There’s a story behind every lavender hued graduation stole handed out recently at the Salt Lake Community College Gender and Sexuality Student Resource Center in front of the May 6 collegewide Commencement at the Maverik Center in West Valley City.
That simple gift of a strip of fabric worn around the shoulders on Commencement Day meant so much to LGBTQ+ graduates of SLCC who found success and a welcoming home at the college. Held at the GSSRC location on the SLCC South City Campus, the event was a chance for some to share stories and be among friends. Each graduate who attended received a lavender stole.
For Mashayla Dalley, it was the first time she had visited the GSSRC, a place she describes as giving people a sense of belonging. She graduates from SLCC with a degree in business, a few dozen business plans she’s written and a goal someday to attend no less than – and on a full-ride scholarship – either Harvard, Cornell or Princeton. Dalley, 21, was dating a transgender woman when she still presented as a man and then during the transition. “I decided I didn’t care what they looked like,” she said. “I liked them for who they are, not what they are.” Before transferring to another college, she’ll be back at SLCC for another degree and plans to start a club that advocates for all marginalized communities.
Planning the Lavender Graduation event was a labor of love for Heather Graham, an SLCC alumna and lab coordinator for the Student Writing and Reading Center at the Jordan Campus. She came out as asexual and biromantic in 2017 and more recently began to identify as nonbinary. “I wanted this to be a day to celebrate the accomplishments of queer students,” she said. “Our world is not always the easiest thing.” Graham also started the SLCC Lavender Journal, which features the writing and art of queer students and anyone else in the SLCC community who would like to contribute.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced cancellation of the first planned Lavender Graduation, and this marks the second in-person celebration. GSSRC Coordinator Peter Moosman and his team assembled gift boxes for graduates that celebrate their achievements. “For a lot of queer people, their journey is hard on the way toward graduation,” he said. “On top of school, work, family, all of that, a lot of times queer people are trying to find themselves during that process, and they have the added burden of coming out, finding safety and a community in school. All of those burdens drive a lot of people out of education.” The GSSRC event, Moosman added, is a chance for the queer community to reflect, be seen and celebrated.
Graduates Sarah Liddell and Tim Langan took time to meet new people at the event and reflect on their own journeys.
Langan, a bit older at 41, owns a xeriscaping business with his professional and life partner. He felt he needed a business degree from SLCC to fill in gaps of knowledge as they try to grow the business. Langan came out in 1999, the summer after his senior year of high school. He was involved in the creation of the GSSRC. “Today means a lot,” he said. “Graduation itself means a lot, but I also think that for any group that is underrepresented, especially the queer community, you go through a unique set of struggles compared to other students. Having this Lavender Graduation celebrates you having come through those struggles.” He’ll proudly wore his lavender stole in the Maverik Center.
Liddell, 23, leaves SLCC with plans to attend Utah State University and earn a degree in horticulture and someday work in plant development and propagation in the marijuana industry. Her story, her journey includes coming out as a lesbian to her parents when she was 13 and later surviving unwanted attempts at conversion therapy by leaders in her church (she notes her parents were not involved). Liddell went walking around campus one day and found the GSSRC, where she has visited a few times, especially if she had a “bad” day or week. The event was, for her, a day to celebrate the process of figuring out who she was while having a “safe” environment at the GSSRC where she could be herself. In 2020, Liddell married her “beautiful” wife, Blair, a trans woman.
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