Lavender Graduation Celebration
Lavender Graduation Celebration is an event hosted during finals week of spring term each year to celebrate the accomplishments of the LGBTQIA2S+ community at WOU. While it is not a formal graduation ceremony, this event provides a meaningful space for students, faculty, friends, and allies to recognize the achievements and resilience of LGBTQIA2S+ graduates. Graduating students, including undergraduates and graduates, are invited to take part in the celebration.
About Lavender Graduation Celebration
Attendees are invited to celebrate their academic successes, community contributions, and personal milestones in a supportive and affirming environment. Each year, the Lavender Graduation Celebration at WOU has included staff, faculty, and student keynote speakers that are nominated by the graduating seniors attending, we share inspirational stories of being LGBTQIA2S+ at WOU, and each graduate is recognized and receives a cord to don at Commencement.
The significance of “Lavender”
Lavender is important to LGBTQIA2S+ history. It is a combination of the pink triangle that gay men were forced to wear in concentration camps and the black triangle designating lesbians as political prisoners in Nazi Germany. The LGBTQIA2S+ civil rights movement took these symbols of hatred and combined them to make symbols and the color of pride and community.
