As graduation season approaches, many of Georgetown’s communities are preparing for affinity graduations on campus. Georgetown’s many affinity graduations celebrate students’ diversity in sexual orientation, religion, race, ethnicity, and disability status.
Commencement season began on April 24 with the LGBTQ+ Resource Center’s annual Lavender Graduation, or Lav Grad, celebrating LGBTQ+ seniors and allies. This year’s Lav Grad honored 93 graduates, including 71 undergraduates, according to the Lav Grad pamphlet.
“It’s meaningful to come together with the people I’ve been with for four years and graduate and celebrate our queer identities and everything we’ve been through and everything we’re going to do,” Emery Moynihan (SFS ’25), one of the senior keynote speakers, said in an interview with the Voice.
In their speech, Moynihan spoke about queer joy, community, and empowerment.
“We’re coming from different backgrounds and going down different paths, but we’re united by our queerness. Our queerness empowers us, it opens our eyes to be radically compassionate both in our community and outside of it,” they said.
Georgetown celebrated its first Lav Grad in 2009, just months after becoming the first Catholic university to open an LGBTQ+ Resource Center. The first Lav Grad was held in 1995 at the University of Michigan, but the use of lavender and other shades of purple to represent the queer community dates back several centuries, gaining prominence throughout the 1900s. During the “Lavender Scare” of the 1950s and 60s, many federal workers were fired over the suspicion that they were part of the LGBTQ+ community. Now, many in the community have reclaimed the color.
On April 27, more soon-to-be graduates were recognized at the Asian American Student Association (AASA) End of Year Banquet and the Muslim Life Senior Honoring.
“As I graduate, I feel like I have gained so much from this community, and I am so grateful for this final moment to come together and celebrate everyone,” Rachel Tao (CAS’ 25) said in an interview with the Voice after the AASA Banquet.
A few hours later, Muslim Life honored its graduating students in the Copley Formal Lounge with a formal dinner and stoles handed out by Imam Yahya Hendi and Interim Provost Soyica Diggs Colbert (CAS ’01).
“It was really sweet because it felt full circle—I remember going to this freshman year and thinking how far ahead this must be for me and now it’s here,” Amna Shamim (CAS ’25) said.
For Shamim, the event reflects Georgetown’s commitment to inclusivity and support for students’ diverse faith practices.
“It also felt like another means of recognizing how important community is. Islam is a minority faith on Georgetown’s Catholic campus, and so having a public celebration, being able to wear special stoles at graduation, being thanked for our community building, made Muslim community at Georgetown feel cozy and celebrated,” Shamim said.
Georgetown Jewish Life will host a Senior Sermon Shabbat on May 2nd to honor graduating Jewish seniors. Seniors will give words of advice to underclassmen following Friday Shabbat services, with a Middle Eastern dinner sponsored by Jewish Life. The event will take place in Makom in the Leavey Center.
Beyond religious and ethnic backgrounds, events at Georgetown recognize the culture of the disabled community as well.
The Disability Cultural Center (DCC) will host their DisCo Graduation Celebration, celebrating students with disabilities and their allies, on May 13 in the Healey Family Student Center Great Room. This year’s DisCo Grad will mark the third annual celebration.
“We get to celebrate a big part of ourselves, as disability culture is something that kind of guides how we live our lives and our interactions on campus and celebrate our chosen family over the past four years,” Shreya Dudeja (SOH ’25), who plans to attend the event this year, said.
Dudeja has been helping to plan the event since 2023. Now, she will finally be able to walk in it.
“Finding community within each other and finding people to talk about frustrations or celebrate wins together has been really special and we are all going to miss that when we leave,” Dudeja said.
Two days later, the Center for Multicultural Equity and Access will host three Multicultural Celebrations for the graduating class, including the Asian Heritage Celebration, Harambee, and Despedida. The Asian Heritage Celebration includes members of the Asian American and Pacific Islander community and allies, Harambee recognizes members of the African Diaspora, and Despedida is focused on those of the Latinx and Chicano/Chicana communities at Georgetown.
Leila Butler (MSB ’25), is planning to attend Despedida and Harambee.
“Having Black and Latina grandmothers who really paved the way for me to succeed and be afforded the opportunity to attend and graduate from college, so I’m really doing it for them,” Butler said. “I really see these ceremonies as a way to not only celebrate my heritage, but to honor my family members and those who made it possible, contributing meaning to the hard work they put in by continuing to push forward.”
In a statement to the Voice, a university spokesperson said that Georgetown’s many graduation celebrations align with the university’s values.
“These events reflect Georgetown’s value of Community in Diversity: As a Catholic and Jesuit University, the Georgetown community affirms and promotes a rich and growing diversity of faith traditions; racial, ethnic, and gender identities; and the varieties of cultural heritages represented by our students, faculty, and staff,” the spokesperson wrote.
The spokesperson also emphasized that all students, regardless of identity, are welcome at any of Georgetown’s affinity graduation ceremonies.
“All of these celebrations are open to all Georgetown University students regardless of race, national origin, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, disability, age, or any other characteristic protected under University policy or applicable law,” the spokesperson wrote.
These graduations come at an especially important time for the Georgetown community. Just over two miles from campus, the Trump administration has been eliminating diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies from academic and federal institutions. Some schools have canceled affinity graduations due to budget cuts and governmental scrutiny. Harvard University recently announced that it will not be funding any affinity graduation ceremonies following threats from the Department of Education.
In the wake of anti-DEI legislation at the state and federal levels, The University of Kentucky (UK) and University of Louisville cancelled their Lav Grads. UK also cancelled their Harambee Unity and First-Generation Student Celebrations. In Florida, many universities have changed the name of their Lav Grads to bypass DEI restrictions.
Across the country, some students are fighting back by hosting their own graduation celebrations. Students in Utah organized their own Lav Grad on April 25 after their schools cancelled planned celebrations. Following in Utah’s footsteps, community leaders in Louisville, Kentucky and at the University of Texas at Austin also plan to host their own affinity graduations.
At Georgetown, affinity graduation speakers and attendees are well-aware of the political threats to these kinds of events. One of Lav Grad’s keynote speakers, Winnie Stachelberg (CAS ’86), noted the challenges that come from graduating in this time, amidst a feeling of regression for many LGBTQ+ activists.
“You are graduating at a moment of uncertainty. When history feels fragile, when facts are being distorted, when our LGBTQ community is under political assault. When some are trying to erase entire identities, from policies, from history, from excellence,” Stachelberg said during her speech at Lav Grad. “But here’s the truth: you cannot and will not be erased.”
Editor’s note: Emery Moynihan has contributed to the Voice.
