Diversity in Law School

Nondiscrimination Policy

• Commitment of Principle Relating to Issues of Equality (PDF)

Student Organization Contact Information

• Law Students' Society
  
• LGBT law student group: Queen's OUTLaws

See also Resources for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Trans-Identified Individuals in the Kingston Area.

Faculty Contact Information

Dean William Flanagan
E-mail: w.flanagan@queensu.ca

Administrator Contact Information

No details provided.

Course Titles and/or Descriptions

• Law 516: Law and Sexuality—This interdisciplinary seminar focuses on the legal status and civil rights of lesbian women, gay men, and other sexual minorities in Canada and other countries. It includes a consideration of employment law, estate planning, property rights of lesbians and gays, domestic law relating to same-sex relationships and partnership benefits, violence against lesbians and gays, race, gender, and discrimination/constitutional law. The emphasis in the seminar is on the development of a multi- and interdisciplinary perspective on this area of study, and employs traditional research resources as well as emerging computer resources in the collection of materials.
• Gender Equality—This interdisciplinary seminar seeks to engage the challenges of developing strategies for advancing the equality of women which are responsive to the ways that systems of oppression such as racism, capitalism, ableism, heterosexism, and imperialism interact with gender oppression. From readings that analyze inequalities among different constituencies of women and that model alternatives to essentialist, exclusionary, or privileged theorizing, we will explore three related issues: how to construct genuinely egalitarian theories, practices, and coalitions; and whether and how law can or should be used to advance all women's equality. These three issues will be discussed in relation to one or more current feminist legislative or litigation initiatives.

Domestic Partnership Benefits

Same-sex benefits are available to eligible faculty members and staff at Queen's. The specific language varies across staffing groups and benefits packages.

Law students are eligible members of the Society of Graduate and Professional Students and benefits are provided through that organization upon payment of the requisite fees. For further information about benefit eligibility, please see the Society of Graduate and Professional Students website.

Additional Information

Queen's Faculty of Law welcomes applications from students in the Access Category who wish to disclose their sexual orientation as part of the basis of claim to disadvantage as per the Access Category definition.

There is an LGBT law student organization called OUTlaw which organizes primarily social events. The Equity Committee of the Law Students' Society organized Positive Space training and held office hours during the 2011–2012 academic year.

The Education Equity Office at the Faculty of Law has a mandate to advocate for students who experience discrimination on systemic grounds and to ensure a good transition and experience at law school through individual supportive counseling as required. Washroom facilities are gender based. We have not yet admitted a transgender student. The Human Rights Office at Queen's University also provides further advice, advocacy, and counseling services. We have received no complaints from LGBT students. The climate is gay-positive.

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