Pride Celebration & Lavender Graduation
Pride Celebration & Lavender Graduation
Welcome! This page details our annual Western Pride Celebration & Lavender Graduation.
This ceremony celebrates our LGBTQ+ community and our Lavender Graduates. Anyone graduating during the 2023-2024 academic year can be recognized at the ceremony. We are also celebrating our Legacy Lavender Graduates, alum who graduated but never got their rainbow cord for whatever reason: early graduation, COVID-19, or even a graduate prior to us giving out the cords!
We will also have keynote, food, speakers, tie-dye, games, and more! All free!
Most of this page will detail our 2024 graduates until the end of Fall 2024.
Save the date for Pride Celebration & Lavender Graduation 2025: May 30th, 2025 at Flag Plaza
Pride Celebration 2024 Video
This video contains the recording of the Pride Celebration piece of the event. The Lavender Graduation Ceremony was not recorded to ensure the safety and privacy of our LGBTQ+ Graduates who did not want their names shared. This video includes the keynotes, awards, and flag raising.
Register to Attend
Registration is open throughout the event. Registration is not required to attend, but appreciated as it helps us get a more accurate number of attendees.
Graduate Registration
For our 2023-2024 LGBTQ+ graduates and any alums who never received a rainbow cord.
Want to be featured on our Instagram? Please fill out your information here.
Tabling Registration
Register here to table, link has been fixed!
For Western LGBTQ+ Clubs and LGBTQ+ centered community partners and organizations.
Not for individual vending
Volunteer Registration
Sign up to volunteer at the event! Please sign up no later than May 26th.
LGBTQ+ Western Awards
For the first time this year, we are giving out awards to our students, faculty, staff, and community members!
The winners will be announced at the ceremony!
Queer Guild Club of the Year
Celebrating an LGBTQ+ club or organization that as provided transformational knowledge, resources, advocacy, and celebration to our community
LGBTQ+ Western Legacy Award
Honoring our graduating students who have impacted the experience of their LGBTQ+ peers during their time at Western.
Litav Langley Legacy Award
The Litav Langley Legacy Award is named after the first ever LGBTQ+ Director to honor a student, faculty, or staff member who has made a tremendous impact on the LGBTQ+ community at Western Washington University and thus creating their own legacy.
Previously awarded at the annual drag show in April, we honored Pao Falcon! Congrats Pao!
LGBTQ+ Western Staff Member of the Year:
Honoring an LGBTQ+ Western staff member whose passion, dedication, and commitment has made a profound impact on our team and the services that we provide
Rainbow Inspiration Award
Honoring an queer faculty or staff member who inspires the Western community to uplift the holistic wellbeing of LGBTQ+ people
Rainbow Bridge Award:
Honoring individuals who uplift the values of LGBTQ+ Western through collaborative engagement in the Bellingham community and beyond.
Schedule
4-4:20pm Reception
Enjoy food and mingle with the community prior to the ceremony. Meet the LGBTQ+ club leaders and community organizations.
4:20-4:30 Opening Remarks
JoeHahn and Ayanna Phillips, LGBTQ+ Western professional staff, will introduce the event.
4:30-4:40 Faculty/Staff Keynote
This year's keynote speaker is Dr. A. Longoria.
(they/them; Longoria), Chair of Secondary Education and Associate Professor Woodring College of Education; Director of Center for Education, Equity and Diversity (CEED)
Dr. Longoria (they/them; Longoria) is Associate Professor and Chair of Secondary Education in the Woodring College of Education at Western Washington University (WWU). They are a strong proponent of multicultural education, identity-sustaining pedagogy, and bridging the divide between methods (practice) and foundations (theory) in teacher education. Longoria is co-author, with Francisco Ríos, of the popular book Creating a Home in Schools: Sustaining Identities for Black, Indigenous, and Teachers of Color (Teachers College Press).
A former high school teacher, they formerly served as Academic Program Director for the Master in Teaching (MIT) program. Additionally, they previously served as co-chair (2020-2022) of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) Queer Studies Special Interest Group (SIG). Alongside department colega Dr. Vero Vélez, Longoria has co-supported the development of Ethnic Studies curriculum with a collective of educators for Bellingham Public Schools. They have taught courses for Family and Community Engaged Teaching (FACET) and for the Education and Social Justice (ESJ) minor. Longoria currently serves as Director for the Center for Education, Equity and Diversity (CEED).
Originally from El Centro, California, Longoria is a Chinx-Chicanx grandchild of immigrants from the Pearl River Delta in China and the state of Zacatecas in Mexico. Outside of academia, Longoria enjoys fiber crafting (especially knitting), bel canto opera, and cooking.
4:40-5:00 Student Keynote Speaker
Our student keynote is Sof Trujillo (they/them)
Hello, I'm Sof (they/them) and I'm a graduating senior at WWU. I am graduating with a BA in Business Administration Management and Communication Studies, as well as receiving a certificate in entrepreneurship and innovation. Currently, I work as an Education and Advocacy coordinator at LGBTQ+ Western and I am ingrained in the queer community in many ways. I enjoy playing rugby, rock climbing, dancing, and hanging out with friends. It's my honor to be the keynote speaker for this years Lavender Graduation celebration!
5:00-5:10 LGBTQ+ Western Awards
Awards celebrating our faculty, staff, campus partners, and LGBTQ+ Western Student Staff.
5:10-5:15 Pride Flag Raising
Our Queer Guild Club Leaders and LGBTQ+ Western staff will raise the pride flag.
5:15-5:45 Lavender Graduation Cording Ceremony
We will honor our graduating students and Legacy Lavender Grads with the cording ceremony. Graduates will take an optional group photo afterward.
5:45-7 Activites
We will have games, tie-dye, and other activities to close out our pride celebration!
2024 Lavender Graduates
78
Total Lavender Graduates registered so far
69
Students earning a Bachelors Degree
9
Students earning a Masters Degree
7
Legacy graduates are previous WWU grads who did not recieve rainbow cords when originally graduating
Our 2023-2024 Graduates
Our graduates will be added as more register!
*Students have an option to use their lived names and do not need to include their full name. Some students have opted out of their name being listed on our website.
Legacy Lavender Graduates:
Robert Ashworth Class of 78
Janet* Class of 95
Elia Barrios Class of 2020
Kyleigh Kuehnis Class of 2023
Lavender Graduates:
Cami*
Delaney*
Elizabeth*
Victoria*
Phoenix*
Janet*
Ananda*
Sol*
Shae*
Katie*
Dani Alamacen
Hillary Jazzmyn Banks
Elia Barrios
Sascha Branan
Maggie Brown
Elizabeth Card
Kylar Cahalan
Johnny Cook
Karlee Cowlishaw
Kyleigh Kuehnis
Alexandra Erb
Desiree Erdmann
Claire Frederick
Jaxon Frodensen
Ashelyn Holm
Rhiannon Holmes
Eleanor John
Anya Kallgren
Gabby Laipenieks
Colter Lemons
Kate Lincoln
Abi Loihl
Eden McGee
Nikolai Neff
Brenna Nieva
Kevin Nelson
Anna Olsen
Destiny Rodenberger
Nessa C Short
Peyton Smith
Q Snyder
Kaia Swanson
Victoria Vinecke
FAQ
This event is a combination of two important events featured at many universities, both with a history at Western.
The Western Pride Celebration is our final big event celebrating our LGBTQ+ community with the raising of the pride flag, activities like tie-dye, and more! Pride Celebration started in 2019, and we continue the tradition today!
Lavender Graduation is a ceremony celebrating LGBTQ+ graduates with a reading of names, cording ceremony, and often a speech from graduating. Lavender Graduations used to occur at Western, but stopped in the mid 2010s.
Combining the two events allows us to celebrate our grads and our larger community together!
Lavender Graduations first started at University of Michigan in 1995 by Dr. Ronni Sanlo. Sanlo had been denied the opportunity to attend her own children's graduations because of her sexual orientation. Understanding this was felt by her LGBTQ+ students, Sanlo created the first Lavender Graduation that honored three students.
Lavender was chosen because it combines the colors of the pink triangle gay men were forced to wear in concentration camps and the black triangle designating lesbians as political prisoners. We acknowledge the history of oppression LGBTQ+ have faced and the celebration of our community through Lavender Graduation.
We encourage students and guests to dress in whatever feels comfortable, identity-affirming, and whatever they feel comfortable having pictures in.
For graduates, we ask that you avoid wearing any non-WWU university or college branded items and have shirts that are appropriate to share in all WWU media for all ages.
And this link to be featured on our Instagram (WWU login required, if you don't have access to your WWU email anymore, email lgbtq@wwu.edu
Sign up using this link. Let us know if you want to be featured in the ceremony or just to get your cords at another time.
Yes! Sign up using the same registration form
The closest parking lot is Lot C, near the Wade Recreation Center.
We ask all graduates to stay until the end of the ceremony so we can get a group photo and respect other graduates. You do not need to stay for the activities, but we encourage you to!
We ask that all volunteers register by May 27th at the latest. Sooner the better! Register to volunteer here
Volunteers may be asked to:
Help set up
Help clean up
Direct people to the event
Run an activity booth like tie-dye
Support LGBTQ+ Club and guest tabling arrangements
We are flexible based on your avalability and your accessibility needs.