University News
Lavender Graduation Celebration April 25
April 23, 2019
MACOMB, IL -- The LGBT*QA Resource Center at Western Illinois University will host the annual Lavendar Graduation celebration Thursday, April 25.
The event, which will begin at 6:30 p.m. in the University Union Sandburg Lounge, honors Wester's LGBT*QA students and celebrates their achievements during their time at WIU. According to Robby Specht, graduate adviser for the LGBT*QA Resource Center, for decades different cultural communities have come together to celebrate student's academic achievement and their cultural heritage, and these events give space to communities who may otherwise feel lost and alone in the larger graduation ceremonies on campus.
"Lavender is an important piece of LGBT*QA history, as it is a combination of the pink triangles that gay men were forced to wear in concentration camps and the black triangles designated to lesbians in Nazi Germany," Specht explained. "The LGBTQ+ civil rights movement reclaimed these symbols and combined them to create a symbol of pride."
The April 25 Lavender Graduation event is open to anyone who would like to celebrate WIU's graduating LGBT*QA students.
Posted By: University Communications (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
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