The word "graduation" is something of a misnomer here. The author appears to be discussing a graduation celebration. His school, UMass-Amherst holds large, public graduation ceremonies like any other state university.
I don't think it is unusual for large universities to have smaller, more personal celebrations. My alma mater had departmental celebrations directly following graduation. I'm sure that various student groups also had celebrations, including fraternities, sororities, and student religious groups. If the LGBTQ students want to have their own gathering, why not? No one is compelled to participate.
Fwiw...I agree with the author. Having special University graduations for special groups does just the opposite of inclusion and diversity. The author wants to get away from highlighting everyone's differences and look at everyone as just people
I think he’s trying to say that the gay rights movement took a long time to get certain rights and to be just treated like normal human beings. He sees it as a way to keep things segrated,what some in the gay movement seem to be doing , the exact same thing they’ve been against , forever.I remember a couple of gay friends I grew up with , that just wanted to be accepted and seen as everyone else, not as some separate being. Now, , they’re finally getting these rights, slowly but surely.
Well, I should say only those of my friends who are into scrap-booking and arts and crafts.
Some of the collages are pretty cool. But others are sub-par, so I tell those friends not to quit their day jobs because their collages are not going to get them anywhere.
I have some hetero friends who have never had a collage of their own. They just don't know how to cut and paste in a creative way.
I'm gay and I graduated from college. I think a "gay graduation" ceremony is a stupid idea. I'm gay, but that isn't the one single issue that defines me as a person. I have all sorts of opinions, interests, etc. None of them define me as a person, including being gay. As a lot of others have said before, I think being gay is one of the least interesting things about me.
I can see if there's a gay club or campus gay organization having some sort of reception. All sorts of organizations do that. In my opinion a gay graduation is along the lines of kindergarten graduation - great photo opportunity with zero meaning.
I graduated from BYU in 1988. I was so far back in the closet then that I bypassed Narnia and emerged into Middle Earth.
I think it's crap. You graduate as a class which includes all kinds of people. A divided society is a weak society and having separate graduations just makes us weaker not stronger.
Well, Rubicon, I have spoken about a divided society elsewhere here and had posts deleted. It benefits certain political tendencies whose long term aim is to bring down developed societies.
There is no grand conspiracy; there is no "cultural Marxism" except in the minds of aspiring Don Quixotes; evolution is not a liberal plot. You declaim against those who would separate people artificially and then claim, against the laws of basic arithmetic, that "race" is a biologically meaningful concept.
I went to the UMass and their Stonewall Center web pages to see what they had to say of the event.
As summer noted, the word “graduation” is a misnomer here. From what I could see this is just a dinner event with some awards and a speaker. Sounds a lot like what I experienced around graduation with a dinner sponsored by Phi Beta Kappa, reception with the physics department, ROTC commissioning ceremony, and even a reception at the LDS Institute.
Celebrating with the various groups I belonged to did not detract from the actual graduation ceremony with the college of L&S.
The only activity I had to attend was the commissioning. I had signed a contract with the US Navy.
Both the author of the article and posters here have misrepresented what happened. Posters perhaps did it out of ignorance, not paying that much attention when they read the article. For the author, it was deliberate.
It was not a gay-only graduation. It was a graduation event, just like dozens of other graduation events sponsored by departments, colleges, and campus organizations. It's not even clear if it was a gay-only event. Were non-gay students excluded? I brought a guest to my departmental grad reception.
Jumping on gay students for this manufactured grievance sounds like a minor variation on the "see, they want special rights" attack. It was a lame excuse when used against gay marriage too.
"Self-loathing" comes to mind. Two of the most homophobic men I've ever known were both gay. I know one eventually came out. Lost contact with the other.