The fifth annual Lavender Recognition Ceremony at Washington University in St. Louis will take place at 3 p.m. Wednesday, May 13, in College Hall on the South 40.
Co-hosted by LGBT Student Involvement and Leadership and the Social Justice Center, the ceremony honors the achievements and contributions of graduating lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer students and their allies.
WashU’s Lavender Recognition Ceremony will include an introduction by keynote speaker Trevor Joy Sangrey, PhD, assistant dean in the College of Arts & Sciences and lecturer in the Program in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies in Arts & Sciences. Remarks by students Cassie Parks and Cameron Kinker will follow the keynote address.
Lavender recognition ceremonies originated in 1995 at the University of Michigan and were created by Ronni Sanlo, EdD, then-director of Michigan’s Office of Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Affairs.
The color lavender is important in LGBT 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 LGBT civil rights movement took these symbols of hatred and combined them to make symbols and color of pride and community.
A reception will follow the event. To register for the ceremony, visit studentinvolvement.wustl.edu/Get-Involved/LGBT/Pages/RSVP-Form.aspx.
For more information email lgbt@wustl.edu.