ABSTRACT
To be human requires recognition from others. Our very individuality depends upon the willingness, and capacity, of others to recognize us. “We do not survive,” writes Judith Butler (2005: 12), “without being addressed.” Recognition, in other words, is a basic human need. Nonrecognition or misrecognition can lead to marginality and to non-personhood. Little wonder, then, that the quest for recognition has been central to identity-based social movements, such as the movement for gay and lesbian civil rights. Since the 1970s, this quest has been defined primarily in relation to a politics of visibility, embodied in the strategy of “coming out,” or openly declaring one's homosexuality. Coming out has been viewed as the first step in consolidating gay and lesbian subcultures the anticipated outcome of which was mutual recognition and visibility beyond queer worlds.
