Theological School Grads Show Support With Rainbow Tassels

While the graduation season has been marked by some undesirable outcomes for LGBT students, the commencement ceremony at Claremont School of Theology offered a rainbow of support.

The Claremont, Calif., school's Center for Sexuality, Gender, and Religion sent all graduates a rainbow tassel in hopes that they would wear it alongside their regular tassel as a symbol of support for LGBT inclusivity. At the ceremony last Tuesday, almost all of them did, center codirector Grace Yia-Hei Kao reports on her Feminism and Religion blog.

"I was ecstatic to see the vast majority of graduates, as well as the faculty, staff, and other luminaries participating in Commencement eagerly don their rainbow tassels," writes Kao, who is also an associate professor of ethics at the theological school. Most of those students participating in the first graduation ceremony of a related institution, Claremont Lincoln University, did so as well.

Claremont School of Theology is an interdenominational progressive Christian theological school, and Claremont Lincoln University is an interfaith one, incorporating Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and other faiths.