QRC Hosts Open House To Celebrate LGBTQ+ Center Awareness Day

Sajja Ranjit ’29 & Addison Winship ’29

Staff Writers

On Tuesday, Oct. 21, the Queer Resource Center (QRC) hosted an open house from 12:15 – 2 p.m. to celebrate National LGBTQ+ Center Awareness Day. Eleven students attended, welcomed by colorful decorations, trays of sandwiches, games and music. Conversations surrounded topics involving “sexuality, coming out with increasingly complex understandings of self, attraction, desire and…what the heck happened to romance?” according to Director of the QRC and LGBTQ+ Life Crystal Nieves. Since its founding in 2005, the Queer Resource Center has become an established part of campus life at Trinity. The open house served as both a social event and an introduction to the center’s services for students who have not been there before.  

A senior student at the open house explained how an individual can benefit from the Queer Resource Center, stating, “I think the Queer Resource Center is really helpful because it provides a breadth of different resources, really. Our events are both educational but also here for joy and for fun, so we try to cover a wide breadth of discussing what people need.” 

For nearly two decades, the QRC has provided programs, partnerships, and events focused on student engagement and support. The center connects students to on-campus resources such as Encouraging Respect of Sexualities (EROS) and the Counseling and Wellness Center, as well as off-campus organizations including Hartford HealthCare’s Center for Gender Health and Circle Care in Glastonbury.

The same student shared how the Queer Resource Center has contributed to their experience on campus, explaining “It’s made it really wonderful. I started working here my sophomore year. I think without this program or this resource it would just be really difficult to make more queer connections on campus.” 

Nieves provided more information to the Tripod on the meaning behind the day the open house intended to celebrate, stating, “We normally do a mixer or welcome back open house at the beginning of the year, but this year, nationally, all of the centers at different schools are trying to really promote LGBTQ+ Center Awareness Day and celebrate the place for connections and culture and campus education around LGBTQ+ stuff that our centers provide, recognizing that a lot of the centers around the country are actually being shut down and closed right now.”

According to the Postsecondary National Policy Institute, there are about 250 professionally staffed LGBTQ+ centers across nearly 4,000 colleges and universities in the United States. A USA Today report notes that some of these centers have closed in recent years due to changes in funding or institutional priorities. In this context, Trinity’s QRC remains part of a smaller number of colleges that maintain dedicated, professionally staffed LGBTQ+ resource centers.

National LGBTQ+ Center Awareness Day, observed annually on Oct. 19 during LGBTQ+ History Month, highlights the contributions of the LGBTQ+ resource centers in college campuses and communities nationwide. The day emphasizes the educational and community-building roles these centers play and brings awareness to the challenges they face.

Nieves also shared how the QRC fits into campus life at Trinity: “We provide a home for students that need that kind of LGBTQ community. We’re fortunate, we’re still well supported by the college and, you know, students on campus are really open to the QRC.”