It wasn’t your typical end-of-semester celebration. There were no balloons, no food, no hugs. There were speeches, but they were prerecorded videos. You couldn’t see the moderators’ smiles, but you could hear them in their voices as they hosted Tech’s 8th annual Lavender Graduation and 6th annual Lavender Awards — as with most things these days — online.

And yet it was, in LGBTQIA Resource Center Coordinator Camilla Brewer’s words, a “massive success.”

The COVID-19 crisis has changed the way we live, for now. The timing of the pandemic took a particularly heavy toll on spring events, but Georgia Tech and the LGBTQIA community know a lot about reslience and innovation. And this virtual gathering exemplified both, from start to finish.

Last week, Brewer, along with fellow Resource Center Coordintor Whitney McClain, honored Lavender graduates, award winners, and Level Up participants in a festive 45-minute Facebook Live event sponsored by Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; the Division of Student Life; and the Parents Fund for Student Life and Leadership.

What wasn’t different this year was the collective magnitude and scope of achievement among the 25 graduates. Their degrees run the gamut, from public policy, computer science, and biomedical engineering to mathematics, biology, and computational media. They interned with NCR, the Georgia House of Representatives, the U.S. Department of Defense, and Google. They represented study abroad, the women’s crew team, roller derby, student government, Student Ambassadors, FASET leaders, and the Yellow Jacket Marching Band. They are moving on to jobs at Ford, General Motors, a social justice nonprofit, Apple, and the Environmental Protection Agency; to graduate school; or to figuring out their next steps.

The celebration also recognized individuals who completed Level Up training, as well as Lavender Award winners in these categories:

• Friend of the Center Award — Mykala Sinclair, undergraduate, and Ashlee Toomey-Flinn, Office of International Education
• Billiee Pendleton-Parker Award for Outstanding Allyship — Grayson Eady, undergraduate
• Dr. Aby L. Parsons’ Advocacy in Action Award — Genny Kennedy, undergraduate
• LGBTQIA Undergraduate Student Leadership Award — Genny Kennedy, undergraduate, and Cong Luo, graduate student

Video messages of congratulations and thanks rounded out the event, featuring John Stein, vice president for Student Life and the Brandt-Fritz Dean of Students Chair; Archie Ervin, vice president for Institute Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion; incoming Resource Center Director Tegra Myanna; and President Ángel Cabrera.

For Camilla Brewer, and for those who watched, commented, and shared heart emojis, the online format did not dilute the power or the meaning of the moment. “It is one time in the year where we get to celebrate the hard work we've done individually and together,” she said. “While we were saddened by the inability to be together in person this year, the virtual ceremony was a moment of light and joy for so many of us.”