Gately and Joelle talk veil and U.H.I.D. (p. 534)
‘It’s the Union of the Hideously and Improbably Deformed. The veil is a sort of fellowship caparison.’ […] ‘There’s a brief ceremony. It’s a bit like giving out chips over at the Better Late Than Never meeting, for Varying Lengths. The new U.H.I.D.s stand and receive the veil and don the veil and stand there and recite that the veil they’ve donned is a Type and a Symbol, and that they are choosing freely to be bound to wear it always—a day at a time—both in light and darkness, both in solitude and before others’ gaze, and as with strangers so with familiar friends, even Daddies. That no mortal eye will see it withdrawn. That they hereby declare openly that they wish to hide from all sight. Unquote.’
Context
The donning rite verbatim, 0450h in the Ennet House front office, from the theme's star member: the veil as sacrament ("a Type and a Symbol"), taken a day at a time on the 12-Step model, binding even before Daddies. "Unquote." is hers — she's reciting her own liturgy at arm's length. The fullest single statement of what U.H.I.D. formally is anywhere in the novel.