{"id":515520,"date":"2026-11-02T00:22:48","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T00:22:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/515520\/"},"modified":"2026-11-02T00:22:48","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T00:22:48","slug":"lavender-pre-commencement-bakersfield-college","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/515520\/","title":{"rendered":"Lavender Pre-Commencement | Bakersfield College"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Lavender Pre-Commencement Celebration is an inclusive ceremony honoring all students<br \/>\n                     while recognizing the achievements and contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender,<br \/>\n                     queer, and allied students. Hosting this kind of ceremony is common among many community<br \/>\n                     colleges and universities: Lavender Graduation \u2014 or, in our case, Lavender Pre-Commencement<br \/>\n                     Celebration. Like Veteran, Black, and Chicano Pre-Commencement Celebrations, Lavender<br \/>\n                     Graduation is a celebration of the cultural contributions of the LGBTQ+ students of<br \/>\n                     all races and ethnicities and their allies to the college while acknowledging the<br \/>\n                     achievements and contributions of all students.<\/p>\n<p>                  2027 Pre-Commencement Ceremony<\/p>\n<p>                     Date: TBD<\/p>\n<p>                     Time: TBD<\/p>\n<p>                     Location: TBD<\/p>\n<p>                     RSVP Due Date: TBD<\/p>\n<p>\n                     <a href=\"https:\/\/bcstudentlife.wufoo.com\/forms\/s105fnb11am8oy0\/\" class=\"cta cta--button\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n                        \tRSVP: Lavender Pre-Commencement 2027<br \/>\n                        <\/a>\n                     <\/p>\n<p>                  History and Tradition of Lavender<\/p>\n<p>Lavender is important to LGBTQ+ history. It is a combination of the pink triangle<br \/>\n                     that gay men were forced to wear in concentration camps and the black triangle designating<br \/>\n                     lesbians as political prisoners in Nazi Germany. The LGBTQ+ civil rights movement<br \/>\n                     combined these symbols of hatred to make symbols and colors of pride and community.<\/p>\n<p>The importance of lavender in LGBTQ+ history cannot be overstated. Today, the symbols<br \/>\n                     of hatred combined to make lavender serve as a reminder of the struggles and triumphs<br \/>\n                     of the LGBTQ community throughout history.<\/p>\n<p>The Lavender Graduation Ceremony was created by Dr. Ronni Sanlo, a Jewish Lesbian<br \/>\n                     who was denied the opportunity to attend the graduations of her biological children<br \/>\n                     because of her sexual orientation. It was through this experience that she came to<br \/>\n                     understand the pain felt by her students. Encouraged by the Dean of Students at the<br \/>\n                     University of Michigan, Dr. Ronni Sanlo, then Director of the University of Michigan<br \/>\n                     LGBT Campus Resource Center, designed and coordinated the first Lavender Graduation<br \/>\n                     to acknowledge the achievements of three LGBTQ graduates in 1995. By 2001, over 45<br \/>\n                     institutions were holding Lavender Graduation Ceremonies, and the tradition continues<br \/>\n                     to expand to additional colleges and universities Nationwide.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>                  Photo Galleries<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/Grad2023-LavenderPrecomm-48-M.jpg\" alt=\"Graduates with lavendar sash.\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Lavender Pre-Commencement Celebration is an inclusive ceremony honoring all students while recognizing the achievements and contributions of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":515521,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152],"class_list":["post-515520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/515521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}