Homosexual PS

[The Dread Pirate Roberts]

Well personally, I'm just hoping I get an adcom that thinks lesbian = hot porno girl on girl action, and lets me in on that basis.

[desi desi desi]

i don't know if the op is still checking this thread... but you mentioned that the GLBT theme arises from a significant amount of community service activities you have participated in throughout the years.  while that is commendable, make sure your PS steers away from reiterating activities listed on your resume and more towards telling a story.  adcomm's read thousands of mind-numbing PS which essentially re-tell the applicants resumes.  structure your PS in a way that you are telling a story.  that is my only advice.  as for the GLBT thing - i'm a 2L at a decent law school in the south that originated from the Methodist church.  Our school has an active LGBT group, and the faculty, staff, and student body appear tolerant.  I think that at the top schools, the LGBT (and Jewish, and Asian) communities are well represented to the extent that being LGBT will not *help* your application by giving you diversity points.  However, I doubt that being LGBT would detract from your application, save a few conservative schools (Pepperdine, Regent, BYU).  Like I said, if you can incorporate your sexuality into a story you're telling the adcomm, then by all means, do it.  But I would shy away from a theme of LGBT/community service because that should already be on your resume.

My personal statement was about a broken toaster, among other things.   

[A.J.]

being gay makes you a racial minority

[SkullTatt]

i don't know if the op is still checking this thread...

I am. I am making my PS more career-oriented now so the PS is no longer an issue, but the resume/volunteer work is. I have decided to just out myself everywhere, I basically have to, otherwise my only community service is animal rights, and that might look weird.

On a related note, I was looking at some "biglaw" websites and one HUGE law firm, with offices in London, New York, Houston, Atlanta, etc., actually has a page talking about their GLBT group and how they creative a positive environment for gay employees, etc.

[desi desi desi]

one HUGE law firm, with offices in London, New York, Houston, Atlanta, etc., actually has a page talking about their GLBT group and how they creative a positive environment for gay employees, etc.

umm, which one?  being an ATLien, i guarantee you this market is hostile to minorities, women, and gays.  not outwardly hostile, but at the end of the day, this is the South.  and in the South, (as a minority), i know my place.  go to NY.

[SkullTatt]

It was King & Spaulding, and here is the webpage:

http://www.kslaw.com/diversity/sexual.asp

[Denny Crane]

Do you think adcomms verify a student's homosexuality?  Does being gay not help unless you have shown substantial involvement in gay rights activities?  And if participating in gay-rights activities does beneift you if you are gay, does it ONLY benefit you if you are gay?  If not, then why mention that you are gay at all?  Or at the very least, why expect that it should have a positive benefit?  I think many people erroneously clump together racial minorities and homosexual applicants, when these are undeniably two different kinds of applicants who are viewed differently by adcomms (or so I expect, and hope).

[The Dread Pirate Roberts]

I think many people erroneously clump together racial minorities and homosexual applicants, when these are undeniably two different kinds of applicants who are viewed differently by adcomms (or so I expect, and hope).

They are of course very different.  I think the theory is that an adcom wants to put together a class that is as diverse as possible.  If they could fill the class with people who, aside from having stellar numbers and fabulous prior educations, are in proportion with the community or nation in terms of race, class background, gender, sexual orientation, etc.  The numbers are a higher priority, but the idea is that if an adcomm looks at the class they've put together, and have no or relatively few obviously gay people, and they're looking at two applicatns with similar numbers, someone self identified as gay may have an edge over someone who isn't.  The same may be true of the ballance is skewed towards one gender, or one area of the country.

None of this is going to trump numbers, nor is it nearly as important to adcomms as racial diversity, but it may be something.

On the other hand, I'm still finding it hard to believe that gays are underrepresented in law school classes (of course since nobody has reliable stats on sexual orientation anyway it's hard to say).  If we're not, then I'm sure it wouldn't matter a bit. 

And, no, I'm sure they don't verify anybody's homosexuality.  I mean, really, what are they going to do?  Ask for a videotape?

[Denny Crane]

And, no, I'm sure they don't verify anybody's homosexuality. I mean, really, what are they going to do? Ask for a videotape?

That's exactly what I would expect, which makes me wonder why indicating that your are gay anywhere on your application would help you at all in admissions.  I'm certainly not asking people to leave that out if they feel that it is vitally important to their lives and important to how they want to represent themselves to adcomms.  However, I don't understand why anyone does it with the expectation that they will (or should) receive any sort of minority consideration for it. 

[thenextstep]

Swat - few if any people would out themselves on a application just for the admissions benefit.  It is not like it is safe or easy or even a good idea in all situations to be out.  People are deciding whether to out themselves or not because they know some schools are actively recruiting GLBT people and that there are other schools that are actively not... so it's a decision that needs to be made.  Many other schools are neither recruiting nor discouraging.

I don't think anyone thinks it's like affirmative action or anything (i.e. we don't expect it to be like URM status), just that it is one way in which you might be different from the mainstream applicant.  I think sugersh has it right in saying it's about putting together a class that is not simply just the best people by the numbers but that has all types of diversity.  That does not mean that all types of diversity are equally valued, just that in an ideal world adcomms would rather have a more diverse class than not.  And there is a difference between being involved in gay rights and outing yourself clearly in your PS or in some other way.