Graduation day is an important milestone for any university student, but being able to accept his diploma in full drag made it all the more meaningful for Noah De Losa.
“Honestly, I’m feeling really proud of what I was able to do,” he told SBS News.
“And I’m really happy … and grateful that I was able to do it, how I wanted to do it.”
Dressed in pink with billowy sleeves and a tasselled bodice with a blonde wig, makeup and high heels, he hoped to represent “queerness” in professional spaces – and to show what’s possible.
Noah De Losa graduated from medical school in Melbourne dressed in drag to represent becoming a doctor and becoming himself. Credit: instagram.com/noahloades
“I wanted to sparkle,” he said.
“But I also wanted some elegance and some femininity and something really beautiful as well.”
Mr De Losa graduated from the University of Melbourne Medical School in December, a ceremony that marked the beginning of his career as a doctor and the culmination of a four-year journey towards learning to celebrate all parts of his identity.
Mr De Losa said they wanted to work in queer and trans healthcare. Credit: instagram.com/noahloades
“When I first went into medical school, I was for all intents and purposes in the closet,” he said.
“I was maybe a little bit gay, but I definitely wasn’t proud about it. I was ashamed, I had a façade, I was very masked and unhappy.”
Over those four years of study, with the support of his friends, Mr De Losa was able to grow into the “really passionately proud, fierce confident queer person” he is today.
“Medical school helped me to do that,” he said. “So, I wanted my graduation to represent becoming a medical doctor and that achievement, but also to represent my achievement in becoming myself and becoming a really proud, out queer person.”
The response from the university faculty and students has been positive and “affirming”, he said.
Professor Stephen Trumble, head of the Department of Medical Education at the University of Melbourne, said he was very pleased Mr De Losa trusted the medical school to celebrate his diversity.
“I could see the effort and sincerity that had gone into presenting himself on such a special day,” Professor Trumble said.
“Our professorial regalia looked a bit dowdy by comparison.
“Contrary to any reputation as a conservative establishment, the medical school celebrates diversity and we are delighted to have Noah as one of our graduates, proud and strong and confident.”
“That was really affirming,” Mr De Losa said. “I’m just so happy with the response I got from the medical school.”
Originally from regional Victoria, Mr De Losa moved to Melbourne at the age of 18 to pursue a bachelor’s degree in science and biomedicine. He grew up in an “insular and very conservative environment”, where any glimpses into queer identity came as a “shocking revelation” of what might be possible.
“Those representations of queerness and visibility were lighthouses that literally guided my way through really difficult times,” he said.
“Seeing it in [people] like Courtney Act and RuPaul and other media … I think that’s a really empowering way of displaying queerness currently, I think it’s beautifully important, and absolutely necessary.”
Now with a Doctor of Medicine, Mr De Losa wants to use his degree to make change in the world.
“Medicine is a beautiful way of helping humanity,” he said.
“And it is such a strong foundation for advocacy, for activism.
“I really want to do GP [general practice] and I want to get into sexual health, mental health, queer and trans healthcare. But I’m also really passionate about activism, public health policy, political development, and all of those spaces as well.”
Through being visible, successful and unapologetically himself, Mr De Losa wants to inspire others to be authentic and true to who they are.
“I want you to know you can be anything you want to be,” he said.
“Follow your heart, follow yourself and embrace all that, because it is the most important, rewarding and beautiful thing you can do.”
