Upcoming Events

OUT in the City for Admit Weekend

Stanford OUTLAW will take its new admits out on Saturday night, April 8th. We hope to show the admits that law school isn't all work and no fun, and to expose them to the lively Castro district in San Franciso. We look forward to meeting up with new admits from

OUTLAW Semester Kick-Off in the Castro, Co-Sponsored with LGBT-Meds

DANCING and FUN! Come out to party in the Castro with other Stanford LGBT Grad Students. Now that finals are over, you have no excuse!

Date: Saturday, January, 4th
Time: Meet at 9pm in the Medical Center Parking Lot (Near Fairchild Auditorium)
Place: Medical Center Parking Lot (Near Fairchild Auditorium)

If you have any questions, contact Michael (559-972-6262) or Spencer (415-609-6961) or Mitchell Lunn (lunn@stanford.edu). If you want to meet us out in SF, give one of us a call!

Dinner Party and Night OUT in SF, Co-Sponsored with Santa Clara

Come up to San Francisco for great food, fabulous company, and free drinks. Mingle with students of Santa Clara BGLaD and get ready for a great night out. We will all go out afterward. Come even if you can't go out! Or if you can't make the dinner, call to meet up!

Date: Friday, January 10th
Time: 8:00pm - ???
Place: 4000 23rd Street (Northwest Corner at Noe Street in Noe Valley)
San Francisco, CA 94114
(directions)

If you have any questions, contact Michael (mangelo@stanford.edu) or Spencer (skjones1@stanford.edu).

Stanford Law Diversity Valentine's Day Party

Celebrate Valentine's Day with your fellow law students. Whether you have a Valentine or not, you can have a lot of fun with free snacks and alcohol--the latter will help you forget that you don't have a Valentine. This event is co-sponsored by all the diversity groups at the Law School.

Time: 9pm - ???
Date: Saturday, February 11th
Place: Graduate Community Center

Stanford Pride Intercollegiate Mixer

Come mingle with LGBT alumni from various colleges throughout the country.

Time: 7pm - 9pm
Date: Wednesday, February 15th
Place: Levende Lounge in SF

Call to Duty Tour

The Call To Duty Tour is a platform for renewed debate on the merits of the “Don’t Ask, Don't Tell” policy. It will feature the largely unheard voices of young service members who embody the reality of “Don’t Ask, Don't Tell” in today’s armed forces and highlight the policy’s impact on the nation's security.

The Call to Duty Tour was conceived as a way to expose mainstream Americans to a representative sample of the ordinary gay service members who are largely forgotten amid the politics surrounding the DADT law. These patriotic men and women would rather be serving their country as soldiers, sailors, coastguardsmen, airmen and marines than focusing on activism. However, the veterans on the Call To Duty Tour, both gay and straight, feel that gay men and women are too often misrepresented in the media and in society at large. Most importantly, their experiences while serving in today’s military largely contradict the presumptions underlying the DADT policy - presumptions which are now nearly 15 years old. While many have tried to quietly serve their country with pride and dignity, they have nevertheless experienced first hand the manner in which DADT prevents them from doing so and needlessly denies critical talent to our nation’s military. Their voices need to be heard. Their stories need to be told. It is their real-world experiences that matter most in the debate about the merits of DADT.

Time: TBA
Date: Wednesday, April 5th
Place: Stanford Law School, Room TBA

FOIA Request to Pentagon with SLDN

Stanford OUTLAW files Freedom of Information Act Request with Pentagon

A Freedom of Information Act Request was filed January 5th, by the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network and on behalf of Stanford OUTLAW and other LGBT advocacy organizations. The request was filed with the Counterintelligence Field Activity at the Department of Defense regarding the Pentagon's domestic surveillance program. As part of the program, the Pentagon has reportedly spied on student groups that have protested the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy (http://www.sldn.org/templates/press/record.html?record=2563), including a protest by NYU OUTlaw.

Stanford OUTLAW is concerned by such activity not only on the legal grounds of a warrantless domestic surveillance of citizens and activist groups, but also by the homophobic inference by such a surveillance program that labels a gay kiss-in as a "credible threat" of terrorism.

Click the link to see the FOIA Request: http://www.sldn.org/templates/press/record.html?section=2&record=2605

Solomon Amendment Case

Solomon Case Argued Before the Supreme Court

The Supreme Court heard oral argument in Rumsfeld v. FAIR on December 6th. Search C-Span to listen to the argument by clicking on this link: http://www.c-span.org/homepage.asp

Stanfod OUTLAW Protests "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" and the Solomon Amendment

Stanford OUTLAW organized a protest on October 3rd in opposition to Navy JAG presence at the Law School during recruiting season. OUTLAW opposes both the military's discriminatory policy that disallows gays, lesbians, and bisexuals from serving in the armed forces openly. OUTLAW also opposes the Solomon Amendment and the requirement it imposes on law schools to provide equal access to the military despite being in violation of the law schools' non-discrimination policies.

Amicus Brief

Below is a link to the LGBT Law Student Amicus Brief filed on behalf of FAIR in the case challenging the Solomon Amendment. By a member vote, SLS OUTLAW decided to sign onto the brief, and proudly a number of Stanford OUTLAW members helped research the brief.

In addition to OUTLAW, nearly 40 LGBT law student groups (e.g. Harvard Lambda, UChicago Outlaw, and NYU OutLaw) joined the brief, along with various state bar associations, the NLGLA and the NGLTF. Stanford OUTLAW thanks Jon Hafetz at Gibbons, Del Deo in New York for the brief's ultimate drafting.

Updates on the case and filings by other parties can be accessed at http://www.solomonresponse.org/. If you have further questions, you can contact one of us or Kara Suffredini who is Chair of the NLGLA at ksuffredini@TheTaskForce.org.

Click on this link to read the brief: Solomon Amendment Amicus Brief

Lavender Law Conference

Thursday, October 27 thru Saturday, October 29:

Every year, the sharpest legal minds in the LGBT community gather at Lavender Law, the annual conference of the National Lesbian and Gay Law Association (NLGLA) and the National Lesbian and Gay Law Foundation (NLGLF). This year will be no different as hundreds of practicing attorneys, law professors, and law students are expected to attend the conference this year in San Diego, California.

The country's leading lawyers ans scholars will instruct participants on practical litigation skills, sodomy law developments, will drafting and estate planning, employment discrimination, workplace diversity, domestic violence, transgender issues, career development, LGBT in academia, civil rights, HIV and AIDS, immigration law, the military, legislation updates, family law, LGBT youth and much more!

Speakers will include representatives from important LGBT groups such as National Center for Lesbian Rights, the Task Force, Human Rights Campaign, Lambda Legal and Servicemembers Legal Defense Network.

KEYNOTE ADDRESS:
James C. Hormell will provide the event's keynot address. Ambassador Hormel is the founder and Chairman of equidex, Inc., a San Francisco-based firm that manages his and his family's investments and philanthropic activities. He is an alumnus of Swarthmore College. He received his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School, where he subsequently was Assistant Dean and Dean of Students. Hormel served as United States Ambassador to Luxembourg from June 1999 to December 2000 and was the first "out" member of our community to be appointed Ambassador of the United States.

For more information, please go to www.LavenderLaw.org.

Other Past Events (2005-2006)

LGBT Grad Student Welcome BBQ

Please come to QUEST's annual BBQ to welcome back the LGBT graduate students of Stanford. The BBQ will be at Gibbon's Grove. Food and Drinks will be provided free for everyone. There will be meat and veggie options as well as alcohol and non-alcoholic beverages. This is a great opportunity for Faculty and Staff to make connections with our dynamic graduate student population and to learn what their organizations are accomplishing here at Stanford. LGBT Graduate Student groups include OutLaw (Law School), LGBTMeds (Medical School), Out4Biz (GSB), SQUEAS (Engineering), and Gradnet (Graduate Listserv).

Thursday October 6, 2005, 5:30-7:30pm

Gibbons Grove, at the Corner of Lomita and Santa Teresa, between the Firetruck House and Roble Gym

OUTLAW especially thanks Daniel Roddick, Financial Aid Officer at the GSB, for organizing this event. Make sure to tell him thank you!

Check out QUEST's website: http://www.stanford.edu/group/quest/

Welcome Dinner
Friday, September 16: OUTLAW's first official event! Come meet your fellow LGBT students and straight allies at SLS, and enjoy a free dinner and have some drinks. Afterward we will have a club outing. Friends and significant others are always welcome.

• Time: 7pm (A group will meet at 6:45 at the law school Falcon to head over)
• Place: 2349 Cornell Street, Palo Alto, CA (Map and Directions)

BALiF Law Student / Attorney Mixer
Thursday, September 22: Bay Area Lawyers for Individual Freedom (BALiF) hosts its annual law student and attorney mixer. This year it is being co-hosted by the GLBT Historical Society. Come mingle and enjoy the company of LGBT law student peers and attorneys in the bay area. This event is catered, so please RSVP via e-mail to Sepi Ghafouri at younglawyersandstudents@balif.org.

• Time: 6 to 8pm (A group will meet at the law school to carpool up)
• Place: The GLBT Historical Society Main Gallery, 657 Mission Street #300, San Francisco, CA 94105 (Map and Directions)

OUTLAW Members Attend BALiF Dinner

Wednesday, March 11th: OUTLAW members attended the 25th annual BALiF dinner in San Francisco, where former Stanford Law School dean Kathleen Sullivan was the keynote speaker. OUTLAW thanks Stanford Prof. George Fisher for sponsoring our group for the event.

Kathleen Sullivan with OUTLAW members

Past Events (2004-05)

Evan Wolfson vs. Lou Sheldon Debate on Marriage Equality
Wednesday, April 20th: A rare debate between leading figures on both sides of marriage equality: Evan Wolfson and Lou Sheldon. Evan Wolfson is founder of Freedom to Marry. Rev. Lou Sheldon is founder of Traditional Values Coalition. This event was sponsored by American Constitution Society, Federalist Society, Stanford LGBT-CRC and OUTLAW. Angie Coiro, host of KQED's Friday Forum radio show, was the moderator.

Media coverage:
Gay marriage debate heats up - Stanford Daily
Conservative, Gay Rights Leader Debate Same-Sex Marriages At Stanford - KTVU
Conservative, gay rights leader debate same-sex marriages - Dateline Alabama

OUTLAW thanks Rhett Millsaps and Danielle Goldstein for organizing the event.

Thursday, April 7th: Stanford OUTLAW presents a talk and Q&A on Gay Rights in the Supreme Court, with Joyce Murdoch and Deb Price, authors of the groundbreaking book Courting Justice: Gay Men and Lesbians v. the Supreme Court. Topics will include history of Supreme Court decisions dealing with gay issues, and what to expect in the future.

• When: Thursday, April 7th, 4:30pm-6:00pm
• Where: Stanford Law School, Room 280B

Thursday, April 7th: Karaoke night! Stanford OUTLAW and Santa Clara BGLAd present a multi-school social.

• When: Thursday, April 7th, 8:30pm-11:00pm
• Where: King of Clubs, 893 Leong Drive, Mountain View

Thursday, April 21st: Pool night! Stanford OUTLAW and SQUEAS (Stanford Queer Engineers and Scientists) members mix it up.

• When: Thursday, April 21st, 8:00pm-10:00pm
• Where: California Billiard Club, 881 E El Camino Real, Mountain View

Tuesday, April 26th: New officers! Current Stanford OUTLAW co-presidents Alex Han (SLS '06) and Daniel Jeffrey Shih (SLS '06) are stepping down. The new co-presidents are Spencer Jones (SLS '07) and Michael Angelo (SLS '07).