KarMel
Scholarship 2007
|
“You’re Relationship is Not Recognized” By Lucas
Strelow |
Desciption of Submission: Conversation with Financial Aid and
Denial of Assistance
Financial Aid Officer: “No, I’m sorry. You are ineligible to receive financial aid consideration
when you most certainly do not meet the criteria for that category.”
Me: “I understand your legal
situation completely. I am not
requesting to be marked down as ‘married’ to my partner. We both know that under the law this is currently
impossible in my state, and almost all states for that matter. I’m asking you, instead, to reflect on my position
on a more personal level as if I was married. Please, consider my situation and reflect on
it when you look at other criteria for financial aid and scholarships.”
Financial
Aid Officer: “I cannot do that. We do
not consider your same-sex partnership as a legal union.”
Me:
“But you understand that my partner and I are committed in every fashion, yet
are not given appropriate means
to express that commitment legally through the law. Moreover, you understand that my partner will
be enrolled full-time at university concurrent with my enrollment in law
school, right?”
Financial
Aid Officer: “Yes, we are sorry”
Me:
“Furthermore, you realize that my partner is foreign, and because our
partnership is not recognized by the federal government he is not given equal
consideration in immigration law in order to have a fast-track to
citizenship. This means that he is being
presented with foreign tuition rates that are extravagant. As an Italian, he could get free education in
his country, yet he is doomed to pay easily 15-20 times more money to attend
university here in the
Financial
Aid Officer: “Sir, I already told you that we cannot do this. I’m sorry for your situation. Maybe
you should just remain apart for a few years.”
Me:
“I personally think it an injustice that we would be barred our rights to
express our commitment to one
another through marriage to begin with, and a I take
offense to the suggestion that
given such injustice you think we should have to be apart. After all, look at the pain, financial hardship,
and risk we are willing to endure to
be together. If we had access to equal
rights, we could be married, my partner Max and I could begin the citizenship
process, and we could start our lives together.
Instead, we are cast aside as an anomaly, a freak of a relationship that
is unworthy of recognition. The hurt of
such treatment even extends itself to the tens of thousands of extra dollars we
will have to pay for education. It will
be an immense strain on both of us—he working toward medical school and I in law school. I’m
sure our love will pull us through the hard times, but please help us in some
way to supersede the legal and discriminatory obstacles we face.”
Financial
Aid Officer: “Sir, I have another student to see now. Try some gay groups for assistance. Good bye”
…This
is a snapshot of an actual conversation I have had with a financial aid office
at one of the law schools to which I am applying. Similar disheartening conversations have been
had at a number of schools. All I ask is
that they consider the hardship my partner Max and I are enduring, and through
which we have to persevere, not to mention the financial difficulties that we
face. Yet, most would choose to lend a
deaf ear.
It
is precisely because of these inadequacies our legal system that I choose to
attend law school. I not only hope to
act in the law, but to have a direct impact on it as well. I am going to do whatever I can in order to
work progressively toward equal rights for gay couples around the country, and
also around the world. For I am sure
there are thousands of couples out there fighting the immigration system just
as we are, unable to rest assured that ‘alien’ in the partnership will be
afforded citizenship anytime soon. If we
were given the rights we are entitled, we could wait a couple of years until
Max received residency, apply to university, and potentially save tens of
thousands of dollars. Discrimination
takes from people’s self esteem, opportunities, freedom, and yes…their
pocketbooks.