Q-Seattle Events: Tacky Tourist Clubs

QLaw is a relatively new group in town, but the "GLBT Bar Association of Washington" is making its presence known.

We mentioned their apparently splashy first annual dinner a while back. It packed a heady concentration of the state's mainstream LGBT leadership into a banquet room at the Seattle Hyatt.

One of the awards presented at the banquet was to the first winner of the group's annual "QLaw Public Ineterest Summer Grant." It went to Gonzaga Law student Melissa Nystrom. QLaw explained (as only lawyers can) in a recent email to its public list that the grant

funds innovative public interest projects that benefit the lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) community and/or people living with HIV/AIDS.

The grant program helps ensure that unmet legal needs are recognized and prioritized on an on-going basis and that the next generation of legal advocates for LGBT rights develops the critical skills necessary to develop careers in the public interest.

Nystrom will work out of the LGBT Center in Seattle this summer.

Ms. Nystrom will research and prepare materials to educate LGBT and HIV-positive people about their changing legal rights.

As she described her project, "knowing the full extent of your legal rights is the first step in fighting for them." As a resident of Spokane, she is also committed to making these resources available in Eastern Washington.

A first year law student, Nystrom will be supervised and mentored on the summer project by James McGuire of Olympic Law Group. Since she will be "preparing materials", we doubt that we'll hear much more about this until long after the summer when those materials are vetted and start showing up. But it's worth mentioning since this strikes us as an admirable way for professionals out there to give time and resources to help a broader community.

And with the recent welcome legal changes in Washington, including the domestic partnership law passed this year and the statewide anti-discrimination measure passed last year, there are bound to be new legal questions for many who cannot afford to hire an attorney to answer them. Let's hope the new "materials" help out.

Labels: gay organization, Gay Seattle, Seattle