Lavender Graduation Ceremony
April 30 @ 5:30 pm EDT
The Rockland Community College LGBTQIA+ Commission and Connection Center cordially invites you to the 2025 Lavender Graduation Ceremony to be held on Wednesday, April 30, 2025, at 5:30 pm in Student Union 3214, Nelson Mandela Room.
Registration will be sent to all students via email in late March.
What is a Lavender Graduation Ceremony?
Lavender Graduation is an annual ceremony conducted on numerous university/college campuses to honor lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, asexual, intersex, questioning, and ally students and to acknowledge their achievements and contributions to the college. The Lavender Graduation Ceremony was created by Dr. Ronni Sanlo at the University of Michigan in 1995. Today, there are thousands of Lavender Graduation Ceremonies at Colleges and Universities nationwide. Graduating students are invited to take part in the celebration.
Why a Lavender Graduation Ceremony?
The Lavender Graduation Ceremony is a cultural celebration that recognizes LGBTQIA+ students and acknowledges their achievements and contributions to the university. Through such recognition, LGBTQIA+ students may leave the college with a positive last experience of the institution thereby encouraging them to become involved mentors for current students, as well as contributing alumni. The Lavender Graduation Ceremony is an event to which LGBTQIA+ students share their hopes and dreams with one another, and are officially recognized by the institution for their leadership and their successes and achievements.
What is the significance of lavender?
Lavender is important to LGBTQIA+ history! It is a color combination of the pink triangle that gay men were forced to wear in concentration camps and the black triangle designating lesbians as political prisoners in Nazi Germany. The LGBTQ+ civil rights movement took these symbols of hatred and combined them to make symbols and colors of pride and community.