Don't Ask, Don't Tell Wrap-Up

So Saturday and Wednesday were smashing successes, as far as we can tell. We had a table right near JAG at Public Interest Career Day, thanks to Cathy and Rochelle, and in the courtyard on Wednesday during lunch, thanks to Edna Sasis and the Los Angeles sunshine. Jesus looked brilliant in his sailor suit (both on Tuesday and on Wednesday—sorry about that!) and the SLDN stickers and petitions he got were a huge hit. He was the star of the show both days, in dress and in spirit, and kept everything going. As a result, there are Lift the Ban stickers on coffee mugs all over the library, and over 200 people signed the petitions. Bram put together a great poster that people signed, which added to the protest element and got people talking. The table was enthusiastically staffed all day during PICD and on Wednesday during lunch by Gina, Shayla, Ajay, Katie, Alicia, Ajay, Leslie, Victoria, Bess, Maureen, Baine, and a bunch of others who were either collecting petitions or just enjoying the great company (it was hard to tell sometimes). Gina’s boots, cover, and overall ex-military presence added to the authenticity, as did her numerous saves on military language in the email and the posters. The fliers Bess and Victoria distributed are now, as always, scattered in the lounge, but a bunch of people are talking about them, which is doesn’t always happen. So there you go—a quick and dirty wrap-up of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and the education committee at its best. In case you didn’t have a chance to bask in the glory of people’s comments on stuff all day Saturday and Wednesday, people seemed to be talking about Jag and DADT, which also doesn’t always happen. The staff of the LA Gay and Lesbian Center, NCLR, Eviction Defense and the U.S. Trustee (among a bunch of others) stopped by and complimented the table on Saturday. And, in the spirit of things that don’t always happen, the Air Force Jag officer came by on Saturday and complimented the table and told us to keep up the good work. And I think he tried to recruit a couple of people.

Critical Race Studies Annual Symposium: Race, Sexuality and the Law

Critical Race Studies Annual Symposium: Race, Sexuality and the Law

Law Firm Diversity Reception

SAVE THE DATE!

UCLA SCHOOL OF LAW'S
Third Annual
Law Firm Diversity Reception

Wednesday, March 19, 2008, 5:00-7:00 p.m.
UCLA Faculty Center

Please join us for this event. This is a great opportunity to meet diverse lawyers and recruiters from numerous law firms and learn about their experiences. This is also an excellent opportunity to begin to learn about the firms, demystify the fall interviewing process and network with future colleagues.

Please note that law firm participants have paid a sponsorship fee for their presence at this event with net proceeds going to assist the Law Fellows Program in its continuing efforts to promote diversity within the legal community.

Also, if you are interested in having your résumé made available to the participating firms, please submit a copy to Career Services by Friday, March 14th.

Thus far, the following firms have confirmed participation:

Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld
Allen Matkins Leck Gamble & Mallory
Arnold and Porter
Bingham McCutchen
Bryan Cave
Cooley Godward Kronish
Crowell & Moring
DLA Piper
Fulbright & Jaworski
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher
Greenberg Traurig
Holland & Knight
Jones Day
Kaye Scholer
Kirkland & Ellis
Latham & Watkins
Lim, Ruger & Kim
Littler Mendelson
Manatt, Phelps & Phillips
Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw
McDermott, Will & Emery
McKenna, Long & Aldridge
McGuireWoods
Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy
Mitchell, Silberberg & Knupp
Morgan, Lewis & Bockius
Morrison & Foerster
Munger, Tolles & Olson
O'Melveny & Myers
Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker
Proskauer Rose
Rutan & Tucker
Sidley Austin
Simpson, Thatcher & Bartlett
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom
Sullivan & Cromwell
White & Case
Winston & Strawn

Career Panel!

Hi folks,

We hope you can all make it to the fabulous OUTlaw career panel this Monday, February 25th at 12:15pm, in room 1420. This is a great event, where you can hear from LGBT folks about their experiences in different fields within the legal profession. And of course, free lunch!


We'd love to see a big turnout, so please RSVP to chow@law.ucla.edu if you can make it. Thanks!

--Your friendly neighborhood OUTlaw

Queer Bar Review! Akbar! February 21!

Hey everyone!

Time for a Queer Bar Review, at one of our most popular locations, Akbar in Silver Lake! This is a really fun and casual bar with strong drinks, big crowds and a friendly staff. Plus there is great dancefloor playing PJ Harvey, Spoon, metal, funk, old pop, and more seriously good music you can dance to. We'll be getting there around 9:30 because the street parking gets a little tight, but it's definitely worth it.

So that's QBR on Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008
4356 Sunset Boulevard at Fountain Avenue
Silver Lake, 90039

See you there!
Kelly, Victoria Kevin

Domestic Partner Registration Cake!

If we can't have weddings, at least we can have cake.

What's the difference between Domestic Partner Registration Cake and Wedding Cake?

You are invited to join OUTLaw today, February 14 from noon to 1:30 p.m. in the Student Lounge for Domestic Partner Registration Cake.

This March, the California Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the same-sex marriage cases. People around the state are urging the Governor to take a stand against the legal distinction between marriage for opposite-sex couples and domestic partnerships for same-sex couples. Come by the lounge today for a piece of Domestic Partner Registration Cake and more information regarding the differences between marriage and domestic partnerships. You can also send a Valentine to the Governor, encouraging him to support same-sex marriage.

Sponsored by OUTLaw, with support from UCLA Student Coalition for Marriage Equality

APILSA Speaker Series: Mia Yamamoto

Co-Sponsored by the Critical Race Studies Program, OUTLaw, BLSA, La Raza, NALSA, SALSA, and APALJ
Wednesday, February 13th, 12:15 p.m -1:30 p.m.
Room 1420
Food will be served

Previously named Criminal Defense Attorney of the Year by the Los Angeles County Bar Association and one of the 100 Most Influential Lawyers in California by the California Daily Journal, this well-known UCLA School of Law alum has tried over 150 jury trials including 2 death penalty trials.

In addition to being a star criminal defender, she has also been an influential community advocate, a Court TV commentator, winner of various lifetime achievement awards including the 2008 ABA Spirit of Excellence Award, and a mentor to many in the legal profession who have made local, and global impacts in criminal defense, human rights, and diversity. Among them is UCLA Alum Karen Tse, who created International Bridges to Justice to bring human rights to criminal defendants in China and other developing legal systems.

Ms. Yamamoto founded APILSA while at UCLA Law before her career as a poverty lawyer for the Legal Aid Foundation of Los Angeles, a Deputy Los Angeles County Public Defender, a California State Public Defender, and in private practice.

Congratulations to UCLA Law’s Sexual Orientation Moot Court Competition Team and Competition Board!

Congratulations to Kevin Minnick and Meehan Rasch, UCLA Law’s own SO Moot Court Competition team, who took home the prize for Best Brief and made it to the semi-finals!

Congratulations also to OUTLaw’s own Shawn Kravich, Executive Director, and Jordan Woods, Problem Developer, who made this year’s competition a rousing success, and reflected oh so well on our school and community.

Sexual Orientation Moot Court Competition!

http://www.law.ucla.edu/williamsinstitute/programs/FourthAnnualWilliamsInstituteMootCourtCompetition.html

One of These Recruiters is Not Like the Others

During this season of job-hunting and on-campus interviewing, OUTLaw wants to remind you that one of the recruiters interviewing today is not like the others. Unlike every other recruiter who comes on campus, the U.S. Military is exempted from following the school’s anti-discrimination policy. The US Military openly discriminates in its hiring, and more importantly, in its firing practices. Under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” gay men, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered people are allowed to and even encouraged to serve, but only in silence and always with the fear that they will be expelled if they are outed.

There are an estimated 65,000 LGBT service members on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces. They serve in every branch, are stationed at every installation. If you put them together in a unit, they would make up over half the ground troops in Iraq. They serve willingly and ably. Yet every day they face not only the threat of being killed in combat, but also the threat of being kicked out for being gay. And they are kicked out, at a rate of two a day since Congress passed Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell in 1993.

LGBT service members risk their lives in exchange for unequal treatment, unequal compensation, and the constant threat of discharge. Most don’t date, find partners, start families. If they do, their families are denied recognition and every benefit, ranging from healthcare to death benefits. Under Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell our Armed Forces are filled with soldiers who are serving in silence.

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell violates the school’s anti-discrimination policy, but in 2006 the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a federal law that denies funding to schools that refuse military recruiters access to campus.

We can’t change the UCLA policy that grants military recruiters access to the school, but we can encourage Congress to end the discriminatory ban on LGBT people in the military. Stop by OUTLaw’s table in the courtyard today from 12:00 to 2:00 p.m. and sign a petition encouraging Congress to end the ban or go to http://www.sldn.org/ to sign it today. The petitions are also available on OUTLaw’s board in the hallway.

Lambda Legal's Love Lounge

Be there. Or be enemies with Greg Furtado.

Queer Bar Review! Oil Can Harrys! January 14, 2008

QBR begins again this week, when we will be returning to the ever-popular gay line-dancing bar, Oil Can Harry's . For those of you that came out last time, you are already sold on OCH, but for the rest of you, allow me to dispel some common myths about Oil Can Harry's:

Line-dancing is lame. Not so. Gay line dancing is hot and the music is not all country.

OCH is too far. At this hour on a Thursday, it will take about the same time as getting to WeHo from the Westside.

I can't participate if I don't know how to line dance. Free lessons will get you up to speed.

If I don't want to dance, I'll be bored. Cheap beers say otherwise. Watching is fun and there's a pool table.

And, Kevin says this is the most mixed gay bar he's been to in LA! See you there!

Oil Can Harry's
11502 Ventura Blvd.
Studio City, CA 91604
(818) 760-9749
Lessons start at 7:45
Otherwise, 9:30
http://www.oilcanharrysla.com/

Yours truly,
social committee

Spring Meeting Announcement

Spring Meeting Announcement

Hello OUTlaw members!

Come to our fabulous spring meeting this Monday, January 14th, at 12:15pm in room 1447. We'll be talking about upcoming activities and events, determining the positions OUTlaw will take on various issues relevant to the LGBT community, and discussing ways for everyone to get involved. And also, we'll feed you! Who could ask for more?

Can't wait to see you all there!

--Your friendly neighborhood OUTlaw

Welcome back from the social committee

Greetings OUTLaw! Welcome back to school after what we hope was a restful winter hiatus. Now that we're all back, the social committee would like to make you all aware of an opportunity to socialize before your classes heat up and while you still have the loan money to go out. Could the timing be more perfect?!

January 11, 9:00pm. LGBT Grad Mixer! Come meet queer Anderson business students and maybe even a few grads from the broader UCLA community at The Abbey. Don't despair women! The Abbey is just the beginning: say hi to the male-types for a minute before rocking your way over to Truckstop right next door at the Here Lounge.

Also, don't forget to save the third Thursday of each and every month for the fan-freaking-tastic Queer Bar Review (but all the kids call it QBR these days...do try to keep up). We are now accepting suggestions for a location.

Yours in Disrupting the Patriarchy,
OUTLaw Social Committee

Finals Haiku

1.
Winter never comes
Snow will never grace the ground
Damn I love L.A.


2.
Warm most of the year
flip-flops twenty-four seven
in Los Angeles


3.
Four years college here
three more years for law
would like nothing more


4.
I drive a car now
Money goes in my gas tank
And the sky is grey


5.
UCLA! YAY!
I came here for all the gays
All the hot, smart, gays.


6.
Candy in my box
People jealous, asking why
Wishing they were gay.


7.
Napping on green couch.
Hoodies can be blankets too.
Mouse click lullaby.


8.
"So, for the final..."
Solitaire games disappear.
"...eat and sleep." Oh. Great.


9.
A smoggy morning
"nobody walks in L.A."
I whistle, and walk.


10.
Going out downtown
I realize it is really
like the L Word here

LGLA Dinner Wrap-Up and Congrats to OUTLaw Members

Congrats!

LGLA Annual Dinner!

Hey folks.

Every year the Lesbian and Gay Lawyers of Los Angeles (LGLA) has a fancy shmancy dinner (at the FABULOUS Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel) celebrating another year of queer lawyering (wait...that didn't sound right) in the City of Angels. It's a good place to make some connections and talk to real life LA attorneys as well as getting some good food in your belly and some good drinks down your throat.

Normally it's fifty bucks for law students to attend, but if you're interested in volunteering (doing things like checking people in, handing out name badges, etc.) and getting in FOR FREE, let me know. I'll send a list to the LGLA brass and get you on the list.

And Mr. Sulu will be there!

MARK YOUR CALENDAR AND SAVE THE DATE!

The Lesbian and Gay Lawyers Association of Los Angeles
Invites you to
"TOGETHER WE STAND"
Celebrating Our Unity and Defining Our Strength
2007 LGLA Annual Dinner and Awards
Friday, November 9, 2007, at 6:30 PM
Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel
7000 Hollywood Boulevard , Hollywood, California 90028

** COCKTAIL ATTIRE **

Don't Miss It!

National Coming Out Day

and we all came out. it was lovely. we wore ribbons.

1L Potluck

Hi All,

The 1Ls are having a potluck this Friday (28th). Sorry for the late notice. It's only for 1Ls (sorry to be exclusive). Its going to be in Westwood, location TBA. It's at 7pm-ish. Its really low-energy vis a vis bar hopping/clubbin. It’s a way to meet other lgb/t? folk outside the class context. There's already 13 confirmed guests, but we suspect Dean Schwartz upped the numbers from last year, so we're trying to get the entire 19 OUT 1Ls we collectively know and any other homos that might be lurking out there. All lgbt 1Ls that are interested, please contact jctrang@gmail.com or message him on facebook etc.

thanks!
john c trang


THANKS!

Queer Bar Review! Eleven! September 27!

Hi Everyone,
Outlaw would like to extend an official welcome to the first monthly Queer Bar Review of 2007--think, a fun alternative to the sweaty heterosexual mating rituals of traditional Bar Review!

Place:
Eleven, at 8811 Santa Monica Blvd
West Hollywood, CA 90069
(310) 855-0800

Time:
Thurs, Sept 27, 2007, at whatever hour you choose to begin to party! (the social chairs will attempt to arrive in a timely manner, contact perigoe2009@lawnet.ucla.edu, don2009@lawnet.ucla.edu, minnick2008@lawnet.ucla.edu for any more questions!)

For interested parties--East/West is having a girls-who-like-girls night just across the street. Something for everyone, people, something for everyone.

See you there!
Victoria, Kelly, Kevin.

UCLA Law LGBT Open House

Join us for dinner and to learn about:

The Williams Institute
The Dukeminier Awards Best Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Law Review Articles
The Sexual Orientation Law Moot Court Competition
OUTLaw

Thursday, September 20th
5:30 – 7:00 p.m.
UCLA Law, Room 1430

Please join us for an informational Open House on Thursday, September 20, 2007 to learn about LGBT-related courses and activities at UCLA Law. This is an opportunity to meet faculty and staff associated with the Williams Institute and to learn about student groups focused on sexual orientation issues. During the meeting, the staff of The Dukeminier Awards journal will review their process for volunteer readers.

Doors open at 5:30 p.m. The program will begin at 5:45 p.m.

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Spraypainting Extravaganza!

What: spraypainting toy soldiers in rainbow colors

Why: to raise awareness of the military's open discrimination during on-campus recruiting

When: tomorrow, Saturday 9/15, at 2pm

Where: Shayla's place (it has a porch!), 679 Levering Ave in Westwood

Who: anyone who enjoys hanging out in the sunshine (on the porch!) with queer and queer-friendly folk

If you think spraypaint is fun and discrimination is not, come join us!

Have questions or need directions?

OUTLaw Movie Night! Small Town Gay Bar!

This Friday, [Ryan] will be hosting a movie night at my place in Venice. For those of you who haven't been to my place to watch a movie, I share a spacious two-story, four-bedroom loft apartment and we project movies on one of the two-story walls in the living room.

We will be screening "Small Town Gay Bar," an award-winning documentary exploring the lives of queer bars past and present in northern Mississippi. It was executive produced by Kevin Smith of "Clerks" and "Chasing Amy" fame. Here's the first paragraph of the Onion's A.V. Club review of "Small Town Gay Bar":

Malcolm Ingram's Small Town Gay Bar is the documentary equivalent of a Xeroxed, stapled 'zine: Its homemade scruffiness provides much of the charm. In the best punk tradition, it's all about self-expression and passion rather than slickness. Kevin Smith produced this Sundance sleeper, which takes a bemused, affectionate look at the small-town Southern gay bars that serve as life-affirming oases of queer-friendliness in a vast sea of intolerance. Homosexuality went mainstream ages ago, but countless burgs in the Deep South lag decades behind the curve. For blue-collar gays in shapeless jeans and faded sweatshirts, these bars function as much more than places to meet friends, drink beer, and scope out potential lovers; they're life preservers for Southern gays drowning in the Bible belt's small-mindedness and backward sexual politics.

If nothing else, it's a pleasant reminder to the cynical LA queers among us that the fight is far from over in much of the country.

Showtime is 8:30...bring an adult beverage to share if you'd like. We’'ll have some movie-type snacks. We'll probably stick around for cocktails after (and during) the show or else saunter down to the West Side's neighborhood queer (read: gay, as in not many women...sorry...) bar, Roosterfish, which is just a couple blocks away.

Ryan Dunn
UCLA OUTlaw Co-Chair

Lavender Law!

This year, thanks to sponsorship from UCLA Law, Kirkland and Ellis, and the Williams Institute, we sent ten students to the annual Lavender Law Conference in Chicago, Illinois, hosted by the National Lesbian and Gay Law Association.

Queer Bar Review! Oil Can Harrys! October 18, 2007

Dear OUTLaw,

It seems a dark and dreary pallor has descended on Southern California. As I left my apartment Monday morning, feeling sprinkling rain and the ravages of sub-65-degree temperatures (aka "shorts weather" in the East), all the while cursing myself for not wearing a scarf and gloves ("for sissies," my brother would say), I thought: this town needs a pick-me-up.

That pick-me-up dawned on me as though by Divine intervention. Of course you know I'm speaking of Divine, the late star of John Waters films, may she rest in fabulous peace--not that other kind of intervention. But I digress. I managed to gird myself against the grayness of the morningby keeping one thought in mind.

This Thursday, the third Thursday of the month, is Queer Bar Review.

Our chance to bring a little rainbow-flavored sunshine to this otherwise bleak October week. But not just any queer barwill do. No, for grayness and foul weather this bad, in contrast to so many uninterrupted weeks of meteorological splendor, we need to pull out all thestops. The Abbey? Please. 11? Amateur hour. We're going to the valley, my friends.

Oil Can Harry's hosts LA's only gay and lesbian country line dancing extravaganza each and every Thursday. One need not dance to enjoy the fun. Just sit back, sip a beer, and watch the spectacle unfold, because you haven't lived until you've seen out-of-work actors do the grapevine to Madonna shit from the 80s. Those arriving before 9pm will have the opportunity to participate in a free line dancing lesson. I assure a good time, even for those of us who don't know a mambo step froma Monterey turn.

What: Queer Bar Review
When: Thursday, October 18, any time after 9pm (but if you want lessons you should get there at 7:45)
Where: Oil Can Harry's, http://www.oilcanharrysla.com/, 11502 Ventura Blvd, Studio City, CA 91604.
How much: I think the cover is $5


Thanks,

Kevin/Victoria/Kelly

Fall 2007 Meeting! September 12, 2007!

Meeting Announcement:

Come join OUTlaw for our first meeting of the semester! We will be talking about this year's exciting events and the committees that make it all happen. If you want to get involved, or just want to know what's in the works, now's your chance.

We will meet next Wednesday, September 12th at 4:15pm in room 1447. All are welcome. See you there!

Meeting Recap:

Hello OUTlaw folks!

Here's a brief recap of today's meeting, in case you missed it or forgot aspects of it in the midst of your memo/OCIP/etc stress. If you have any questions about the meeting, or if there's anything else you'd like to talk about, please reply to this email or stop by the OUTlaw office in Room 2404 between 10am and noon this Friday.

Admissions Committee : Abbi described the great work the Admissions Committee does in contacting prospective students to tell them how wonderful it is to be queer at UCLA Law, and helping to welcome admitted students in the spring. If you're interested in helping out with recruiting, as Abbi likes to call it, email Abbi at coursolle2008@lawnet.ucla.edu.

Academic/Career Committee: Shayla talked about all of the wonderful resources and events organized by the Academic/Career Committee, including the employer list that went out earlier this fall, the Don't Ask/Don't Tell viral marketing/teaser campaign next week, and the Queer Career Panel in the spring. If you want to get involved, email Shayla at myers2008@lawnet.ucla.edu.

Social Committee: Kevin, Kelly, and Victoria told us about all of the fun they've been planning for us, including Queer Bar Review on 9/27 and a queer movie night at Ryan's palatial apartment in October. If coming up with fun ideas and helping to make the fun happen sounds like fun, email Kevin at minnick2008@lawnet.ucla.edu, Kelly at perigoe2009@lawnet.ucla.edu, or Victoria at don2009@lawnet.ucla.edu.

Tech/Community: Jordan filled us all in on the community-building efforts he's been working on, including the OUTlaw facebook group, the queer mentoring program, and an email listserv for social events (coming soon). If you're interested in helping out or learning more, email Jordan at woods2009@lawnet.ucla.edu.

Outline Bank: Lisa maintains the OUTlaw outline database. Thanks Lisa! More information about this will come later in the semester.

Upcoming Events
9/14: OUTlaw office hours, Room 2404, 10am - noon.
9/17-18: awareness-raising campaign about JAG's open discrimination during on-campus recruiting.
9/20: Blood Drive petition to protest the government's discriminatory and unsound donation standards.
9/20: Williams Institute Open House.
10/11: National Coming-Out Day.

Open Discussion

Greg's mentor is looking for volunteers for an upcoming Lambda Legal fundraising event. Contact furtado2009@lawnet.ucla.edu if interested.

Meehan is running for the PILF trivia challenge. Vote for Meehan!

The Lesbian and Gay Lawyers Association (LGLA) puts on some great events and is an excellent networking resource. They also put on a queer job fair this fall. To join, go to http://www.lgla.net/ .

And last but not least, this past weekend our own Ryan Dunn was elected to be co-chair of the National LGLA Student Division -- the first time (we think) a UCLA student has been elected. Congratulations Ryan!

Mentorship Program

This is a new program that we're starting this year, pairing interested 1Ls and transfers with a 2L or 3L mentor. The program will give new students the opportunity to get to know a not-so-new student, ask for advice (academic or social), and break away from their section now and then.

If you're interested in being a mentor or a mentee, please email Jordan at jordan.blair.woods@gmail.com.

OUTLaw Fall Barbeque

Hi folks! Hope you're enjoying the last Friday of the summer.

For all of the awesome folks who signed up at orientation yesterday--welcome! It looks like UCLAW did another fantastic job of recruting a great group of queers and allies, and we're all looking forwad to getting to know you next week at the

OUTLaw Fall BBQ!

Each fall, we kick off our year and welcome our incoming students with a BBQ for all LGBT law students, significant others, and allies. Come join us!

What: Tasty food and getting to know your fellow out law students
When: Friday, August 24, 6 p.m. – 8 p.m.
Where: West Hollywood Park—San Vicente Blvd, between Melrose and Santa Monica. Parking: There is a lot on the west side of San Vicente, just south of the park itself.