Thank you so much for taking the time to read the latest edition of the University of Michigan Law School Outlaws alumni newsletter. Our goal with this newsletter is to inform UMLS alumni about the activities of Outlaws in the hope of fostering greater communication between alumni and current students. We are excited to share news of our recent and upcoming activities with you and hope that you will in turn keep us informed about your activities, both professional and personal. Please email us anytime with questions, ideas or updates at alumni@umoutlaws.org.
In this issue:
And don't forget to visit our Junk Shop, for your queer gear: tshirts, buttons, magnets, and more. All proceeds from sales in the shop go to create a stronger LGBT community at UMLS and to help attract and train the future queer lawyers (and leaders) of America.
So, please...shop heartily.
Best wishes!
Fall Term At-a-Glance: A Message from the OutLaws Chair
Kyle, Co-Chair
This fall we welcomed numerous 1L Outlaws and allies. We kicked off the year with a retreat to Saugatuck. While it is unclear if we will have the budget to take such a trip in the future, those of us who attended had a great time. Incoming students who were not able to attend the retreat were greeted with personal mentors. This is the first year we have tried to match every incoming Outlaw with a 2L or 3L mentor. The feedback we've received about our Mentorship Program has been very positive. Our increase in numbers has provided the group with much-needed social, political, and racial diversity.
This past term, continuing our efforts from last year, we formed a Queers of Color Discussion Group and, we have been working with Career Services and Dean Johnson's office to put in place more support for students. Headed up by veteran 2Ls, 3Ls and a member of Career Services, we held a successful panel addressing 1L summer clerkship positions. Having a member of Career Services available in an intimate setting cleared up questions that our members may not have had an opportunity to ask in large, school-wide settings.
Dean Johnson renewed and increased her commitment to Outlaws' participation in the Sexual Orientation Moot Court competition. This year, with help from Dean Johnson, we are sending two teams to UCLA's competition.
We were also able to send twelve people to Lavender Law this year. Our ability to send so many people is a direct result of Dean Caminker and Dean Johnson's support of our group. Everyone reported having a great time in San Diego.
As usual, one of our greatest sources of financial support came from the Nannes Challenge. As a result of 3Ls pledging future financial contributions to the law school, Outlaws' budget was augmented by over $3,000. You will be proud to know that Outlaws was one of the student groups to receive the greatest amount of pledge support from the student body. While we can always use more money to effectuate our goals, support from our members, allies, and administrators has enabled us to undertake many LGBT related activities.
Outlaws has remained a vibrant social community this term. With the help of our allies, we hosted an amazing Thanksgiving dinner. The Thanksgiving dinner was well attended and the food was amazing. We also combined our social efforts with community service by holding a community-wide party at the Aut Bar. The Aut Bar generously agreed to donate a portion of every drink purchased to LGBT survivors of Hurricane Katrina.
This Spring, Outlaws will turn its attention to recruiting. With the advent of our new website, we hope to communicate to everyone researching UM Outlaws how active we are on campus.
Looking to the future, we are hoping to host a major event, something akin to a banquet or a well-attended, law school-wide party. One of our greatest political strengths is our visibility and we are working on putting together an event that will include a larger segment of the student body. Currently, we are considering hosting a drag ball. This idea is embryonic, however. We still need to work out the logistics, including marketing and financing. A group has formed to coordinate the planning of this event.
We have an exciting semester ahead of us and look forward to hearing from our alums.
Best wishes,
Kyle Y. Faget, co-chair
(back to top)
PAC
Steve Kilar, PAC Chair
Throughout the Fall term, Outlaws had a successful season of raising the law school's awareness of LGBT political issues! We began the semester with well-received events promoting National Coming Out Day and protesting on-campus JAG recruiting. Responses to these events were largely supportive, and we were able to circulate coming out resources and information about Fair v. Rumsfeld and the Solomon Amendment broadly throughout the student body via email, fliers, and posters.
Later in the semester, Outlaws participated in the University-wide response to Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church. These obscene anti-LGBT protestors were in Ann Arbor in November objecting to an undergraduate production of The Laramie Project and LBGT-inclusive religious organizations. In addition to being on-the-scene of the counter-protest, Outlaws prepared handouts explaining free speech rights and hate crimes laws (please check out these materials on our website), participated in a pledge drive for the non-profit organization Transgender Michigan, and subsidized tickets to the play to ensure that each performance had a packed audience!
In November, Clinical Professor of Law Nick Rine and two student attorneys spoke about their work on a case currently pending in the Sixth Circuit; they are defending an LGBT-asylum seeker who was persecuted in his homeland because of his sexual orientation. They revealed startling insights about the asylum process and the special challenges that LGBT petitioners face when seeking refuge in the United States.
During Winter term, Outlaws is looking forward to two fascinating speakers: Joshua Dressler, the Frank R. Strong Chair in Law at Mortiz College of Law at The Ohio State University, and Erwin Chemerinsky, Alston & Bird Professor of Law and Professor of Political Science at Duke University. Professor Dressler will be speaking to the law school community about the provocation defense to homicide and "gay panic." The lecture is co-sponsored by the Criminal Law Society. Professor Chemerinsky will debate Eugene Kontorovich, Visiting Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School, about the Solomon Amendment and Fair v. Rumsfeld. This debate is co-sponsored by the Michigan Law School Federalist Society. Each of these lunchtime talks promises to be thought provoking and we expect that they will foster community-wide discussion regarding these important issues.
(back to top)
A Vibrant Social Community
Matt Maddox, 1L Social Chair
The social life of Outlaws is hopping. This year we had the largest incoming class of Outlaws members (including myself) that we've ever had. It has made our events more diverse and our lives a lot more fun. We were welcomed in the fall by our outgoing social chair, Jeff, with a kick-off party celebrating an end to the first week of classes.
By mid-semester, having all settled in, it was time for a celebration. Coming Out Week provided the perfect excuse. As part of the greater University of Michigan LGBT community, we organized a party celebrating Coming Out Week. We invited the entire law school and all of the LGBT groups around the U. We had a great turn out, and we were able to raise some money to help LGBT victims of Hurricane Katrina who have relocated to Houston. It was great to do something good while having a lot of fun.
The first semester began to become a bit stressful as we neared Thanksgiving. To relieve some of the tension, and to enjoy each other as members of a greater family, we had a large Thanksgiving dinner. I helped make my first turkey (as well as my first creamed spinach and mashed sweet potatoes). Everyone in Outlaws brought their favorite dish. The wonderful Megan contributed the use of her home and her kitchen, and Brad, Adam, and Glenn all helped keep the party well fed and lubricated.
Our last event was after our last meeting. It was a showing of the great cult documentary, Paris is Burning, which depicts the vogue scene in Harlem in the 1980's.
For the spring semester, (oh wait, we call it winter semester here) big things are planned, including a celebration of the recent marriage of Denise Brogan, a trip to Stilettos, and some great welcoming parties for next year's prospective students during the two preview weekends in March. Everyone is always welcome to all of our events, and we'd love to see you if you come back to A2 anytime this semester!
(back to top)
0 comments:
Post a Comment