From campus to clinic: Meet the Nottingham students rewriting LGBTQ+ healthcare

Charlie (right) and fellow members of UoN RRAC at the team's launch event earlier this year. (Credit: Charlie Waring)

Having been involved in community organising - in one way or another - for what feels like forever,  third-year student, Charlie Waring, did not have to think long before deciding to apply to RRAC’s  activist bootcamp last summer. First suggested to Charlie by one of their colleagues at Amnesty  International UK, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to use their experience in queer and  feminist activism to set up their own grassroots collective, working to affect change on campus.  

When they returned to university in September, equipped with their newfound skills, Charlie set  about establishing a local group, committed to achieving non-heteronormative, affirming  healthcare for LGBTQ+ students - and thus, the University of Nottingham Reproductive Rights  Activist Collective (UoN RRAC) was born. 

A holistic vision of reproductive healthcare  

As Flo points out in one of our earlier blog posts, reproductive justice moves beyond legislation to  encompass a broader notion of personal bodily autonomy. Integral to this is the right to control  one’s own sexuality, gender, work, and reproduction, as well as a safe and healthy environment in  which to make these decisions. 

Dr Joe Strong is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at Queen Mary University of London, whose  research interests include reproductive health, rights, and justice. He explains: “One of the major  things that the praxis of reproductive justice requires is to think about the conditions within which  people live. Do people really have a choice, if they are making decisions simply to survive or avoid  harm?” 

Such an environment is impossible without the provision of accessible healthcare, free from bias,  regardless of race, gender or sexuality. This involves treating every patient with the respect they  deserve, using the correct pronouns and inclusive language.  

“Reproductive healthcare should be person-centred and meet the needs of an individual,”  confirms Dr Strong. “There is ample evidence that experiences of misgendering, misnaming, or  other forms of stigmatising behaviour erode trust in the health system, put people off seeking  healthcare, and undermine their right to access care with dignity and respect.”

Redressing “the gendered nature of care”  

Concerned by what they describe as “the gendered nature of care” in England, Charlie and the  rest of the team at UoN RRAC resolved to help improve the experience of queer students at the  university’s on-campus health centre. 

Adrien Horton, who heads up the group’s design team, clarifies: “We're focused more on the  language side of things and making sure that practitioners are properly addressing patients  pronouns-wise and not using inappropriate language.” 

While the care provided by Cripps Health Centre does, on the whole, tend to be satisfactory, the  team have identified several problems around the transferral of students’ chosen names and  pronouns between medical records, particularly for those who have moved from Wales to England  for university.  

Members of the group were also quick to point out the heteronormative assumptions that often  go hand in hand with reproductive healthcare. For instance, despite free condoms being handed  out on campus, dental dams, an alternative method of contraception, are not available anywhere  in the city. “It just doesn’t need to be like that,” adds Charlie. 

UoN RRAC members get creative in preparation for the team's launch event. (Credit: Charlie Waring)

Change starts with a conversation  

No stranger to the world of community-organising and activism, Charlie knew that, to make a real  difference, they would first have to listen - to the experiences of their peers, the challenges they  have encountered, and the changes they would like to see brought in to address them. They  explain: “We want to know what the issues are and what changes people want to see. If we do a  bunch of work and nobody cares, there's not much point in doing it.” 

With this in mind, the group’s first priority was to launch a LGBTQ+ listening campaign, involving  both a forum and an online survey. This gave the team a chance to ask students about their  experience of on-campus healthcare and to raise any general concerns, with their feedback later  being incorporated into a full report. 

Charlie hopes that this will provide the group with a better understanding of students’ needs and  expectations, which, in turn, will lead to improvements in the overall provision of care at Cripps  Health Centre.  

In the meantime, the group has continued to meet regularly each week, working to develop a  distinct brand identity and social media presence, complete with a shiny new set of business  cards. “Everyone has a role, so that we all know what we’re doing and no one person has to try  and do it all,” says Charlie. 

What next?  

As Charlie, and several other members of UoN RRAC, prepare to graduate, their focus has shifted  to recruiting the next cohort of change-makers, who will pick up where the rest of the group have  left off.  

Drawing on the knowledge and experience of university staff, colleagues, and peers, Charlie has  laid the groundwork for a revolution in the delivery of on-campus healthcare - why should it end  there? 

To find out more about the group, and to keep up with their work, head to their Instagram page  @rrac.nottingham.