The View From LL2

Over at Washington City Paper, the Sexist features a feisty variant of the law school application personal statement.  I imagine that law school admissions officers read a million “I want to help the poor” essays, with just a few “I love Law and Order” stories thrown in.  One potential law school student took a much different approach, and provided a very colorful answer to the simple request, “Tell us something about yourself.”

To come out fully, in my case, requires three separate disclosures, each as potentially confusing and alienating as the last. I share them now for reasons that are political as well as personal: I am pansexual. When I say this I mean that I seek physical and emotional partnerships with people of all genders, including men, women, and transgender individuals. I am polyamorous. By this I mean that I see monogamy as one among many stable ways in which people are capable of forming romantic and familial bonds. I mean also that I find joy in my partners’ joy, including when that joy comes through companions and lovers other than myself. Lastly, I am a member of the BDSM community. When I say this I mean that I find fulfillment in consensual relationships and sensations that are not always soft and fuzzy, but can indeed be painful and challenging. Taken together, these three facts mean that I have found love and fulfillment in a wide spectrum of relationships and with a variety of people, and that this diversity of partners figures importantly into my identity.

Quite enlightening.  And it paid off with an acceptance to UC Berkeley Boalt School of Law.

-Michael