The University of St. Thomas hosted a Lavender Graduation Ceremony on May 13, which celebrated the accomplishments of LGBTQ undergraduate and graduate students.
The ceremony featured awards, lavender stoles and guest speakers, including St. Thomas President Julie Sullivan.
Director of Student Diversity and Inclusion Services Alex Hernandez-Siegel helped plan the event, which is the first of its kind at St. Thomas.
“We’re making history, first and foremost,” Hernandez-Siegel said. “It’s a great one to have here at St. Thomas because not only is it the first one, but it’s acknowledging and making highly visible the contributions of our graduating students to the community.”
According to the Human Rights Campaign, the first Lavender Graduation Ceremony took place in 1995 at the University of Michigan. Since then, universities across the country have adopted the celebration as a way to celebrate LGBTQ students.
Interim assistant director of Student Diversity and Inclusion Services Mads Clark also assisted with planning the event.
“Lavender Graduations are really pivotal moments (for LGBTQ students), especially around all the other graduation celebrations, that really lift up the community,” Clark said, “to celebrate not only graduation, but their accomplishments.”
Clark, who is a graduate student, also participated in the event. The Lavender Graduation was also planned by the LGBTQIA+ Faculty and Staff Association, which hopes to increase representation and visibility at St. Thomas.
“I think this is a really big step forward in increasing that visibility around campus and letting students, staff and faculty know that we do have resources, and we do have advocates on campus,” Clark said.
Hernandez-Siegel said he hopes that after the Lavender Graduation Ceremony, other graduation celebrations put on by diverse student groups will emerge.
“These types of programs and graduation celebrations have always been great events. Some of the most memorable moments have come from those ceremonies” Hernandez-Siegel said.
Owen Larson can be reached at lars6521@stthomas.edu.
It is really sad when a University celebrates a person’s sex life instead of their academic accomplishments and their character. Let’s celebrate achievements.
This is absolutely ridiculous and disappointing for a supposed Catholic University to be holding such a ceremony. I have 7 children and the oldest is now a Junior in high school. St. Thomas was definitely on the list of possible universities for my children to attend. I have been told by multiple other fathers that I should look more into the Catholicity of the university, and this article proves their point. There is no way that any of my children will attend St. Thomas specifically due to things like this “Lavender Ceremony”. I strongly encourage St. Thomas to look at the truths of the Catholic Faith and follow the teachings in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Anything less than this is an absolute disservice to your students and the Catholic Faith you should be representing. If this isn’t the intent of St. Thomas then remove the Catholic name and be strictly a private school. You can’t have it both ways.
Questions:
What exactly have these graduates “accomplished” that’s worth celebrating?
Would a diverse student group that promoted traditional Catholic values and tenets of the Catechism be celebrated as well?
I’m a St. Thomas alum. It’s sad to see the university falling back into segregation like this. Gays and straights should be participating in a graduation ceremony together. What does someone’s sexual orientation have to do with earning a college degree? Why are we judging people on their sexual orientation? It seems backwards. Don’t let the left’s tribalism and ideology warp human beings this way. We are all people and should be able to come together to celebrate.
CLEARLY Ted Bauer hasn’t done his homework on St. Deez. Talk about fake Catholics trash talking other Catholics. Yikes!
I’m not an alumnus, but seeing these grown ups complain about people’s accomplishments being celebrated in the comments is embarrassing. You’re not “defending” your university, you’re mocking it.
Blair, this society we live in, and St Thomas as a microcosm of said society, is worthy of all the mockery in the world. St Thomas bowing down to this woke garbage is a disgrace. If the University calls to ask me for donations, not only will I abstain, I’m going to try and convince whatever student whose calling me to reconsider their choice in attending St Thomas. It has literally taken less than 15 years for the world and UST to go full on crazy.