The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Resource Center at Cal State Long Beach will host this year’s fourth annual Lavender Graduation on May 24 at 6 p.m. at the University Student Union Ballrooms.
Guest speakers at the event will include College of Business Administration Assistant Dean of Students Jeane Caveness, assistant professor of women’s, gender and sexuality studies Jennifer Reed, and Lavender Graduation alumni Benny LeMaster and Jeffrey Spafford.
LeMaster and Kirstyn Chun, Counseling and Psychological Services psychologist, were the first to establish Lavender Graduation at CSULB, according to Reed. She said the event was established as part of a national network to recognize queer students and allies on campus as a cultural group.
Reed said Lavender Graduation is now one of many cultural graduation celebrations that have been a part of CSULB’s culture for years.
“There is a longer tradition on this campus and others that recognize students in racial minority groups, and so this emulates those ceremonies,” Reed said.
Reed said the celebration is an opportunity for faculty and students to unite and acknowledge the achievements of queer students who often felt unnoticed on campus.
“I’m really struck by how touching it was for students and faculty to come together and mark the accomplishments of students who have identified as queer, or as allies,” Reed said. “I think it helped people realize more than they may have before how invisible and erased they have felt in the in this situation.”
Reed said this celebration highlights the contributions made by the queer community to the larger Long Beach community.
“We are building on that to institutionalize even more of a queer presence, emphasizing the unique contributions queers make to the campus climate, to intellectual life, to a feeling of diversity, and to broaden the political conversations we are having on this campus,” she said.
The first Lavender Graduation was celebrated in 1995 at the University of Michigan, according to LGBTcampus.org. Ronni Sanlo, director of UCLA’s LGBT Campus Resource Center, created the event, according to a press release.
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