{"id":197625,"date":"2023-04-18T07:31:39","date_gmt":"2023-04-18T11:31:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=197625"},"modified":"2023-06-27T12:56:57","modified_gmt":"2023-06-27T16:56:57","slug":"lavender-graduation-marks-students-accomplishments-perseverance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2023\/04\/lavender-graduation-marks-students-accomplishments-perseverance\/","title":{"rendered":"Lavender Graduation Marks Students\u2019 Accomplishments, Perseverance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kallan Doyon \u201923 (CLAS) said that without the support of the Rainbow Center<\/a> over the last four years, she still may not have come out to her family and likely wouldn\u2019t have had her parents and grandparents in the audience to witness her Lavender Graduation.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really helped me find who I am and become more confident,\u201d Doyon said Friday of the LGBTQ+ resource center.<\/p>\n

\"Countdown<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a place where Makayla Dawkins \u201923 (CLAS) said she found most, if not all, of her UConn friends and where she developed a desire to fight for social justice, like reviving the gender-affirming closet that offers clothing for those who can\u2019t or aren\u2019t comfortable shopping in retail stores.<\/p>\n

With 30 students participating in Friday\u2019s Lavender Graduation ceremony, there were an equal number of stories illustrating the graduates\u2019 hope for the future and fondness for the community they\u2019ll leave behind on the fourth floor of the Student Union.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel very seen here,\u201d Cameron Deslaurier \u201923 (CAHNR) said. \u201cI don\u2019t have to explain my identity.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s also one of the best things about Lavender Graduation, he said: \u201cIt\u2019s an opportunity to have the graduation experience without being worried about the sexual identity stuff. Here, you can embrace that. It\u2019s freeing.\u201d<\/p>\n

And on Friday, there was no judgment, only celebratory hoots and hollers from friends and family as graduates walked the stage in the Student Union Ballroom to be fitted with lavender stoles that are intended to be worn at Commencement ceremonies in May.<\/p>\n

Kelsey O\u2019Neil, Rainbow Center director, said Lavender Graduation started at the University of Michigan in 1995 and since then has become an annual event, generally in April, at many other institutions nationwide to recognize members of the LGBTQ+ communities.<\/p>\n

Its founder, Ronni Sanlo, headed the former Lesbian and Gay Men\u2019s Office at the University of Michigan, according to the Human Rights Campaign<\/a>, and was encouraged to hold the first Lavender Graduation after she was denied attendance at her biological children\u2019s graduations because of her sexual orientation.<\/p>\n

By 2001, the HRC website says, Lavender Graduation had spread to more than 45 colleges and universities, beginning at UConn in 2008, and lavender was chosen because of the pink triangle gay men wore in concentration camps and black triangle lesbians wore as political prisoners in Nazi Germany.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about recognizing the graduates who have come so far in a traditional educational setting that wasn\u2019t meant for them,\u201d O\u2019Neil said of the event that honors \u201ctheir stories, hard work, and resiliency\u201d in making it to graduation day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose of us who are degree holders fall into the assumption that all go to college,\u201d Michael Vidal, director of diversity and inclusion initiatives in UConn\u2019s Office for Diversity and Inclusion<\/a>, told the graduates in his keynote speech.<\/p>\n

When accounting for things like sexual orientation, disabilities, socio-economic and first-generation status, that’s not always the case, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have not been told yet, or reminded, it is a big deal,\u201d Vidal said, reminding them, \u201cSuccess is presented as a linear, packaged outcome. Don\u2019t believe the hype. People\u2019s resume of failure is often 10 times longer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Undergraduate speaker Ash Maldonado \u201923 (CLAS) urged their classmates to \u201cremember how hard you fought to be here today\u201d and to \u201cnever let fear paralyze you.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tarah Jordan \u201923 MA said she didn\u2019t begin to explore her identity until college and found friends she could identify with.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was liberating to realize I was not broken,\u201d she told her classmates as graduate speaker. \u201cBeing queer is something so dynamic and ever-evolving. There\u2019s no one way to act, dress, or be.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also something that\u2019s intertwined with other identities \u2013 whether professional, personal, recreational, or otherwise \u2013 putting oneself into various other communities and potentially risky situations, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must take steps to protect ourselves and advocate for others,\u201d Jordan said, explaining her mission is to \u201cnot just speak for but with my queer colleagues. Think about how you can do this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Doyon said she participated in Lavender Graduation because for her the ceremony recognizes the many people who have been or are barred from their own commencement ceremonies, along with those like Sanlo who couldn\u2019t see their loved ones mark a milestone.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like we\u2019re being planted and over the years we\u2019ve grown. It highlights the end of my experience,\u201d Dawkins said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

‘It\u2019s like we\u2019re being planted and over the years we\u2019ve grown’ <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":160,"featured_media":197636,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2229,2235,2225,2306,2227,2234],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2368],"class_list":["post-197625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-commencement","category-today-homepage","category-uconn-storrs","category-uconn-voices","category-uconn-edu-homepage","category-university-life"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-22 11:31:30","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/160"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197625"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197625\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":198016,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197625\/revisions\/198016"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/197636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197625"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=197625"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=197625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}