Lavender Graduation is an annual gathering of faculty, staff, students and community members to celebrate and send off LGBTQIA+ members of the graduating class. The ceremony includes an alumni guest speaker, recognition of graduating students and presentation of lavender cords.
All graduating students whose lived experience, scholarship and/or leadership have contributed to a positive LGBTQ+ climate on campus are eligible to be Lavender Graduates. If you are graduating in the calendar year (May, August or December), you can participate in the ceremony. Faculty, staff, students and alumni are welcome to join in the celebration.
Lavender Graduation 2025
Congratulations to the class of 2025 graduates!
For the seventh consecutive year, we celebrate our queer and trans graduating students (undergraduate and graduate) and their accomplishments through our Lavender Graduation. Our ceremony this year will be held in on Sunday, April 27, at 2 p.m. Check back soon for more details!
Celebration events will include a slideshow with information about your degree(s), academic achievements, outstanding service and plans after graduation, and a Lavender Graduation package that included students’ certificate, honor cords and other gifts from the LGBTQ+ Resource Center.
If you would like to be recognized but cannot or do not want to participate in the ceremony, please contact Emily Stewart at estewa09@syr.edu.
If you have any questions or concerns about Lavender Graduation, please email lgbtq@syr.edu or call 315.443.0228.
History of Lavender Graduation
According to the Human Rights Campaign, the Lavender Graduation Ceremony was created by Dr. Ronni Sanlo, a Jewish lesbian who was denied the opportunity to attend the graduations of her biological children because of her sexual orientation. It was through this experience that she came to understand the pain felt by her students. Encouraged by the Dean of Students at the University of Michigan, Dr. Sanlo designed the first Lavender Graduation Ceremony in 1995, which was attended by three graduates.
The Significance of Lavender
Lavender is important to LGBTQ+ history. It is a 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 color of pride and community.