Students, staff and families filled the Kent Student Center Ballroom Thursday for Lavender Graduation, an annual event honoring the accomplishments of LGBTQ+ graduates.
The LGBTQ+ Center started the tradition at Kent State in 2016, but the story of Lavender Graduation began at the University of Michigan in 1995 when the university banned Ronni Sanlo, a Jewish lesbian, from attending her children’s graduation because of her sexual orientation.
“The color lavender is significant to LGBTQ+ history and represents the combination of the pink triangle gay men were forced to wear in the concentration camps and the black triangle that lesbians were forced to wear,” LGBTQ+ Center Director Ken Ditlevson said. “The LGBTQ+ civil rights movement took these symbols of hatred and combined them to make a color of pride and community.”
Ditlevson said he hopes the celebration shows that Kent State fully embraces LGBTQ+ students, faculty and staff.
The ceremony consisted of a student keynote address by graduate Rowan Marusek, speeches by alumni Luz N. Pellot and T.J. Horwood, awards given out by the LGBTQ+ Center and an opportunity for graduates to walk across the stage and thank people who supported them.
Marusek, who will be graduating with a degree in middle childhood education, said his life changed when he attended the LGBTQ+ Center’s kickoff event during his first semester.
“As I stared at dozens of tables, each representing the commitment of a university department or a community stakeholder to the LGBTQ+ students at Kent, I knew I had an important decision to make,” Marusek said. “Was I going to remain a closeted ally, or was I going to claim my place as a fully-deserving member of the LGBTQ+ community?”
When Marusek joined QUEST, a career mentorship program for LGBTQ+ students, he said he finally felt like he belonged in the queer community.
Marusek, who will become a middle school teacher in Utah, said that he and other graduates have the power to create an inclusive environment where everyone can be seen and heard.
“While it is vital that those of us who are in positions to make changes of policies and laws do so, we can all do our part,” Marusek said. “Nothing is too small. After all, it is small moments that change lives.”
Aden Graves is co-opinion editor. Contact him at [email protected].
