A Shifting Perspective (HLS Clinical and Pro Bono Programs)
By Natasha Aggarwal
“There has been a last-minute withdrawal from the spring clinic, and I am reaching out to see if you would be interested in enrolling.”
I received this email from the Office of Clinical and Pro Bono Programs right before the beginning of the spring semester. I have never made a quicker decision! I immediately replied to express my interest and was fortunate to soon be enrolled as a Student Attorney in the LGBTQ+ Advocacy Clinic.
As expected, after I hit send my fears and anxiety kicked in. Was I going to be able handle working with the clinic? How will it work online? LL.M. students habitually feel like outsiders in a sea of J.D. students, and I was afraid that this was going to be another such instance. Thankfully, Professor Alex Chen only seems intimidating. He is in fact incredibly kind, helpful and a fantastic supervisor.
There is only so much you can learn in a classroom. By reading caselaw, I understood the larger issues impacting the LGBTQ+ community – same sex marriage, healthcare, and bathrooms. In other words, I had visibility on the issues that made it to court. But the classroom doesn’t offer the opportunity to explore legal issues in the everyday life of someone experiencing minority stress as a member of the LGBTQ+ community. I didn’t realize that pretty much everything has the potential to be challenging. For example, did you know that transgender elders have to be more careful while drafting their will because of the risk of being misgendered upon death? Or that it is extremely difficult to change your name on the birth certificate of your child if you transition after their birth?