SLDN Interviews: Kulsoom Naqvi
Editor’s note: Today, SLDN continues its online series, “SLDN Interviews,” in which we get answers to questions from a variety of individuals on the front lines fighting for full LGBT equality in the U.S. military. This week we speak to Kulsoom Naqvi, Legal Fellow at SLDN.
What attracted you to SLDN’s legal fellowship?
In law school I had a little exposure to military law - and of course to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) - and it was something that I found very interesting, but that I didn’t have an opportunity to learn about in much depth. The SLDN fellowship gave me a chance to explore this area while at the same time engaging in direct legal services work, which I’ve always really enjoyed. On top of all that, the fellowship offered the chance to advocate for a group of people that have given so much for their country, and who’ve done so in spite of being relegated to a second class status by their government. So of course, being able to make a concrete difference in their lives was a very compelling attraction.
What part of your work has been most enjoyable so far? What else are you looking forward to?
So far, I’ve been working on applications to change discharge characterizations for service members who were kicked out of the military under DADT or the prior regulatory ban. In addition, I am helping service members understand their rights with regard to reentry into the armed forces. Going forward, I will be putting together a guide to this process so that service members with relatively uncomplicated service histories may start this process for themselves.
Describe the overall experience of working at SLDN.
The DC office is a great environment to work in. It’s small enough that you can get to know everyone pretty quickly and have a sense of what’s going on in all areas of advocacy even if you’re not involved directly with them. At the same time, it also offers some of the organizational, institutional memory, and resources which you usually only find with bigger nonprofits. So to me, it feels like the best of both worlds. The people are great, everyone is very accessible, and the environment is just very friendly and relaxed. I’m also here at a time when there’s a lot of activity on the DADT issue, so aside from everything else, it’s been really exciting to be here at this historic moment and to see these incredible changes take place from week to week.
What advice would you give other young lawyers who want to work in the nonprofit field?
I think most people who want to work in the nonprofit field probably know how to go about finding work, and what the benefits and drawbacks of the nonprofit life tend to be. There honestly aren’t a lot of surprises on that front. The one thing I would say is that in law school there’s an enormous pressure to just go the law firm route, which usually hits you hard during your second year. As a result, it tends to claim a lot of nonprofit people because law schools make it comparatively easier to head in that direction. If that’s not what you want, you need to have something there to ground you and to prevent you from being talked out of doing what you originally went to law school to do. What you rely on might be different depending on who you are, but for me, having friends with a nonprofit focus (and also just generally friends outside of law school and the legal community) really helped keep things in perspective.
08-04-11 By Paul DeMiglio, SLDN Senior Communications Manager |
Comments
Comments for this entry are closed.