‘We win’: UH students continue unofficial LGBTQ+ graduation tradition despite Texas DEI ban

Although there wasn’t a formal stage and guests could barely hear “Pomp and Circumstance” play, authenticity was not lost Saturday evening at the University of Houston’s first student-run, spring Lavender Graduation.

Just seven months ago, the future of the marquee celebration was uncertain after UH prematurely disbanded its LGBTQ Resource Center and Center for Diversity and Inclusion — five months before Senate Bill 17 went into effect on Jan.1.

Regardless, the tradition went on with the help of GLOBAL , a registered student organization for LGBTQ+ students, and volunteers with UH’s LGBTQ+ Alumni Association, an independent nonprofit.

“My parents were more excited about this one than the main one,” said Landon Richie, a graduating senior and trans rights activist with Transgender Education Network of Texas , just before marching into the multipurpose room of Student Center South on Saturday.

The intimate cultural celebration is held at campuses across the nation and is the only graduation ceremony devoted to celebrating the achievements and contributions of students who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, nonbinary, intersex, queer and asexual/aromantic. The first celebration was held in 1995 at the University of Michigan shortly after a Jewish lesbian was denied the opportunity to attend the graduations of her biological children due to her sexual orientation.

Full-time staff and faculty of the university’s now defunct LGBTQ Resource Center previously hosted Lavender Graduation each semester since 2015.

This year, a team of more than 20 full-time students and alumni volunteers collectively sacrificed their time so roughly 26 student graduates who identify as LGBTQ+ could mark the milestone with a certificate and the coveted rainbow or lavender cords before their community.

“It felt affirming,” said graduating senior Ko Hernandez after posing for a picture with a trans flag.

They were excited to participate after recently learning about the celebration from a friend.

“This is the first place that I can actually use my chosen name; first place I can actually use my pronouns without being dead-named,” they said. “Even just getting to wear this outfit is something different that I have to do at my actual graduation. So this is a graduation where I can actually be myself.”

Waiting for the lavender cord

Other students who were more familiar with the traditional ceremony were grateful that GLOBAL stepped up to the plate to sustain it.

“There’s been so much uncertainty, especially last semester,” Richie said. “We didn’t know what resource access was gonna look like we were all on campus.”

Although there’s been ample uncertainty, students have also found solidarity in each other and other organizations, he said, like at neighboring private institution Rice University, whose Rice PRIDE organization welcomed UH students to its Queer Resource center .

“It’s made us stronger,” Richie said. “It’s really reinforced that we really don’t have anybody but ourselves, but each other. And those spaces and (communities), those lifelines are worth fighting for, especially when states are cracking down.”

Nicole Harris was excited to finally get her lavender cord, which she waited years to proudly wear around her neck. She had heard about Lavender Graduation as a former member of the Sexuality and Gender Acceptance (SAGA) squad, a student leadership program for the LGBTQIA+ and ally students that was held in the LGBTQ Resource Center before it was disbanded. When it dissolved, she worried the day wouldn’t come.

“It just makes me proud because I grew up in a small town, and people there weren’t the most accepting,” Harris said. “So to be able to wear it loud and proud, it feels great.”

‘It’s been absolute chaos’

Although Saturday was joyous and celebratory, the last few months have been anything but for many UH student and alumni volunteers who’ve scrambled to hold the pieces together since the LGBTQ Resource Center and Center for Diversity and Inclusion closed .

“It’s been absolute chaos,” said Maria Gonzalez, a UH associate professor of English who was among the core group of faculty, staff and students who established the LGBTQ Resource Center.

Everything from planning to finding and reserving an event space for Lavender Graduation, getting students to register, event marketing, and fundraising — it all fell on the shoulders of full-time, inexperienced students and alumni volunteers.

“I had no idea the amount of effort and dedication we would have to put into this event,” said Kaitie Tolman, a graduating senior and former president of GLOBAL.

The first major hurdle was learning what programs were staying and which were ending in compliance with the law. Students didn’t get the answers they needed from university officials, Tolman said, so they submitted a request for public records, following the advice of a lawyer. From that request, they obtained a list of sunset programs, and with Lavender Graduation presenting the biggest loss, they immediately went to work to plan the first fall celebration.

“The end goal is to make sure nothing gets dropped,” Tolman said.

They planned a small ceremony for roughly 10 graduates in less than a month, Tolman said. By the spring semester, they were a little better equipped and had more time to prepare.

“It would’ve been easier to let it go,” said Gonzalez. “I mean, who’s got time for all this?”

But students refused to give up despite the adversity they faced. They knew how much its legacy meant to students and hoped it would restore hope, pride and vibrancy to a community that lost its safe space — its home away from home due to SB 17.

“This is where we can show and say, ‘Hey, we are still here, we still do care about you and even if the university does not, this is not going away because you are important and you do deserve to be celebrated,’” Tolman said.

A lack of official support challenged students

In a statement to the Landing, a spokesperson for the UH reiterated that SB 17 allows registered student organizations or alumni networking groups rights to organize and hold events or programs for these types of celebrations.

“ We are extremely proud of all of our graduates and look forward to celebrating the class of 2024 in a series of University of Houston college commencement ceremonies next month. We embrace individuality and encourage all of our graduates to find meaningful ways to celebrate their personal accomplishments during this exciting time in their lives,” the statement said.

Aside from gaining access to information, organizers struggled the most with funding and marketing, Tolman added.

“They also had a whole marketing team just dedicated to doing stuff,” she said. “You had yard signs all over campus, which we simply did not have the time or manpower to do.”

Not having access to the student listserv to market it directly to students and ask those who are part of the LGBTQ+ community to participate in Lavender Graduation was also a major setback, said Lovelle, who also used to work in the LGBTQ+ Resource Center as a graduate assistant.

Prior to SB 17, Lavender Graduations held by the university were a staple event, attracting hundreds of graduates and occupying one of the biggest rooms on campus, Tolman said. But this spring semester’s Lavender Graduation was held in a room half the size with a fraction of graduates.

“We’ve got much less manpower, we’ve got much less money and much less time, so it’s not going to be nearly as big as the other one would have been if the university hosted it,” Tolman said. “But we’re trying to go all out as much as we can.”

UH previously maintained a $3,000 to $5,000 annual budget to hold Lavender Graduation each semester, said Jamie Gonzales, a former program coordinator at the LGBTQ Resource Center and the president of UH’s LGBTQ+ Alumni Association.

For its spring Lavender Graduation, students raised roughly $1,025 in donations from campus ministries and an anonymous donor, Tolman said. The Houston LGBTQ+ Political Caucus donated $1,500 to cater food from Montrose staple La Mexicana for its reception.

Despite students’ passion to carry on Lavender graduation, Gonzales worries if GLOBAL will be able to unilaterally sustain the event each semester.

“They have proven that they have the ability, but just because you can doesn’t mean that you should,” she said.

She hopes that a coalition of community organizations or other student organizations can eventually partner with GLOBAL to avoid burnout in the long run.

Gonzalez said it’s unfair for students to have to take it on themselves, but it’s important that LGBTQ+ students are celebrated despite the challenges in holding Lavender Graduation.

“Most of them are first gen, thousands of people of color. The university was not invented for them. So, we have to celebrate even more,” she said.