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I have an interest in pursuing a few different fields when I enter law school; one of which being "alternative lifestyles" law: advocacy for the LGBTQI, polyamorous, kink, or really any other non-mainstream pursuit of happiness for individual and/or consenting adults. I would imagine my aim at such work would involve fighting against laws, whether by design or via residual effects, that needlessly hinders the lives of those I represent; injurious institutional practices (eg. restitution for otherwise healthy intersex individuals forced to undergo mutilating genital procedures in the name of "normalization" and prevention of such surgeries for non-functional reasons); and contractual matters (financial agreements between individuals who are currently inelgible to marry their partner(s), tort prevention for S&M couples).

I suppose my question would be "How would I go about pursuing this in law school?" I cannot imagine many schools having some sort of track for this pursuit and have a harder time imagining OCIs and/or interships for the field. Any schools, internships, and job opportunities that you people know of that would be conducive toward this pursuit. Thanks ahead of time!

Have fun trying to make money doing that.

It could work. You always hear that the rich and powerful are disproportionately likely to enjoy getting degraded in the bedroom. Can't get much better clients than the rich and powerful.

Sounds interesting, but I imagine you'll really be carving your own niche. I would say research like hell, and find summer positions regarding civil rights and GLBTQ-related work.

Yet another post I thought FOR SURE was authored by Peter North. *sigh*

This sounds like an interesting career pursuit. However, the term "alternative lifestyles" is highly stigmatized due to the tendency of social conservatives to utilize it in a derogatory manner in reference to the LGBTQ community. I'd avoid using that term to express your career goals if I were you.

For sexual orientation and gender identity law, UCLA has The Williams Institute, the only think tank on sexual orientation law in the country. It's an amazing organization, tackling everything from marriage equality and DADT to safe schools/anti-bullying legislation and LGBTQ-related health care concerns.

Good luck!

CAHopeful wrote:This sounds like an interesting career pursuit. However, the term "alternative lifestyles" is highly stigmatized due to the tendency of social conservatives to utilize it in a derogatory manner in reference to the LGBTQ community. I'd avoid using that term to express your career goals if I were you.

For sexual orientation and gender identity law, UCLA has The Williams Institute, the only think tank on sexual orientation law in the country. It's an amazing organization, tackling everything from marriage equality and DADT to safe schools/anti-bullying legislation and LGBTQ-related health care concerns.

Good luck!

Thanks for the heads up about the baggage in the term. I will try to think of a better term to encapsulate the pursuit. I have heard of things in LA as well as NY related with the field. If I wanted to eventually branch off to my own practice in Seattle or Chicago...would it behoove me to go to a school with a national reach around NY or LA (Cornell, UCLA, NYU, Columbia), work there for a few years and then branch off? Or could I attend any T14 or any school that places well in Chicago or Seattle (Chicago, NU, UIUC, UW) and just do my internships in LA or NY?

You're definitely gonna want to be in or near a big city where there's an established community for these "alternative lifestyles" (a term that I never knew had a negative connotation). Unless of course you want to help out some polygamists in rural Utah or something...


Also,

PlugInBaby wrote:reach around

Best way to learn is to publish. Any big city law school will have faculty members to advise on these matters.

PlugInBaby wrote:I have an interest in pursuing a few different fields when I enter law school; one of which being "alternative lifestyles" law: advocacy for the LGBTQI, polyamorous, kink, or really any other non-mainstream pursuit of happiness for individual and/or consenting adults. I would imagine my aim at such work would involve fighting against laws, whether by design or via residual effects, that needlessly hinders the lives of those I represent; injurious institutional practices (eg. restitution for otherwise healthy intersex individuals forced to undergo mutilating genital procedures in the name of "normalization" and prevention of such surgeries for non-functional reasons); and contractual matters (financial agreements between individuals who are currently inelgible to marry their partner(s), tort prevention for S&M couples).

I suppose my question would be "How would I go about pursuing this in law school?" I cannot imagine many schools having some sort of track for this pursuit and have a harder time imagining OCIs and/or interships for the field. Any schools, internships, and job opportunities that you people know of that would be conducive toward this pursuit. Thanks ahead of time!

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Sorry. I can no longer seriously discuss things. Crim law has scrambled my mind.

prezidentv8 wrote:

PlugInBaby wrote:I have an interest in pursuing a few different fields when I enter law school; one of which being "alternative lifestyles" law: advocacy for the LGBTQI, polyamorous, kink, or really any other non-mainstream pursuit of happiness for individual and/or consenting adults. I would imagine my aim at such work would involve fighting against laws, whether by design or via residual effects, that needlessly hinders the lives of those I represent; injurious institutional practices (eg. restitution for otherwise healthy intersex individuals forced to undergo mutilating genital procedures in the name of "normalization" and prevention of such surgeries for non-functional reasons); and contractual matters (financial agreements between individuals who are currently inelgible to marry their partner(s), tort prevention for S&M couples).

I suppose my question would be "How would I go about pursuing this in law school?" I cannot imagine many schools having some sort of track for this pursuit and have a harder time imagining OCIs and/or interships for the field. Any schools, internships, and job opportunities that you people know of that would be conducive toward this pursuit. Thanks ahead of time!

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Sorry. I can no longer seriously discuss things. Crim law has scrambled my mind.

Funny its a husky considering that I quite like the University of Washington.

Internships with the ACLU, the Human Rights Campaign, Planned Parenthood, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, etc. There are a myriad of these liberal public interest organizations in any given metropolitan area.

As far as classes go, look to take constitutional law classes (esp. anything involving 1st, 4th, and 14th Amendments), Advanced Torts, Human Rights Law, any kind of civil rights and liberties seminars, employment discrimination classes, etc. You get the idea.