DePaul Lavender Graduation Celebrates the LGBTQA Community

It might only be week seven for DePaul students in the quarter system, but seniors are already celebrating their outstanding accomplishments a few weeks early. The Lavender Graduation was held today in the Student Center room 314AB. It celebrates the university’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, queer, asexual and ally students.

It is an opportunity for LGBTQA students to have a more intimate ceremony with family and friends before the Commencements in June, now held at the newly built Wintrust Arena.

The graduation was scaled down a lot compared to previous years because of the location and several other university changes. In 2017, the Lavender Graduation was held in conjunction with the Stonewell Awards at Cortelyou Commons.

The Lavender Graduation was put together by co-sponsors LGBT Studies and the LGBTQA Network. Michael Riley, the LGBTQA Resource Center Coordinator for the Office of Multicultural Student Success (OMSS), was the host and did most of the organizing for the event.

Within a year, DePaul students have seen several changes, mainly the closing of the Center for Identity, Inclusion and Social Change and opening of the several new identity centers.

“A lot of the changes and a lot of the things that are happening again, I really wanted to center the voices of the folks who a lot of those changes have happened to,” Riley said.

At the graduation, graduating students had the opportunity to speak about their experiences as well as alumni and others in the DePaul community.

Senior Evette Escobar was one of many who attended and received a tassel, cord and alumni pin. “This is a space for us to be fully ourselves,” Escobar said.

The sense of community was evident throughout the entire ceremony because almost everyone knew one another and they were more than just a name on a paper.

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