Nellie Nguyen ’27 Speaks on Experience in LGBTQ+ Environments and “Pivoting Toward Inclusivity” With QRC

Nick Cimillo ’26

Managing Editor

Trinity’s Queer Resource Center (QRC) is staffed by a small group of students who work under the Director of LGBTQ+ Life and QRC Crystal Nieves ’08 M’23 to plan events for the College’s LGBTQ+ population. Among these students is Nellie Nguyen ’27, a Vietnamese-American lesbian from Chicago. Nguyen spoke with the Tripod about how LGBTQ+ spaces, those from both before and during her Trinity career, have shaped her life and outlook, as well as the work she has done and has planned for the QRC. 

In many ways, Nguyen’s life has been inspired by the city she’s from. “I grew up in an accepting environment in Chicago,” she said, “near a neighborhood called Andersonville. It’s kind of like one of those ‘gayborhoods’ in the city, and I’ve always been acquainted with queer life through there.” Beyond getting to be immersed in a queer culture ahead of her college career, her time in Chicago also informed her academic journey. “I used to be a big cyclist,” she continued, “cycling around the city and everything, and that really got me thinking about road conditions and the inequities between neighborhoods. I started reading studies relating to bike lane access and things such as transit access in various neighborhoods. That was my introduction into urban studies.”

Coming to Trinity as a Posse scholar, Nguyen is currently a double major in urban studies and public policy and law. “For public policy and law,” she continued, “I’ve also always been interested in looking at it through an electoral lens, but I’ve recently been more interested in looking at laws and legislation, especially constitutional law within the last 80 years.” Upon completing her dual degree, Nguyen has a few possibilities in mind for what comes after, ones that are well-suited for both of her fields of study. “I’m still deciding whether or not I want to go to graduate school,” she said, “[specifically] getting a master’s in urban planning to eventually become part of a public agency, whether it’s the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning or somewhere else. [I’d either do that] or become a lawyer and go into civil rights law.”

Beyond the academics, the QRC is another major site of Nguyen’s work on campus. “I’ve been working there for about two years,” she said. “At the QRC, we seek to provide a space for people from every identity, whether it’s sexual identity or gender identity. And in doing that, we plan events to create that type of environment where people can talk about their experiences, bond over common identities and have fun.  Whether that’s a lighter event like baking some cookies or, getting into something a bit deeper like group reflections on identities.” It was through this work that Nguyen faced a quandary: as much as she wanted to help out with events that were aimed at specific identities, she felt that this ran counter to the goal of making the QRC a space that is truly for everyone. “I used to do work for specific groups, such as previously planning events for women-loving-women-identifying people and helping with events with other identity groups. This year, we’re pivoting a little bit away from having events for specific groups and towards having events that are more inclusive to everyone. Our goal this year is to make sure that we cast as wide a net as possible.”

The QRC had a long series of events this LGBTQ+ History Month, a time that Nguyen was quick to call “our most packed month in the fall semester. We partnered with WGRAC (the Women and Gender Resource Action Center) in having an apple picking event, which was pretty fun. I helped staff that event along with one of my colleagues, Leon [Dell’Era ’27].” On Sunday, Oct. 26, the QRC also held its annual chalking event, which Nguyen called “a long-standing Trinity tradition; it allows people to be creative and express themselves in terms of being visible in their sexual identity, their gender identity or their allyship.” Nguyen continued, “Next month, we also plan to do our annual Transgender Day of Remembrance event. We hold it to make visible the amount of trans people who are killed every year; I believe it’s over 150 this year. We hold the event and we make sure that we have community partners available, whether it’s the Health Center or the Counseling and Wellness Center. While we make a space for trans people who have died this year, we also make sure that our community members are also feeling fine.”

In regards to her own personal experience as a lesbian woman at Trinity, Nguyen remarked, “In my experience, I haven’t felt personal or systematic discrimination as a result of my sexuality. Trinity is a welcoming community. I have many queer friends, and the QRC was a space that helped me get that in my freshman year. And although I’m not involved with them, there are other on-campus organizations such as oSTEM (Out in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and EROS (Encouraging Respect of Sexualities) that acquaint [students] with queer life. I have friends that are part of those organizations, or are on their e-boards, so I enjoy going to their events and feeling included in those spaces.”