Sexual orientation/diversity essay?

[absy]

nothing really stands out from my interactions with students from other schools, in terms of support.  lots of schools are supportive of their LGBT community.  not as many cities and states are supportive.  and it's quite possible that no school is as financially supportive of its LGBT community as Harvard is.  I think that my experience with HLS/Cambridge/Boston has been the best possible experience in law school (so far; I'm only a 1L) for me as an LGBT student

Wow, it sounds terrific. I haven't heard of any schools yet that have such a supportive environment for GLBT folks (maybe NYU). Based on your interactions with students at the GLBT law conferences, do you know of other top 20 schools that are particularly supportive?

I did apply to Harvard but it's a very remote possibility. My most recent LSAT score is in the Harvard realm, but I have these two other scores lurking in my closet...

[slacker]

Wow, it sounds terrific. I haven't heard of any schools yet that have such a supportive environment for GLBT folks (maybe NYU). Based on your interactions with students at the GLBT law conferences, do you know of other top 20 schools that are particularly supportive?

I did apply to Harvard but it's a very remote possibility. My most recent LSAT score is in the Harvard realm, but I have these two other scores lurking in my closet...

I have a friend at Northwestern. I heard they had about 9 out 1Ls in the current class. That seems like a pretty high number to me. They also did a general program during their orientation on sexual orientation.

[mobo]

absy? is that your pic?

between you and odaiko, i may have to ask to come back as a gay man in my next life. 

[absy]

I guess it's a matter of perspective.  in my section of 80 students, there are 6 out gay men.  mine has the best representation, but the law school is doing quite well as a whole

absy? is that your pic?

between you and odaiko, i may have to ask to come back as a gay man in my next life. 

haha, yeah it is.  feel free to reincarnate as gay; the more the merrier!

[odaiko]

It's true there are some gay 1Ls at Northwestern. For some reason, there's only one gay 2L and no gay 3Ls! Perhaps they're getting better about GLBT recruitment/admission/retention? Or it could just be chance. I think of NW as a fairly progressive school, so I was surprised to hear the GLBT numbers were so low in the upper classes. I was also surprised that a student organization was putting on a seminar called "Gay Marriage: Sanctity or Sodomy?" while I was visiting. (But the GLBT student group was raising hell--good for them!)

I think I need to visit again to get a better sense of the climate..

[odaiko]

absy? is that your pic?

between you and odaiko, i may have to ask to come back as a gay man in my next life. 

I am one sexy banana.... 

[Yale College Inferno]

1. If you end up deciding (as I did) that you can't write a diversity statement that is that interesting or meaningful or makes you stand out that much, I don't think it's a big deal to check the box you mentioned without adding a diversity statement. For Penn, I checked the box without adding the statement, and I'm not too worried about it.

I ended up writing a diversity statement about my Chinese background rather than about being gay, because I felt that the former had more effect on my life. I did grow up in a pretty homophobic (Chinese) society, but I didn't think I could write a gay-themed diversity statement without having it either sound like a sob story or sound generic and very similar to lots of other people's diversity statements...and thus not so diverse.

2. absy, is that your real picture? Are you a 1L? If so I wonder if you know a gay 1L there who I know from when he was at Yale College. I shouldn't post full names on this board, but let's see, his first name is Brad and his last name starts with an R...

[mobo]

you two are funny - and btw - i AM gay, but a girl. so that was a double compliment to you. 

[absy]

1. I completely agree on checking the box.  and if you have any involvement that you could possibly put on your resume, I would put it

2. yes

[odaiko]

you two are funny - and btw - i AM gay, but a girl. so that was a double compliment to you. 

Thoroughly flattered..    Makes me want to jump off my Segway and hug you.