For 29 years, the UTSC Women and Trans Centre has been making people feel at home

When Cindy Tran started at U of T Scarborough in 2016, they weren’t sure where they fit in.

“It was a pretty stressful time,” says Tran (UTSC HBA 2020, MA 2021), who remembers classrooms of 300 students during their first year in the Conservation and Biodiversity program. Finding it challenging to meet and connect with people – especially in the heavily-male dominated Science classes they were taking – Tran found themselves taking shelter at the UTSC Women & Trans Centre (WTC).

For the first few months, says Tran, “I was just chilling there.” Then, they started to volunteer. “It was a good way to get involved and give back to that space,” they say.

Equally, it was an important space for them to feel validated — a safe space where they didn’t need to battle anyone to have their identity recognized.

It was nice to exist, and have people look at you without fear of judgments

“It was nice to exist, and have people look at you without fear of judgments,” Tran says, mentioning that Centre volunteers wear nametags that display their pronouns, so that no one has to ask – and no one has to explain a thing.

In fact, says Tran, the Women & Trans Centre helped them feel safe enough to come out.

“I think [being at the WTC] was the first time I got to use my actual pronouns. It helped me formulate my identity as being nonbinary. The UTSC Women and Trans Centre made me feel that was an actual identity, and was a part of me.”

Tran’s experience, though, is just one in an uninterrupted chain of community support that stretches back a remarkable 29 years. 

It was 1993 when five female students came together to found the Scarborough College Women’s Centre, a non-profit, student-run organization with its roots in feminism. While no records remain that can pinpoint who those women were, the legacy of their work – its tremendous impact on the UTSC community and generations of students – continues to this day.

The space was originally conceived as “a place for women on campus to connect with their own community and have a safe space to call their own,” writes Radhika Gupta, Internal Coordinator of the UTSC Women and Trans Centre. 

And while it supports individuals within its walls, the Centre also has been a driving force towards greater equity and diversity across campus. Approximately 13 years ago, the Centre changed its name to the UTSC Women and Trans Centre, redefining the space as “open to all folks who self-identify as queer, racialized, trans, non-binary, women, femmes and any and all intersections of the above identities,” says Gupta, adding, “We are committed to creating a safe, inclusive, joyful and respectful campus for folks of all identities.”

Just as it was 28 years ago, today, the WTC serves as a pipeline to support, resources, education and referrals. During their volunteering days, for instance, Tran recalls people walking in needing help. “People would come in in tears. The [coordinator] would say, ‘Hey, come into my office.’”

Not just a “space,” the Centre’s programming is prolific. According to Gupta, “Some of our most notable and popular recurring events are our writing circle series, The Monologues Showcase, and our Annual Conference. We also run an in-house publication, Margins Magazine.”

But, underscoring all those activities is the human connections that are forged in the Centre. Tran says they’re still friends with the people they met there, and importantly, those experiences helped them to find and build community post-graduation.

“Helping other people, reaching out and supporting other people, is how you find your community,” says Tran, who says they have found theirs – and now hopes the next generation finds theirs, as well.