Happy Pride Month from all of us at Medical Student Pride Alliance (MSPA at NEOMED)!
The LGBTQ+ community is an incredibly diverse demographic, encompassing a wide spectrum of gender and sexual identities within every ethnic, national, racial and religious group. Pride Month is an important recognition and celebration of LGBTQ+ people and culture. It’s a celebration of individuality and the right to exist as our most authentic selves, free of bigotry.
Throughout history, the LGBTQ+ community has faced hardships of bigotry and persecution, making this month’s celebration vital. Our community has no single face. We can suffer silently and alone, living in a world not fully ready for our brilliance. Both at the national level and at the NEOMED chapter level, MSPA seeks to build and support a community for queer trainees in the field of health care education.
Who We Are
“The Medical Student Pride Alliance (MSPA) is an activist and social organization committed to empowering sexual and gender minority medical students and allies, increasing the number of physicians trained in LGBTQ-inclusive healthcare, and addressing the unique needs of queer communities through research, advocacy, education, and service.” – MSPA National
While MSPA national was created to support our medical student peers, MSPA at NEOMED is here to support all queer people in our Colleges: graduate, medicine and pharmacy students alike. And beyond that, our alliance of straight and queer students is here for and to welcome everyone. Our goal is to build a safe and supportive community on the NEOMED campus.
"OUR MISSION:
- Unite all LGBTQ+ medical students
- Serve as a forum for discussion on LGBTQ topics in medicine
- Serve as the voice for LGBTQ+ medical students in national dialogue
- Increase collaboration among queer medical communities
- Promote recruitment of queer students into medicine
- Advocate for the rights of LGBTQ individuals in healthcare
- Educate medical students on LGBTQ health issues” – MSPA National
What We Do
Our campus organization offers students an on-site LGBTQ+ community to connect and share experiences in a safe environment. We advocate and work with several different school committees and departments to build an inclusive University.
We also offer educational seminars like the Transgender Health Workshop! Although COVID-19 prevented us from a lot of our works this past academic year, we plan on coming in strong for the 2021-22 academic year.
MSPA at NEOMED also automatically connects students with the vast network of 80+ medical school LGBTQ+ student bodies affiliated with MSPA nationally. This in turn gives access to mentorship opportunities, research collaborations, and a wider community to supplement what we may be missing on our campus. The national organization is also a wonderful opportunity for LGBTQ+ students who do not yet feel comfortable being out on campus but want to be involved, with lots of ways of participating anonymously in the incredibly supportive family that is MSPA National.
Opportunities for You
Founded in fall 2019, our NEOMED chapter was one of the first 20 medical school chapters of MSPA. Both the national and chapter organizations are young, and that means there are tons of leadership opportunities! We invite all interested medicine students to check out MSPA National’s website to apply for membership and the ever-present leadership positions that pop up as new organizational needs develop.
If students or faculty have any questions about MSPA and how to get involved, please feel free to contact Nicholas Osborne (campus liaison to MSPA National; nosborne@neomed.edu) or Parker Kelly (president of MSPA at NEOMED; pkelly1@neomed.edu).
MSPA membership/leadership applications
-Submitted by Nicholas Osborne, M.D. and M.A. Class of 2025, Ph.D. candidate
Campus liaison to MSPA National for NEOMED and associate director of recruitment for MSPA National