LGBT in the Heartland: Planning for the Future Through Clinics, Externships and Interdisciplinary Partnerships

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The legal needs of lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender (LGBT) persons and groups continue to evolve, even as issues affecting the LGBT community take center stage around the country. The presenters, along with their students, have embarked on a variety of clinical projects addressing these issues. In this session they will discuss how clinical teachers can work with an array of groups outside the law school to develop LGBT-related opportunities for students that potentially cut across many different fields of practice.  These initiatives may pose particular challenges in states and regions where political or cultural acceptance of equality lags. The session will also examine differences among diverse clinical pedagogies for in-house clinics, externships, and partnerships and the benefits of each in preparing students for practice in a world where these issues are increasingly urgent. After a short opening dialogue between the presenters recounting their work across institutions to these clinical opportunities, a video will illuminate the range of existing LGBT-oriented projects before participants consider the series of provocative questions and hypotheticals, encouraging us to fine-tune traditional clinical structures to serve the rights and needs of LGBT individuals.