As students across the Atlanta University Center plan their graduation celebrations with family and friends, some students are struggling with inclusion.
Fighting to have their identity celebrated at graduation, students at Morehouse College, Spelman College and Clark Atlanta University are exploring ways to uplift one another as LGBTQ rights and representation come under attack within higher education in Georgia.
Spelman is one of the historically Black colleges and universities to hold a lavender ceremony, a graduation event established at the University of Michigan in the late ‘90s to recognize LGBTQ students. It was established at Spelman in 2023, and the women’s college plans to host its fourth annual ceremony May 1. Howard University and Virginia State University are two of the only other HBCUs to hold the ceremony.
Briya Philip, a 2023 Spelman graduate who now works in special education at an elementary school in Chicago, was a part of the first-ever lavender ceremony for 16 students at the school. She said it was an affirming experience as a queer student.
“It was really special to be recognized at an institutional level, especially in a space that can sometimes feel very Christian and heteronormative. It felt really special to have that ceremony just for us,” said Philip.
But some LGBTQ students in the AUC say they are fighting for similar recognition at their schools and to hold a lavender graduation on their campus.
Jordan Freeman, a graduating senior and the president of Morehouse’s LGBTQ group Adodi, said that since Spelman established its lavender ceremony, Morehouse students have been trying to get one set up at their school, but to no avail.
Freeman, an education major, cites lack of support from administration as the main barrier that has prevented them from getting the ceremony hosted at Morehouse.
“So the main difference is lavender graduation over at Spelman really was an institutional program. It was a program that was run by Spelman,” said Freeman. “The difference at Morehouse was that it was a student organization trying to do something that really required institutional support.”
He said when he tried to get Morehouse to hold the ceremony last year, the school’s administration told him that it needed to see enough student interest to consider it.
Freeman said he was able to get surveying of student interest done within Adodi, but reaching the general student body was more difficult. He said he did not have enough help from the administration to survey the broader campus or push the ceremony forward.
“I was a student at the time. I had my own stuff going on. I had my own classes. I was beginning my teaching at that time, so I really couldn’t sustain it,” said Freeman. “So ultimately, I said we’re just going to have to kind of move on. We’re not necessarily going to have the institutional support in order to throw this lavender graduation.”
Adodi’s former president Da’Marion Miller said he also tried to get a lavender ceremony established at Morehouse during his time as president in 2024. Miller said students couldn’t come to an agreement with administration about the ceremony and he ended up participating in Spelman’s lavender ceremony two years ago.
“I felt [Morehouse] could have done more and to push harder for our presence on campus, especially being seen in a time where our rights are being taken away,” Miller said.
Morehouse did not immediately respond to Capital B Atlanta’s request for comment.
At Spelman, students have had their own challenges with graduation as Philip said during her time at the college, students fought to change the school tradition of only being able to wear dresses to graduation ceremonies.
“There were only a handful of us that did not wear dresses. I definitely felt like I stuck out,” said Philip. “I definitely got some looks from older alumnae, but I’m pretty sure that rule was overthrown when I was there, and if not, then I just didn’t follow it.”
As LGBTQ graduates at HBCUs in Atlanta continue to fight to be recognized, students across public higher education institutions in Georgia are facing their own battles as rollbacks to diversity, equity and inclusion have caused the shuttering of resource centers, DEI offices, and also graduation ceremonies.
Due to these challenges, Connor Voisin, the president of Georgia State University’s LGBTQ student group Alliance, told Capital B Atlanta via email that the school won’t host its annual lavender graduation ceremony this year after establishing the event in 2021.
“It’s all around a very unfortunate situation for our students,” said Voisin.
Georgia State sent the following statement:
“The Lavender celebration is hosted by a registered student organization, Pride Alliance. Due to changes in leadership and staff, the Lavender celebration is taking a temporary hiatus but the student organization is excited to bring it back next Spring.
In the meantime, we will continue to support all of our graduating students, including those who identify with various cultures and communities, through our office of Cultures, Communities and Inclusion. CCI hosts all the heritage month programming annually which includes Pride Month related activities.”
At Georgia Tech, a lavender graduation ceremony is being held by an alumni group.
Finding Other Ways to Celebrate
While there’s no planned lavender ceremony happening at Clark Atlanta this year, Raniah Corrian and Naomi Kirori, president and vice president of the school’s LGBTQ student organization BLAQ, said students are definitely interested in holding one in the future. This year they plan to celebrate their LGBTQ students with a prom event on April 22. Corrian said she hopes the event can become an annual tradition.
At Morehouse, students are also finding their own way to celebrate without a lavender ceremony. Freeman said Adodi has planned a ballroom event for LGBTQ students to celebrate the end of the year.
He said he has faith that the students taking over Adodi can make a lavender graduation happen at Morehouse in the future.
“I have much hope that the things that I was not able to do with Adodi, they’ll be able to accomplish. So I am certain within the next two, even maybe next year, there probably will be some type of lavender graduation,” Freeman said.
Philip, who enjoyed her Spelman graduation experience, said it’s unfortunate that more HBCUs haven’t implemented a lavender ceremony. She noted that many college campuses have large LGBTQ populations.
“To be able to have a ceremony dedicated to who you are and your identity, just how so many schools have Black graduation ceremonies or different ceremonies catered to identities, I think it’s especially important that queer identities get that same recognition, especially because they haven’t always been recognized or even accepted on these campuses,” Philip said.
