Does LGBT give a bump?

[bloomlaw]

In law schools neverending pursuit of diversity, does LGBT help your chances? I was looking at the W & L application, and they had a box that I could check if I wanted to mark my sexual orientation under groups I would like to be seen as part of (nearly all the other options were race related). Do you guys think it helps at all, and, if so, how do they get you to prove it? It just seemed interesting that it was grouped with all the other racial signifiers that always give a bump

[cherries]

I have no idea if it gives you a bump in general, but your mention of Washington & Lee reminded me of an incident that happened last year and an article that I read about it.

Reports have circulated that two gay students at Washington and Lee University’s School of Law in Lexington, Va., were attacked in separate incidents late last month.

The full article is here:  http://www.washblade.com/2007/4-13/news/localnews/10394.cfm

But I thought that this was the most telling part:

Diane Meier, another openly gay law student at Washington and Lee, is a friend of Dunkel’s who was at the same party. In an interview with the Cavalier Daily, she said she was verbally and physically harassed at the party when students threw food and yelled anti-gay slurs at her. She told the paper that when she and Dunkel went to school administrators about the incidents, they were “unresponsive.” A police report was not filed in that incident.

“There are only five [openly] gay kids here and we all feel really unsafe,” Meier told the Cavalier Daily.

I have no idea what the administration is like, but that incident's just something you might consider when checking or not checking the box?

[jennyhoo]

That's horrible! 

[Ninja1]

Yes, but only if applying to schools in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Wyoming, and possibly several others. In fact, it probably works pretty well everywhere except most of the Northeast and parts of the West Coast. Play it up in your PS for the best results.

Seriously though, if schools can't check a box on an LSAC form for it, I don't think they care very much.

[booyakasha45]

"how do they get you to prove it?"

with what, what, in the butt, of course.

[bloomlaw]

That's unbelievable about Washington & Lee. Especially when like ethics and honor are their thing. I'm not, but after looking at the app, I debated whether I could pull off faking it for three years if it could get me into a better school. Guess I forgot what country I'm going to law school in. Sigh

[Ninja1]

That's unbelievable about Washington & Lee. Especially when like ethics and honor are their thing. I'm not, but after looking at the app, I debated whether I could pull off faking it for three years if it could get me into a better school. Guess I forgot what country I'm going to law school in. Sigh

*&^%, the USA is about the most homosexual tolerant nation I can think of off the top of my head (with maybe Canada and some Western European nations being better, but I don't really know). A fair number of countries still kill openly homosexual folks.

[bloomlaw]

That's unbelievable about Washington & Lee. Especially when like ethics and honor are their thing. I'm not, but after looking at the app, I debated whether I could pull off faking it for three years if it could get me into a better school. Guess I forgot what country I'm going to law school in. Sigh

*&^%, the USA is about the most homosexual tolerant nation I can think of off the top of my head (with maybe Canada and some Western European nations being better, but I don't really know). A fair number of countries still kill openly homosexual folks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Shepard

good point.

But, seriously, you are right, although our tolerance could be much better, it is better than most non 1st world countries. I would be suprised to see us ahead of any other 1st world country tho.

[Ninja1]

That's unbelievable about Washington & Lee. Especially when like ethics and honor are their thing. I'm not, but after looking at the app, I debated whether I could pull off faking it for three years if it could get me into a better school. Guess I forgot what country I'm going to law school in. Sigh

*&^%, the USA is about the most homosexual tolerant nation I can think of off the top of my head (with maybe Canada and some Western European nations being better, but I don't really know). A fair number of countries still kill openly homosexual folks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Shepard

good point.

But, seriously, you are right, although our tolerance could be much better, it is better than most non 1st world countries. I would be suprised to see us ahead of any other 1st world country tho.

We're pretty much saying the same thing. I completely agree that screwed up *&^% that shouldn't happen to gays does still happen, and we should work on that, but by and large, we're not too bad. Hell, as Pantera said, lesbian love is accepted and right (assuming, of course, that it's the Showtime variety).

[TimMitchell]

Being LGBT will only give you bump(s) if you don't have safe sex, but the same it true of heterosexuals