The LGBTQ+ Column
The LGBTQ+ Center to Host Lavender Graduation on December 3rd
The LGBTQ+ column is a new addition to Ke Kalahea’s regular lineup. Each month, something related to LGBTQ life or issues, especially concerning the campus community, will be covered. The column will also feature a historical profile (below) on a queer person from history.
Story by Lichen Forster, photos provided by Allison Dupre
The UH Hilo LGBTQ+ Center was opened in 2016, and is one of the university’s many campus organizations. Funded by the university, the center hosts events throughout the academic year to serve LGBTQ+ students, sometimes in collaboration with other organizations.
“We work very closely together,” said Allison Dupre, Lead Program Coordinator of the Women’s Center. The offices of each center are close by, and they share similar leadership.
Before spring break 2020, there were discussions about moving the LGBTQ+ Center into the Office of Equal Opportunity. The office houses the Title IX office, where people can go to report sexual assault.
“It was just an odd fit that people didn’t really find appropriate,” Dupre said. “Just because of previous tropes about LGBTQ people being predators [or] rapists.”
Instead, the center now shares a space with the Student Support Services Program (SSSP) on the second floor of the Student Services building in room E215. The center’s main objectives now focus on getting a director to run everything and a better space to operate from.
“All of their [SSSP’s] stuff is in there, and there just isn’t really a way for it to be a center,” Dupre said.
On the first Friday of every month, the Center hosts ʻSafe Zone Training.’
“It helps foster a safe and inclusive environment,” Dupre said. “We go over all the terminology within LGBTQ that most people probably wouldn’t know, how to properly communicate with members, and…[how to be] a good ally.”
The last Safe Zone Training of the fall semester was Nov. 5.
The final event hosted by the center before 2022 begins will be ‘Lavender Graduation’ which will take place on Dec. 3 in the Campus Center Plaza from 5-7 PM. Its purpose is to honor fall graduates who are part of the LGBTQ+ community and who have felt that the campus community has influenced them in some way.
“It’s optional [to] come in cap and gown,” said Isabella Arrieta, LGBTQ+ Center Lead Program Coordinator. “[Graduates are] given a rainbow stole and a lavender cord. Specifically, the color lavender is a sign of resilience within the queer community for continuing [their] education.”
According to the Human Rights Campaign, Lavender Graduation is held on many college campuses across the country, a week before traditional commencement ceremonies. It was founded in 1995 by Jewish lesbian Dr. Ronni Sanlo who was prevented from attending her children’s graduation on the basis of her sexuality.
Lavender itself is significant within the LGBTQ+ community because it combines the pink triangle gay men were forced to wear in concentration camps and the black triangle lesbians were forced to wear as political prisoners in Nazi Germany. Lavender as a combination of the two colors has come to represent pride and community for the LGBTQ+ community.
“In historical times, queer folks weren’t as out and open about their identities on college campuses,” Arrieta said. “There are low retention rates for queer folks, specifically queer folks of color within a higher education, so [Lavender Graduation] is a celebration of all their accomplishments.”