Students and Alumni Share Experiences on LGBTQ+ Life at Trinity, Discuss Isolation & Progress

Helena Likus ’26

News Editor

On Oct. 22, 2025, Trinity announced that it received a 5-star rating in the Campus Pride Index for the third year in a row. Trinity is one of 29 institutions in the country who got the highest rating this year. This marks a large step forward, as in the past Trinity was more likely to rank high in lists of LGBTQ+ unfriendly universities. Sophie Prince ’18, shared with the Tripod, “During my time there, Trinity ranked #17 in the Princeton Review’s list of LGBTQ-Unfriendly colleges. The culture was bro-y, frats dominated the social landscape and students constantly cracked gay jokes without care. The college had no safeguards in place to protect queer students in campus housing. One year, roommates were randomly assigned to fill empty spots in our dorm room without any screening for LGBTQ+ safety. When we publicly protested these issues with a demonstration on campus, the administration decided that the best course of action was to give us a free bowling trip—instead of addressing the issues we presented.” Prince continued, “Despite these problems, I found solace in certain clubs on campus and received genuine support from my humanities professors. I made rich friendships that made dealing with Trinity’s culture sickness tolerable. I hear things have since changed, and I sincerely hope that’s true.” 

The Tripod spoke with the Director of LGBTQ+ Life and the Queer Resource Center Crystal Nieves ’08, M’23 about how things have changed for LGBTQ+ students at Trinity over the years. “Queer people have always been part of campus life,” Nieves said, “We actually have our first documented story about queer life that comes out of two alumni that met in the 1950s and they actually got married. They were the first couple to get married on campus for a same sex wedding. They came back to a very welcoming climate, obviously something they did not have when they were very closeted in the 1950s.” 

Nieves continued, “We kind of see this hidden world in the 1950s through to the 70s. If you wanted to find other queer people, you could go to the library, to the HQ section, where at that time, that’s where most of the books that were related to sexuality would be. There would be little messages or post-it notes hidden in some of the books, saying ‘Are you gay? Meet here at eight o’clock in the Chapel.’” So, all the way from a very hidden and invisible culture to what we have today is a complete turnaround. In the 1970s we had this explosion of students trying to fight to institutionalize support for LGBTQ+ life, and that came out of the Gay Liberation Front that students started on campus. That is when students start making demands of the college to openly support queer and trans students. Once upon a time, if you were here as a queer student, or you were found out to be gay, you would be removed from the college.” 

Nieves shared her own experience at Trinity: “I was here from 2004 to 2008 for my undergraduate years. And no kidding, you could count the number of openly gay students on one hand. I think there were four of us that were out on campus, so it just felt super isolating.” 

Emily Popov ’17 said in a conversation with the Tripod, “I did not know anyone who came out at Trinity. I know a lot of people who came to Trinity and were openly gay, and I know a lot of people who came out after Trinity. I cannot think of anyone who came out during Trinity; it definitely was not a normal thing.” Popov continued, “The concept of being out and proud was not something that was ever on my radar. My introduction to queerness was that this is a counter-cultural thing that will always be somewhat secret, even though I had queer family members who were celebrated. It is not because of any hate crime experiences, just the vibes here were off. For concrete examples, when my friend, with their girlfriend, would want to get into a frat, there would be frat boys saying, ‘you have to make out to get in.’”

The Queer Resource Center (QRC) at Trinity opened in 2005. Popov said, “I remember being at Trinity and knowing there was a Queer Resource Center, knowing about EROS, but being terrified of the idea that a frat boy or someone saw me walk there. There was something weird about the idea of having to come out at Trinity. I do not know why I felt that way.”

Nieves spoke about the process of establishing the QRC, saying,  “That space had just been won from a student fight with the administration to hold on to it for future LGBTQ life. And the students created a proposal with some faculty to actually create the idea of a Queer Resource Center, and it took a while and some outside investment from parents giving money and gifts for the college to say, ‘Okay, we should do this.’ But that took quite a while.” Nieves continued, “Once we had a center, things started to actually change for the day to day needs that students had on campus that were not being met. Things like being able to have access to gender inclusive housing, especially for first year students, having access to all gender restrooms, being able to use your pronouns on rosters.” 

Jude Altman ’26 shared with the Tripod, “I think that the environment for queer students at Trinity has really improved in my time here as more out queer students and faculty have arrived. That representation is so important, and makes me feel much happier, confident and safer as a queer student at Trinity. The Queer Resource Center and student groups like EROS and oSTEM have done a fantastic job helping queer students on campus connect and support one another as well, which is very necessary in these horrifying times.” 

Nieves shared some of the challenges related to LGBTQ+ life in Trinity. “The reality is, institutionally, we can do all the things that we know we need to be doing, but so much more work needs to be done to change that day-to-day experience—students being kind to other students, students not using slurs against LGBTQ+ people, especially at a frat party at night, not being misgendered in your classrooms—those things are still real barriers for people on campus. Another one is, thankfully, now we have a lot more openly out LGBTQ+ students, so there is a sense of community and culture here, but it is still a small population of a small school.” Nieves added, “One of the biggest challenges historically with what we see as Trinity’s formal community for LGBTQ+ life is an assumption that it is a very white space, and that it has always been that way, which is sometimes true and sometimes not. We did some really great work with QTPOC affinity group spaces, where just having a QTPOC space, where people knew it was going to be centered around queer and trans people of color experiences, we got a lot of people in the door that do not normally come to things, or they normally go to other cultural organizations.”

Ashton Rivera ’26 also spoke to the Tripod about his experience. “I think there is still a lot of segregation and division. I think that a lot of queer students stay together.” Rivera continued, “Trinity needs to get better at integrating LGBTQ+ student life into other aspects of campus that might be reluctant to incorporate that into their way of doing things. But Trinity is developing in terms of its acceptance towards queer people. I have had a very positive and supportive experience with the QRC and LGBTQ+ initiatives on campus. I would recommend anyone who wants to get involved with queer life on campus to talk to Crystal Nieves, because I found a lot of hope through the queer initiatives on campus.” 

Altman wrote, “I think that our five-star rating is reflective of the number of resources available for our queer students and the existing pathways and protocols in the administration that can help queer students. While there are certainly things about queer life on campus that need to be improved, I am very grateful for the way Trinity has supported me as a queer and trans student, from having health insurance that covers gender-affirming care, to using my preferred name in classes, to having inclusive counselors and so much more. And I cannot emphasize enough how the Queer Resource Center and its director, Crystal Nieves, has made my time at Trinity so amazing and always supported me when I needed help.”