It reminds me when students protest at campuses for "triggering material" to be removed because it has the ability to hurt others

I think I'm in agreement with you on that part. The university classroom should not be a safe space for fragile egos, regardless of any legitimate trauma that person may have lived through. You shouldn't impede the learning of a whole body of students because a few can't deal with some ugly truths. The only reasonable accommodation I think I can make here is that it's fair to not expect to discuss subjects like rape in a math class.

But honestly, I'm coming around on the idea of "safe spaces" in general. To be clear, I'm not comfortable with "No Whites Allowed" discussions, but I can actually see some value in the idea of designated times/places where certain topics are just off limits, because the people there either just want to have a good time without dealing with the weighty shit, or because they're legitimately dealing with heavy shit and simply need some time to organize with like-minded people.

For example, did you ever have a conversation with a friend who disagrees with you on one particularly large topic, say Donald Trump, and both of you were just getting angry with each other, until eventually you just said "let's just have a beer and talk about Cheeto-man later?" You just set up a temporary safe space.