Some of the country’s most prominent Catholic colleges and universities are holding separate LGBTQ-affirming graduation ceremonies this spring, including one that also plans to include a drag performance.
At least 20 colleges or universities associated with the Catholic Church have held, or plan to hold, these “lavender graduation” ceremonies and celebrations, which are done separate from the main commencement ceremony and are intended to “honor and celebrate the achievements of our LGBTQ+ graduates,” according to a Fox News Digital review of university websites and social media posts.
The term “lavender” has been used to describe LGBTQ+ affiliations amongst the gay community for decades, but the phrase has also carried a loaded meaning in Catholic circles, where critics have used it in phrases like “lavender mafia” to refer to alleged homosexual networks within Church institutions.
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The schools that have held, or plan to hold these graduation events, include Georgetown, Gonzaga, the University of San Francisco, Boston College, College of the Holy Cross, Fordham, Fairfield University, Marquette, Xavier, Seattle University, Saint Louis University, Loyola Marymount, Santa Clara University, St. John’s, Albertus Magnus College, St. Mary’s College of California, Regis University, Siena Heights University, St. Thomas University and Our Lady of the Lake University.
The ceremonies sparked criticism from Catholic watchdog the Cardinal Newman Society, an education advocacy group focused on ensuring Catholic schools uphold traditional church teachings. The society, which first highlighted several of the “lavender” ceremonies taking place this year, argues that the events promote an ideology at odds with the church’s teaching.
One of the schools holding a separate LGBTQ+ graduation, Seattle University, indicates on its website that their “Lavender Celebration” will even include “a special performance” from “Sativa the Drag Queen,” who, later this month, is headlining an event called “DICK’S DELUXE DRAG EXTRAVAGANZA.”
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At the University of San Francisco, the school’s website indicates it plans to hold a “Queer Prom” directly after their “Lavender Commencement.”
Other schools plan to give special honors, host various keynote speakers and provide students with unique cords or stoles they can wear with their cap and gown. Some events included food, drinks and other activities as well.
“Although intended as a compassionate gesture to students, the ceremonies reinforce harmful ideologies about sexuality and gender that contradict Catholic teaching,” the Cardinal Newman Society said in a news release about the graduation ceremonies.
“They potentially lead students into sinful activity and undermine a Catholic college’s claim to teach the truths of the Catholic faith,” the Catholic education group continued. “The Church is clear in its teaching that sexual attraction to persons of the same sex is not itself a sin, but such attractions are ‘objectively disordered.'”
Several of the same Catholic universities hosting LGBTQ-focused “lavender” graduation events also advertise separate cultural or identity-based commencement celebrations for non-White students, according to university event pages.