Interview with Rachel Hampton, COM '24
Now I think that because I'm a little bit older, I feel a bit more comfortable putting myself in a situation where I have to explain myself. It's not fun, but I also feel like I have the capacity to do it now, and I also feel like somebody should do it, so then I do it. It still causes anxiety, because maybe professionally this is a very bad idea. I don't think that's true, because whatever doors it closes for me, others will open. But there are consequences for choosing to make your identity a central part of your life that you are pushing and making visible for other people. You have to weigh for yourself whether those consequences are worth it.
What does non-binary mean to you?
Essentially, what it means to me, and you'd get a different answer from every non-binary person, is that I do not personally strongly identify as a man or a woman. I don't mind being called feminine pronouns, but I would prefer non-binary pronouns, which for me are "they" but for other people, there are lots of different kinds. I just think that I prefer to be able to play with my gender expression and how I think about myself. I think that there are parts of my identity that I think of as masculine. To me, gender identity is such a personal thing, it's so hard to talk about out loud. I think at the end of the day, I don't identify strongly as a man or a woman. I would rather not be within that structure, so I decided not to, and have stepped outside of the boundaries of both of those things. When I think about myself, not just in terms of my expression, because you can have all kinds of gender expression and still identify within the binary, I just find myself feeling confined by the idea that I have to be one or the other. I find it increasingly unpleasant, in some ways, to be seen as a woman by people, which is complex, and personal. I think whenever you say that in order to be a certain way, you have to fulfill these criteria, you are invalidating people.
MSPA e-Board at the C&O Transition Dinner. L-R: Rachel Shoemaker (Treasurer), Rachel Hampton (President) and Andrew Hoy (VP).
MSPA (with Dt. Thieme) at the Bloody Bakery of Justice which educated students about the FDA ban on blood donation by gay and bisexual men