University Sponsors Separate Graduation Ceremony for LGBTQ Students

The private Lavender Graduation Ceremony is by invite only.

On May 28, Washington and Lee University’s LGBTQ Resource Center will host a separate graduation ceremony for LGBTQ students called the Lavender Graduation Ceremony.

The Office of Inclusion and Engagement (OIE) announced the event in a March 25 email to students. The ceremony will be by invitation only, and “the only attendees will be guests that [participants] wish to have invited,” according to the announcement.

The exclusive graduation ceremony will be followed by a reception featuring “certain campus partners who have demonstrated LGBTQ+ allyship and support” as well as “certain LGBTQ+ alumni.”

The announcement billed the event as a “place where you can be your authentic self and be celebrated for your accomplishments and your identity.” 

Many universities feature Lavender Graduations. The first Lavender Graduation was hosted in 1993 at the University of Michigan by Ronni Sanlo.

According to the Human Rights Campaign, a Lavender Graduation ceremony “recognizes LGBTQ+ students of all races and ethnicities and acknowledges their leadership, success, achievements and contributions to the university as students who survived the college experience.”

Over the last few years, numerous universities faced criticism for hosting separate graduation ceremonies based on race and sexual orientation.

Conservative commentator Matt Walsh took aim at Grand Valley State University’s graduation ceremonies, claiming that the separate ceremonies are “segregated” and are effectively “singling out Asian, black, LGBT, Hispanic, and Native American graduates.”

A Grand Valley State spokesperson explained that their separate graduation ceremonies are intended to build “a culture of educational equity,” adding that for most “these more intimate celebrations are a complement to GVSU’s traditional Commencement.”

Notably, the Grand Valley State spokesperson said that Newsweek’s title “College Segregating Graduation Ceremonies by Race Sparks Anger” was factually inaccurate since “all activities are open to all students and employees.” W&L’s ceremony is open only to invited parties.

In 2021, Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) criticized Columbia University for hosting “segregated,” identity based graduation celebrations, including a Lavender Graduation Celebration, an Asian Graduation Celebration, a Black Graduation Ceremony, a Latinx Graduation Celebration, and a Native Graduation Celebration.

Columbia posted on X that these ceremonies, virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic, would be “open to every student.”

Last year, a College Fix article reported that the University of Chicago’s Black Action in Public Policy Studies, a graduate student group, would host a “graduation ceremony for all University of Chicago Black graduate students.”

When The Fix reached out to University of Chicago spokesman Gerald McSwiggan, he denied that the event was exclusionary, adding that the “group’s online materials make it clear that its events and activities are open to all who are interested.”

Unlike other universities, Washington and Lee’s University’s Lavender Graduation is not open to all students despite being organized by university staff and receiving university funding.

DePaul University Philosophy Professor Jason Hill emailed The Fix in response to the University of Chicago event. The Fix article provides an excerpt of Hill’s reply: “The role of the university is not to cultivate balkanized racial factions on campus, nor is it to foster any experience (other than a scholastic one) such as the ‘Black Experience.’”

Hill added that “universities ought not be sites for social engineering nor yielding to demands for identity expression rooted in feelings, desires and wishes which are forged in the crucibles of identity politics.”

Hill said that the goal of a university should be to equip “each student to become a rational, autonomous, and sovereign agent who can navigate the world as an independent entity.”

At the University of Texas at Austin, “cultural” graduation ceremonies were canceled after the passing of Texas Senate Bill 17. The new law — which went into effect in January — closed “DEI offices on the campuses of state-funded colleges and universities and put an end to all activities that discriminate against students based on their race, ethnicity, or gender.”

“The bill also prohibits diversity statements for job applicants at Texas universities and mandatory DEI training for any purpose,” according to Texas State Senator Brandon Creighton (R). The bill does not affect student-led organizations.

The Texas law comes as part of a larger national effort to limit the sway of collegiate diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives on hiring, staffing, and admissions.

W&L’s official 237th undergraduate commencement is scheduled for Thursday, May 30, 2024.

OIE will also be hosting a graduation ceremony for first generation college students and another ceremony to commemorate the Donning of the Stoles, formerly Donning of the Kente Celebration. The Donning of the Stoles “is designed to acknowledge the academic and personal accomplishments of graduates who have overcome barriers often faced by marginalized groups,” according to OIE. Both events appear to be open to community members. 

OIE did not respond to The Spectator’s request for comment.