La Sierra University Selects Lesbian to Give Commencement Address

June 25, 2026 NewsHound



This is a generated image, not from the actual graduation


RIVERSIDE, Calif. – On Sunday, June 14 almost 400 La Sierra University graduates celebrated their graduation to a commencement speech by California State Sen. Sabrina Cervantes.

A Democrat, Sabrina Cervantes currently represents the 58th Assembly District, which comprises portions of the Inland Empire. Sabrina was first elected to the State Legislature in 2016, and from 2022-2024, served as Chair of the California Latino Legislative Caucus. She is also the first openly LGBTQ+ hispanic person to represent Western Riverside County in the Legislature. “Sabrina and her ‘wife’, Courtney, are the proud parents of triplets.”



Other speakers were Sam Leonor (of One Project infamy) and Criston Arthur, the previous provost of Andrews University.

Arthur spoke for the Lavender (LGBTQ+) Graduation on June 5. To the LGBTQ+ Lavenders Arthur said “You are La Sierra,” affirming that the university community is “big enough for all,” and expressing his support for them.

Leonor spoke at the baccalaureate.

The lesbian State Senator Sabrina Cervantes gave the commencement address.

Observations

I wonder what Harold Marshall Sylvester (HMS) Richards (who has a building named after him on LaSierra campus) would say about this lavender graduation? I wonder what he would say about them having a lesbian with a ‘wife’ give the commencement address?

What do you say about it?

Source

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Sabbath School Class Hosts Lavender Graduation to Honor LGBTQ+ Graduates

Jared Wright|June 10, 2026

Among Adventism’s underreported stories are the accounts of communities within the denomination that value and affirm queer people—places where “safe space,” “chosen family,” “preferred pronouns,” and “LGBTQ+ affirming” are not catchphrases but meaningful realities.

On Friday evening, June 5, La Sierra University Church’s (LSUC) Kinship Sabbath School transformed Sierra Vista Chapel in Riverside, California, into one of those places for its sixth annual Lavender Graduation. The event stood out not only for its rainbow decor, but also and more significantly for its poignant celebration of seven graduating LGBTQ+ students from La Sierra University (LSU) and other Southern California schools—one of whom received recognition in absentia.

Celebrants included members of the LSUC pastoral staff, LSU faculty and administration, family and friends of the graduates, and yes, chosen family there to provide support in place of family members who could not or would not attend.

Small rainbow pride flags outside Sierra Vista Chapel marked the entrance to the Lavender Graduation. Raquel Mentor/SPECTRUM

Lavender Graduations date back to 1995 at the University of Michigan (U-M), when Ronni Sanlo—a woman from Florida who in 1979 lost custody of her children after coming out as lesbian—decided to do something about traditional graduation ceremonies’ failure to provide “safe or affirming environments for LGBTQ+ graduates, leaving some students feeling alienated on a day meant to celebrate their hard work and success.” Sanlo wanted to give U-M’s LGBTQ+ students the support she never experienced, and created the first Lavender Graduation to show “LGBTQ+ students they were seen, valued and celebrated.”

The La Sierra community held its first Lavender Graduation virtually in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic when LSUC’s Kinship Sabbath school class partnered with Kinship International to honor three LGBTQ+ graduates. After going dark in 2021, the event has honored a total of 35 graduates including this year’s cohort.

Nearly a decade ago, Gabriel Uribe, a healthcare professional and former Social Work instructor at La Sierra University, and his husband Chase Uribe, a licensed clinical social worker, launched the Kinship Sabbath School, a first of its kind weekly gathering with LGBTQ+ members and allies from multiple continents. The group meets regularly on Sabbaths to study and worship. The couple has coordinated the La Sierra community Lavender Graduations since their start in 2020. For the second year in a row, Gabriel’s absence due to a deployment with the US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps saw Chase host the event solo.

Chaos at Graduation: Chairs thrown, 3 arrested in Bridgeport fight

 

Walsh School of Foreign Service Undergraduate Commencement 2026 Georgetown University

La Sierra SDA University Church Plans Gay Graduation Celebration

La Sierra SDA University Church Plans Gay Graduation Celebration

April 27, 2026 NewsHound




Blending Adventism with Lavender Graduation is like mixing used motor oil with fresh orange juice. It profanes the sacred with rainbow glitter poured over the altar.

Yet on June 5, 2026, at 6:00 p.m. in Sierra Vista Chapel at La Sierra University Church in Riverside, Kinship Sabbath School will host its Lavender Graduation for the “LGBT+ Class of 2026.”

They celebrate “resilience and resistance.” It is a resistance to the plain Word of God. This is no innocent ceremony. Lavender graduations began in the 1990s to celebrate what Scripture calls sin. Now it invades a Seventh-day Adventist chapel. Graduates wear lavender stoles, hear their identities cheered without repentance, and turn a house intended for worship into a platform for pride — the very spirit God resists (Proverbs 16:18; James 4:6).

Friends and “chosen family” will applaud as rebellion is renamed righteousness.

Liberal adventism (lower case intentional) thrives on this. It craves cultural applause, trading “Thus saith the Lord” for “Thus feels the culture.” Biblical authority bends to personal experience.

Objecting to this abomination will get you called ‘homophobic.’ The sad truth is these people are Biblephobes and Holinessphobes.

Notice the profound difference beween this Seventh-day Adventist school and Biola University, a non-Adventist school.

"Biola’s Position on Marriage and Sexuality

“Biola University’s position on marriage affirms the goodness of sexual relationships as designed by God to be expressed within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman. More information on the University’s theological position regarding human sexuality may be found in its Board of Trustees’ approved Statement of Biblical Principles: God’s Intentional Design for Life.

We believe that sexual activity outside of marriage, behavior involving or having the potential to lead to sexual activity outside of marriage (including, but not limited to nudity, cohabitation, pornography), and sexual activity between two persons of the same sex (whether or not married) is contrary to God’s intentional design for sexuality. Living out God’s intent for sexual expression, while requiring sacrifice at times, is ultimately a source of freedom (John 10:10). Biola hopes to foster a community where living according to this intent helps each person thrive personally, relationally, and spiritually.

Biola’s Position on Gender

Biola University’s position on gender affirms the goodness of God’s creation of humankind as male and female. Specifically, in its Statement of Biblical Principles: God’s Intentional Design for Life, Biola states, “We believe God created all things and set in place the laws of nature, not according to random chance but according to his perfect, miraculous and purposeful plan...God created the natural world and called it good, and after he created male and female he declared his creation very good.”

Our sex as male or female is a biological given of the individual human person from conception made manifest at birth, and is a stable characteristic of the person determined by God’s creational intent.”

Wow.