Celebrating Pride Month: Action Items & Considerations for LGBTQ+ Aspiring Law Students
By Monique Atkinson, Associate Law School Consultant
“I am a Black Lesbian Feminist Warrior Poet Mother.
Stronger for all my identities, and I am indivisible.”
– Audre Lorde
Stronger for all my identities, and I am indivisible.
If there is any message that I want to impart, it is the sageness of Lorde’s reflections. For LGBTQ+ students, particularly QTPOC students, the parts of us that are constantly othered are both valid and a source of immense strength.
Queer and TGNC (transgender and gender non-conforming) students deserve to bring their identities to the classroom and to the legal profession. As of 2019, NAPL found that just under 3 percent of American lawyers identify as LGBTQ+ (though the nuance of that data is an entirely separate post) and the number of current and proposed barriers for LGBTQ+ students grows by the day.
June is Pride Month. It is a reminder of the battles and the sacrifices at every intersection of the LGBTQ+ community. It ushers focus on what we have overcome, but also, is an opportunity to remember our collective capacity as we work to change the structures that function to blow out our light.
Below, are a few reflections and resources that I hope to speak to the pursuit of community, care, and recuperation for queer aspiring law students during Pride Month and beyond.
Connect with LGBTQ+ Affirming Organizations
We are stronger in community.
Learning from the perspectives of current and future advocates who share our identities can be a powerful reminder that we are not alone. It offers palpable reassurance that we can take up space in the law and beyond.
Also, following or attending programming with LGBTQ+ organizations is an opportunity to learn about the range of perspectives on law school, shared experiences, opportunities to pursue, strategies for success, and lessons learned on navigating the field.
According to The National LGBTQ+ Bar Association, of 103 ABA law school respondents to the 2021-2022 Law School Campus Climate Survey, 102 law schools offered an active LGBTQ+ student group supported by the institution. To connect with LGBTQ+ student organizations across a range of law schools, you can peek at this list. The Law School Admissions Council (LSAC) also collects data on LGBTQ+ resources from responding law schools, you can find 2018 responses here.
You may want to connect with professional and advocacy organizations dedicated to the many intersections of queerness. Here is one such compilation of organizations, including those in law and government, from the Human Rights Campaign. The University of Arizona Office of LGBTQ Affairs also has a list of organizations, groups, and advocates specifically focused on QTPOC advocacy.
Learn the Vibrance of Our History
Anti-queer sentiment and lawmaking intentionally blocks the next generation from discovering the complexity, abundance, and resilience of our predecessors. Yet, there are many folks who are constantly building reminders of where we’ve been, what we have accomplished, and where we are headed, in all of our forms.
For example, years ago, I had the honor of briefly meeting Charlie Amáyá Scott at a conference in Providence. I remember learning from her about the erasure of Indigenous communities, as well as Queer Indigenous experiences, in education and in physical space. Charlie was likely the first person I witnessed complete a land acknowledgment – looking back, I wonder, how could that be?
Or, more recently, I had the opportunity to listen to the reflections of Will Larkins as he presented during a Harvard Law School Child Advocacy Program panel series. Not only is he a delightful human being and a laudable advocate, he is also just 17.
What folks come to mind as you consider about the fabric of queer identities in law and beyond? What stories will remind you that you are part of a lineage of strength, joy, and efficacy? What possibilities do you want to imagine for our future?
Them recently featured a host of Queer Elders highlighting our history on TikTok (it is indeed, adorable and powerful). You might be interested in reading a bit more about the range of famous queer figures who paved and cement our path, from Marsha P. Johnson to Alok Vaid-Menon.
As current and future advocates, you have a say in what comes next. Yet to imagine a world that reflects us all – it is important to learn what has been, what we have survived, and what many of us did not.
Pour Into Our Community
While there is much to celebrate this month, the queer community has seen so much loss throughout our past and our present. The heart can grow heavy with the ways that we are repeating, and erasing, history.
It is paramount not to forget the ways that the queer and TGNC community, particularly transgender communities of color, are disproportionately impacted by structural inequalities. It is also necessary to remember that we have the responsibility and capacity to lift one another up.
Engage in on-the-ground organizing, volunteer with a local or national organization, support your pals, donate to mutual aid funds, pursue a J.D. to more directly impact the law, and the list goes on. There are so many ways to make an impact and they are all necessary. (I venture to caveat, unless they are solely performative.)
Take Good Care
I’ll circle back to Audre now. The visionary matriarch reminded us that strength is embedded in our identities, queer and beyond.
She also famously shared, “Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”
As you embark on your journey, wherever it may take you – the importance of rest, of refuge, of breathing deep, and centering yourself will remain essential. From high school to college to graduate education and into legal practice or other professional roles, it will never be a “convenient time” to center your healing or your wellbeing. Yet, with the weight of your potential and the weight of the world we live in, it is non-negotiable that you take time for you.
In the end, this list is a small cross-section of the many resources to take care of and to honor the strength that lives at your intersections. Add to this list, share your own strategies with the people you love who could use them, bring your light farther into this world in the ways that feel healthy for you.
In all of this, please remember – you are strong, you are indivisible, you are so many things.
Happy Pride.
If you are an LGBTQ+ law school applicant, we are here to support you! 50% of our team are members of the LGBTQ+ community, and we want to help you find the perfect law school that meets your educational, professional, and community needs.
Whether it’s through personalized one-on-one counseling, our Quick Start essay plans, or just downloading our free Essential Guide to Applying to Law School, there is definitely something we can do for you to help make this process a little bit easier.
As always, feel free to reach out to us at hello@smontgomeryconsulting.com with any of your questions! You can also submit a question to be answered on our weekly Break Into Law School™ Podcast, streaming whatever your favorite podcast service is.