Pride Edition 2022 | Page 36

Pronouns: she/they

Student Doctor Rachel Hampton is a third-year medical student currently rotating at Eastern Connecticut Health Network in Manchester, CT. They were elected President of the Medical Student Pride Alliance in spring of 2021. They were instrumental in bringing pronoun pins to the second-year class and organizing Transgender Awareness Week with local LGBTQI+ advocacy groups. Under their leadership, the MSPA collarborated on initiatives such as the Social Determinants of Health Month, Diversity Gala and the Legislative Advocacy Series.

HEAl Transforms Into the Medical Student Pride Alliance

One of the reasons I wanted to become president of the Health Equality Alliance (HEAl) was to start embracing my queer identity as part of my public life and as part of my profession. I was also hungry for community, and I think special interest groups are really good for meeting other people who have the same issues and interests as you do. When I was president, we wanted to make it clear that the space was explicitly for queer people, and that it was known as a queer organization. Allies are welcome, but the space itself is meant to be a safe space. I think that HEAl is a pretty name, but it doesn't explicitly explain what it does.

The e-Board discussed it and emailed the group to choose between Queer Med and Pride Alliance. I think everyone in the group was comfortable with the term queer, and several of us identify as queer. But I also think that there are still many places in the US where that term gets used to hurt people, and it may also be a generational thing. I've lived in an era where many people use it in a positive way, and have reclaimed it. I think it also speaks to the fact that a lot of categories even within the LGBTQI+ community are breaking down. That's the point of queering things. But more people identified with the term "pride" and so that's what we went with.

How do you identify?

Right now, I identify as bisexual and non-binary. I've always debated the degree to which I wanted my sexuality and gender identities to be central to my experience as a person, especially as a public figure in society. I've often kind of gone back and forth between do I want to be heavily involved in

these organizations, and a lot of it has to do with self confidence when I was in college, where my identity felt very sore and confusing. I didn't want to think about it and talk about it all the time.