2019 Lavender Graduates and Ceremony
Congratulations to Carolina's 2019 Lavender Graduates! We are so glad that you could join us for this year's ceremony. We hope you will take the words of our keynote speaker Joy Messinger into the next phase of your journey. Thank you for allowing us to celebrate you!
The 2019 celebration of graduating LGBTIQA+ students, Sexuality Studies minors, and their allies took place on Sunday, May 5th at 4:00 PM at the Sonja Haynes Stone Center. Many thanks to 2019 co-sponsors The Program in Sexuality Studies and The Provost’s Committee on LGBTQ Life for their support.
Keynote Speaker Joy Messinger
Joy Messinger is a Chicago-based reproductive, birth, and social justice advocate who earned her MPH in Health Behavior and Health Education from the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health and a Graduate Certificate in Nonprofit Leadership from the UNC School of Social Work in 2010. She currently serves as Program Officer for Third Wave Fund, a national feminist foundation supporting the vision and leadership of young women, low-income communities, and transgender, gender non-conforming, intersex, non-binary, and queer youth. In her role, Joy oversees Third Wave’s grant making programs and supports fundraising, communications, and philanthropic advocacy.
2018-2019 Lavender Graduates
This is an incomplete list of participants in the 2019 Lavender Graduation ceremony. Nearly every year, some participants are unable to be publicly "out" about their membership in or allyship with LGBTIQA+ communities because of varying levels of stigma in their families, social circles, workplaces, religious communities, and/or geographical location. Part of our work is to mitigate and end this barrier so that people of every sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression can participate fully in their communities and societies without discrimination.
Undergraduate Honorees
- Kennedy Bridges
- Gabrielle Brown
- Angum Check
- Shaylyn Clancy
- Nez Covington
- Sierra Dunne
- May Flowers
- Alex Haggis
- Kaitlin Harlow
- Margaret Hassel
- Ebuka Ibeziako
- Suad Jabr
- Brennan Lewis
- Allen Longstreet
- Taya McClure
- Abigail Murray
- Olivia Neal
- Veronica O’Kelley-Nickerson
- Laura Sanford
- Ivy Satterwhite
- Magnus Schulz
- Fiona Shauger
- Cole Smith
- Amy Townsend
- Brandon Tucker
- Kyley Underhill
- Kiera Whalen
- Rachel Yuan
- Samantha Zarnick
- Chichi Zhu
Graduate and Professional Honorees
- Jonh Blanco
- John DeKemper
- Brent Eason
- Emma Ferriola-Bruckenstein
- May Chen Will Roper
- Lauren Townsend