguise,
while
has
dec
her sitting room in dark browns
and blues in order to obscure
the
visual
distinctions
between white and black. This masquerade
of inte
sharp
rior decor serves to further ironize the problematics
of racial identity and
arrives to "rescue" them from a stilted
identification when
Clare's husband
conversation
into embarrassing
that has devolved
banalities
and heavy
silence. John, with no hint of self-consciousness,
refers to his wife, whom he
has become
"darker" since their marriage,
affectionately
complains
by the
nickname
then
but
about the "niggers" he reads
"Nig,"
complains
viciously
about in the newspapers.
Larsen reveals the limits of knowledge
conveyed
when
of perception
inher
through language
compared with the ambiguities
ent in experience,
since the difference
between marital
love and racial ani
orated
Corinne
E. Blackmer
61
mus
comes
down
attack
bigoted
on
for white,
"passing"
to
the
syllable
in the
blacks
this
scene
"-ger."
In
of
company
with
replicates
into an
launching
three
African-American
remarkable
and
ignorant
women
the
accuracy
social
in company with
lesbians and gays when
experienced
by closeted
dynamics
to
heterosexual
be
(or,
who,
everyone
perhaps more
presuming
people
into
those
of
silence),
being "queer"
openly
shaming
suspected
insidiously,
attack or ridicule homosexuals.
to make her friends admire her
determined
Clare, however,
seemingly
of her day-to-day
recklessness
and share the intense contradictions
life,
as if this
into displaying
his dangerous
almost goads her husband
blindness,
of her own ratio
the speciousness
humiliating
'spectacle' will finally expose
nales for "passing." In reality, her friends can hardly "enjoy" the presumed
superiority of their insight into the real state of affairs, since their knowledge
in the face of Bellew's
and voluble
leaves them powerless
igno
privileged
rance. Therefore,
this strategy places Clare and her friends in an ironic dou
secret knowledge
and the social
between
ble bind, since they must modulate
case
As
in
and gays, if
the
lesbians
of
of
whiteness.
analogous
presumption
themselves
they defend blacks against his racist slander, they might expose
as the very people Bellew attacks, and thus jeopardize Clare's marriage
and
their limited
In effect, this scene reveals to the women
social masquerade.
them the untenable
choices between
silent com
moral agency in providing
and
plicity
exposure.
Thus,
the
sonal
and
history
rather
experience
of what
question
to Clare might mean
in this context
valid description
of reality depends
to
'loyalty'
to
race,
or
sex,
to determine,
since any
is impossible
the
articulated
upon
language of per
than
obscure
appearances
visu
offered
the lim
demonstrates
ally. Yet this carefully crafted visual illusion eloquently
that
the inescapable moral conundrums
its of "passing" and thus dramatizes
and return to Harlem.
finally impel Clare to leave her husband
this scene does not have the 'intended' effect on Irene,
Unfortunately,
in the face of Bellew's
who feels justifiably enraged over her powerlessness
of
resists
the
full dimensions
acknowledging
bigotry and thus adamantly
assume
to
at
is
Since Irene, like society
Clare's predicament.
unwilling
large,
in any sense, of Clare Kendry, she becomes
for her knowledge,
responsibility
a
attendant on
for Irene
'sign' for the intractable social and moral dilemmas
see
vows
never
to
Irene
Clare again
however,
although
Plessy. Significantly,
"sense
of panic" (212) by projecting onto Clare
her lingering
and dismisses
she cannot for long repress the pro
the abstract offense of racial disloyalty,
as
an
"exotic" woman
Clare
she
feels
for
found attraction
sufficiently daring
to
violate
the
of
conventions
American
society,
since
particularly
her
suc
a potential
for Irene herself.
model
defiance
Thus,
represents
on
one
and
condemns
Irene
shuns
level
Clare, on another level her
although
her formidable will against the
attraction redoubles when Clare, exercising
cessful
force
of
circumstance,
arrives
uninvited
and
unwanted
at
Irene's
home.
and
into the "sanctum" of Irene's private bedroom
Clare breaks
and aversion
kiss on [Irene's] dark curls" (224), Irene's distance
62
College
Once
"drop[s] a
transform
Literature
into admiration
and desire for intimacy: "Looking at the
almost magically
woman before her, Irene Redfield had a sudden inexplicable onrush of affec
tionate feeling. Reaching out, she grasped Clare's two hands in her own and
'Dear God! But aren't you love
like awe in her voice:
cried with something
Clare!'"
(225).
ly,
is reinforced when
Clare
The quasi-sexual
gallantry of this encounter
Irene
in
comments
for
from
the
office
letters
that,
post
asking
suggestively
to think
all beginning
that never arrived, she had felt sure that "they were
that I'd been carrying on an illicit love affair and that the man had thrown
me over" (225, italics mine).
Since virtually all of Clare's 'affairs' are, in some
measure,
"illicit," and Irene feels constrained
by her sense of "decorum" not
to probe into the truth, the remainder of the text details the intense ambiva
that Clare, "in spite of her
lences Irene experiences
through her realization
. . .was yet
determined
selfishness
capable of heights and depths of feeling
that she, Irene Redfield, had never known.
Indeed, never cared to know"
(226).
Indeed,
an
from
once
"exotic"
Clare
dream
to return to Harlem
threatens
a
into
"familiar"
Irene
reality,
and thus to transform
seems
to asso
impelled
to her husband Brian's long
ciate Clare's bid for freedom and self-creation
a kind of interpretive des
to
in
At
dream
of
Brazil.
deferred
last,
escaping
in
"run
Irene
Brian
conflates
Clare
and
her
peration,
imagination as potential
a
in
is
and
that
she
involved
rather
mundane
aways"
imagines
really
plot of
as
scene
true
in the
it
is
marital
While
that
the
Clare,
infidelity.
perfectly
a
is
is no
Hotel
from
moral
there
far
woman,
Drayton
implies,
conventionally
secure
to
to
in
she
her
Harlem
evidence
that
suggest
tangible
position
plans
to make
by stealing Brian from Irene. In fact, Irene's determination
dream of Brazil "die" consitutes
the first in a series of destructive
in her determination
to destroy
longings for stability and order that culminate
society
Brian's
as
Clare
the
embodiment
of
own
her
socially,
racially,
and
sexually
trans
gressive desires. The remaining narrative is played out against a backdrop of
extremes
Irene's increasingly pronounced
attraction and moral
of physical
aversion for her 'exotic' friend. Aware of the racial and sexual masquerades
that she must maintain
enjoined upon the characters by Plessy, Irene decides
her social respectability
and economic
security at any cost, even if "only by
the sacrifice of other things, happiness,
love, or some wild ecstasy that she
never
As
had
known"
she fears that "If Clare were
(234).
freed," anything
acts
in the guise of a Social Darwinist
might happen" (268), she
compelled,
as
it were,
to vanquish
ever
Clare
as
an
instance
of
an
seductive
and admirable, must
fall before
In removing Clare, however,
American
civilization.
of her own freedom from the shackles
possibility
"exotic"
culture
that,
how
the "superior" forces of
Irene also eliminates
the
of the racial and sexual
conventions
that imprison her.
are
While
the strategies of self-disguise
and masquerade
Clare employs
far from ideal, they represent viable means of survival and self-transforma
tion under conditions
that temporarily
limit her moral agency as she fashions
Corinne
E. Blackmer
63
an
her greater
and self-determination.
that allows
autonomy
identity
to
not
is
this
Clare
Tragically,
journey or force the other
complete
permitted
in the novel to confront their ignorance or drop their self-protec
characters
tive disguises. Thus, a novel by an ostensibly
heterosexual
author forcefully
critiques
and
censorship
as well
self-repression
as
the
narrative
conventional
that compel her, through the agencies of Irene Redfield and John
paradigms
to destroy anyone who
resists these stifling social and artistic con
Bellew,
ventions.
Hence,
the
through
destruction
of
Clare
Larsen
Kendry,
also
sug
her in this, her second and
gests the intractible artistic limits that confronted
the social and legal dimensions
of racial segregation
final novel. Accordingly,
and
are
"panic"
are
central
they
neither
sexual
Rather,
nor
separable
an
in
in Passing.
a choice
issues
tangential
narrative
innovative
that
posits
a racially divided and moralistic model of social and artistic deco
between
rum ultimately enforced by John Bellew and his like, and an integrated and
not only the lingering separatist traditions of
that challenges
worldly model
v.
willful
also
the
but
ignorance and sexual paranoia embod
Ferguson
Plessy
ied
in
its contemporary
v. Hardwick.
Bowers
analogue,
legal
NOTES
not
2The Court
Protection
only
Clause,
held
that
also
but
that
Equal
the freedom
of choice
them
by denying
one
of the vital personal
essential
rights
men"
the Court
categories
of race and
Fourteenth
Amendment,
is at
[the Court]
ness,
treats
of
race
of Virginia's
the Lovings
law
law violated
of
of
traditions
the preservation
and
sex.
the
States
ment
she
this day
same
to establish
used
"principle"
of
standard
the
applied
that
will,
in time,
to an African-American
on
to focus
never
the
finished
intersections
the project.
some
64
has
order"
good
prove
to be
woman)
for Larsen's
the
(1143).
that "the judg
as pernicious
quite
of
Latin,
to write
Anglo,
She
subsequently
R. Larson,
Charles
to write
"no ending
beyond"
to abandon
decision
literature.
termed
to
"reasonableness"
as
and
her
Mirage,
African-American
returned
to her
earlier
that
have
seems
the decision
(the
Fellowship
third novel,
nurse,
critics,
speculated
notably
to the furor over
Larsen's
in addition
Elmer
with
of her marriage
Imes,
from writing.
caused
her to retreat
of a short story,
"Sanctuary,"
giarism
a classic
instance
of what
which
of Passing,
the ending
presents
DuPlessis
ele
separate
of reasonable
"in determining
the question
to the established
reference
customs,
usages,
a view
to the promotion
and
of their comfort,
found
to act with
liberty
and with
the people,
and
of the public
peace
rendered
awarded
and
son
as
free
facilities.
made by this tribunal in the Dred Scott Case" (1146).
5After the
publication of Passing, Larsen received a Guggenheim
was
the
process
as if they are
as poverty
and neglect)
can thus establish
schools
different
4In his lone dissenting opinion, Judge Harlan noted prophetically
first
due
deprived
to marry
that had
recognized
long been
to the orderly
of happiness
pursuit
by
(as well
age
and
sex using
school
and high
junior,
the Court
this
instance,
the basis
mentary,
3In
and
"the
(2854).
specifically,
to the
parallel
on
racism
invidious
the
an equally
College
which
cultures,
career
but
as
the breakup
supposed
pla
Nevertheless,
Rachel
Blau
compelling
rea
Literature
a
defines
6Smith
I thank
desire."
Might
her
Me"
Kiss
or reaction
as "the disruptive
action
that occurs
panic"
or homoerotic
is incapable
her own
lesbianism
of confronting
to her unpublished
IWondered
work
If She
for access
("And
"lesbian
...
a character
when
and
"'Nothing
Happened'").
in favor of outing,
that "The Secret
Mohr
binds
7In arguing
[that] currently
argues
to a belief
in the com
is a commitment
the [gay and
lesbian]
community
together
as
of the community
The very
functions
worthlessness.
munity's
structuring
principle
a denial
a denial
exist"
that it should
that the community
(30).
exists?indeed,
Circuit
in asserting
cited no authority
e. g., blacks
or women,
or
classes,
suspect
quasi-suspect
recognized
is primarily
in
whereas
behavioral
immutable
characteristics,
homosexuality
v. Defense
In High
Tech Gays
Clearance
the
(1076).
Security
Industry
Office,
v. United
8In Woodward
that
"Members
exhibit
nature"
that "Homosexuality
this language
almost
verbatim,
asserting
repeated
is
it
is
behavioral
and
hence
differ
immutable
characteristic;
fundamentally
or alienage,
sus
as race, gender,
which
traits such
define
existing
already
classes"
(573).
quasi-suspect
an
is not
from
and
pect
9In
Burr marshals
the grow
Chandler
gay scientist
Biology,"
for the biological
basis of homosexual
and
orientation,
in the biological
"discern
the seeds
that while
opponents
quest
and
"Homosexuality
contested
ing if highly
concludes
by noting
. . . the
of genocide
of
abortions
of
decades
fetal
spectre
homosexuals
this
involving
the
no
chemical
been
to
antidote
(65).
Burr
the misuse
of
contends,
against
arguing
legal
minorities
by tethering
homosexuality
that the supposed
istics,"
homogeneity
as an intrinsically
incoherent,
exposed
realizes,
science
ultimately
and human
freedom,
who
or of
of gay people,
'rewiring'
. . . Five
in the womb
down
is immutable,
homosexuality
recent
evidence
of more
rights must
for gay
rights, human
hunted
that
demonstrates
struggle
human
or
surgical
have
who
evidence
of
provide
the
reason,
of
a growing
body
orientation"
sexual
can
research
tions
evidence
psychiatric
and
nonpathological,
the development
For
the Federal
Circuit
Ninth
ent
States
of
implicates
however,
in a homophobic
rest on "fundamental
tolerance."
and
in
biology
that scientific
See
society.
ques
also
Halley,
for sexual
to secure
that seek
strategies
rights
to the legal discourse
of "immutable
character
to be
of the category
"heterosexual"
needs
self-contradictory
legal fiction.
v. Hardwick
in his dissenting
in Bowers
from Justice
Blackmun
opinion
10Quoted
Stevens
who
6 Phil. & Public
Fried,
(1986),
Justice
quoting
Correspondence,
quoted
v. American
in his concurring
in Thornburgh
Affairs
(1977):
288-289,
opinion
College
& Gynecologists,
476 U. S., at 777, n. 5, 106 S. Ct. at 2187, n. 5. While
of Obstetricians
the
to privacy
right
has
for
for
come
under
as an appropriate
recently
to remember
it is important
entities.
nonetheless
distinct
attack
sexual
minorities,
securing
rights
can overlap,
and secrecy
vacy
they are
not violate
orientation
does
sexual
privacy
acts or activities
between
about
sexual
private
decision
11The
of
the Court
since
in Cleburne
mind)
Court
refused
would make
groups
cannot
who
to deem
the mentally
retarded
have
perhaps
mandate
immutable
the
desired
disabilities
(perhaps
E. Blackmer
case
with
on
lesbians
to distinguish
setting
them
responses,
legislative
some
at
of prejudice
from at least part of the public
degree
to do so."
tant to set out on that course,
and we
decline
Corinne
reveals
or quasi-suspect
suspect
a quasi-suspect
class because
it "difficult to find a principled way
themselves
a disclosure
adults.
consenting
not
to decide
the
indicates
that the Court
scrutiny
protection
can claim
wants
to delimit
the class who
equal
such
strategy
legal
that, while
pri
A disclosure
of
nothing
heightened
in
and gays
status. The
so
doing
a variety of other
off
and
large
from
who
. . We
.
others,
can
are
who
claim
reluc
65
Stevens
12Justice
that the
held
statute
sodomy
v. Garrett,
In Riley
activity.
statute
not
did
he
of
the Georgia
moreover,
provides
to any sexual
act
submits
or anus of another,"
{Bowers
the Georgia
did not
and
involving
same
the
under
of
sodomy
one per
to the def
of
organs
also refers
Stevens
2849).
lesbian
statute
sex
the
Court
Supreme
prohibit
held
that
Court
Supreme
current
The
Georgia
commits
the offense
cunnilingus.
that "[a] person
or
performs
the mouth
and
inition
v. Alredge,
in which
to anal
intercourse
Thompson
referred
heterosexual
prohibit
in Bowers
consideration
when
son
cites
in May:
otherwise
called
and
"Sodomy,
buggery,
bestiality,
two persons
is
the crime
of
the
unnatural
with
each other,
nature,
against
copulation
...
a beast
or of a human
a man,
It may
be committed
being with
by a man with
by
a man
a beast,
a beast,
or by a man with
or by a woman
a woman?his
with
with
sodomy
wife,
in which
points
out
given
if she
case,
the wide
a very
sodomy"
ry or tradition
petitioners
ified, most
heavily
the States had
of
respectively]."
14In some
earlier
McDowell's
introduction,
of
in Europe";
notes
15Eric Garber
Wintered
for
example,
Claude
McKay,
Bruce
Y.
"Recall
that many
Nugent,
Alain
Locke,
Alberta
Baker,
Josephine
N.
by
and
prohibitions
can
Langston
Bessie
Hunter,
seen
as
the
rat
a direct
female
homoerotic
(or male)
desire.
in the Baltimore
leading
"Fisk
Wife
(xvi-xvii).
figures
Wallace
Hughes,
Afro-American:
Love
Cooled
While
Think
to
no men
and makes
concerns,
to
response
never
refers
Larson
Passing.
feminist
from Window"
and Gladys
little histo
very
and miscegenation,
sodomy
be
"Friends
Smith,
with
as in Bowers,
in Loving
was
Amendment
that
and
might
depict
three articles
Jump'
of the
taboo
[against
introduction
Novelist";
dis
specifically
applied
under
"homosexual
lesbians
sexual
two
the Fourteenth
to Quicksand
Larsen's
underplays
Is Divorced
never
had
Stevens
Justice
of the
neither
statutes,
notes
that when
introduction
that Passing
the possibility
from
the
headlines
quotes
Professor
fact
similar
Larson's
senses,
McDowell's
tion
the
of
Blackmun
Justice
on
"relied
construction
social
to support
it.
v. Virginia.
Loving
13See
Larson
new
While
accomplice."
of
variability
sodomy
Common
Law
that English
to group
in Bowers
decision
mentions
senting
opinions
to lesbian
The
sexuality.
is thus
is an
she
consent,
historical
Gertrude
of
the Harlem
Renaissance?
Countee
Thurman,
"Ma" Rainey,
Ethel
or bisexual.
lesbian,
gay,
Bentley?were
Cullen,
Waters,
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67