University of Denver LGBTQ+ students celebrate Lavender Graduation
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DENVER — One week before walking across a stage and accepting a diploma in front of more than 1,000 people, 32 LGBTQ+ students at the University of Denver celebrated a more intimate, Lavender ceremony.
“Oftentimes, LGBTQ+ students are erased or their voices aren’t heard, so it's important for students who are marginalized and diverse to be able to build that community and see themselves in the larger DU scope,” said Eric Duran, director of the University of Denver Cultural Center for gender and sexuality student success.
“This is about taking time to celebrate our LGBTQ+ graduates and give them a ceremony that they may not have gotten otherwise.”
Lavender graduation — a tradition celebrated at hundreds of campuses around the country — began in 1995 at the University of Michigan after Ronni Sanlo, a lesbian who was set to be the keynote speaker, was barred from attending her biological children’s graduation due to her sexual orientation.
Sanlo’s experience inspired her to create a graduation for LGBTQ+ students who may not have supportive families or feel comfortable expressing their authentic selves at their general ceremonies.
Students at Friday’s Lavender Graduation said they also planned to participate in DU’s general ceremony, but appreciated an event just for them and their allies.
“It's really about celebrating being queer, especially on this campus and in the higher education space,” said Karina Huerta Altamirano, a queer, Latina student graduating with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. “It can be so difficult and you can feel like a target sometimes.”
Photo courtesy Ivan Esqueda.
Friday’s event was only for University of Denver students, though other campuses in Colorado held their own versions. Students who participated in Lavender Graduation are also welcomed to walk in the school’s general ceremony.
Other students said being able to have a smaller graduation and expressing more authenticity than is possible at a large ceremony was a perfect conclusion to their college careers.
“For me, it’s a place where I can just be me without all the stress of having thousands of people around,” said Murphy Li, a bisexual student graduating with a degree in computer science.
Li is from China and said moving to Denver was nerve-wracking — she was not sure how she would be perceived as a queer, Chinese woman. However, Li said, LGBTQ+ events helped her grow into herself and find a space that felt right for her.
“I feel like this is our own little space where we can celebrate our people,” Li said. “Denver was much more accepting than I expected and I found my people on campus.”
Jorge Espinoza, assistant director of the University of Denver Cultural Center, said Lavender Graduations have become even more important throughout the last several years as hate crimes against the LGBTQ+ community have risen and laws attacking the community have increased.
“It comes from a history of not having the space and creating it for ourselves,” Espinoza said. “Now, we're here to continue that even as LGBTQ+ rights are in danger across the country and students are facing different issues at different institutions.”
James Steed, a student graduating in political science and gender studies, delivered the commencement speech and emphasized that LGBTQ+ activism should be intertwined with struggles around the world. Particularly, Steed said, LGBTQ+ liberation is closely related to Palestinian liberation.
“The fight for our rights to exist as queer people is central to the fight for Palestinians,” Steed said in an interview with Rocky Mountain PBS after his commencement speech.
After Saturday’s ceremony, Steed, who is from North Carolina, will be moving back in with his family there as he applies to graduate programs.
Steed’s focus on Palestine in his speech comes from a long tradition of LGBTQ+ students banding together for various social causes.
The Colorado Palestine Coalition and Bread and Roses Legal Center — a social-justice centric law firm — also conducted a teach-in about “queer and trans solidarity with the Palestinian freedom struggle” this week.
During Pride month, the Denver chapter of Students for a Democratic Society are also organizing pro-Palestine actions around the Colorado Pride Festival and encouraging Denverites to avoid the festivities.
Duran said the university plans to continue Lavender Graduations as a way to keep empowering LGBTQ+ students to effect change.
“It’s on all of us to continue amplifying the voices of our marginalized students,” Duran said. “We have come a long way, but there is still progress to be made on campuses across the country, including this one.”