On April 27, Longwood University will hold their first ever Lavender Graduation, a celebration of LGBTQ+ students for their achievements and unique additions to campus culture. Not even a month later, several of those same students will be in a crowd listening as a legislator who actively worked to remove their civil rights speaks to them from a stage.
Kirk Cox, former delegate and Speaker for the Virginia House of Delegates and longtime educator, will be the Commencement speaker for Graduate students on May 19. During Cox’s years as a Virginia legislator, he voted against the banning of the LGBT panic defense, defined by the LGBT Bar as “a legal strategy which asks a jury to find that a victim’s sexual orientation or gender identity is to blame for the defendant’s violent reaction, including murder.” He also voted against banning bias-based profiling of LGBTQ+ individuals by Virginia law enforcement, barring discrimination in child welfare services, and repealing the marriage equality ban.
Many of these preventive measures against discrimination for LGBTQ+ individuals went into law regardless of Cox’s voting, but as former Virginia House Speaker Cox held (and holds) an enormous amount of sway in the Virginia Republican Party.
Cox, a longtime educator, will likely be talking more about his experience in the educational system than his experience voting against civil rights for LGBTQ+ people. He’ll also likely not discuss his two experiences in the Supreme Court, where he argued to keep a district map the Virginia Supreme Court found to be racially gerrymandered to the disenfranchisement of Black Virginians on the grounds that it was politically advantageous for him. But regardless of what he actually says to the 2023 Longwood Graduate class, his past follows him onto Wheeler Mall.
Longwood’s 2021 Diversity Strategic Plan, buried several clicks deep into their website and not advertised to students, features an objective dedicating the school to creating “a welcoming climate that allows students of diverse and/or underrepresented backgrounds to feel secure and supported by the University.” By inviting a former legislator who has strong links to anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and racially motivated redistricting, they are not only not upholding this goal - they are actively working against it.
If President Reveley would like to invite a commencement speaker from the Virginia House of Delegates who values education, current representative of the 71st district Jeffrey M. Bourne served four years on the Richmond School Board. According to his website, he is working to disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline and received a 100% rating from the Virginia Education Association in 2020.
If President Reveley would rather focus on Kirk Cox’s notable stand against sexism, current delegate Elizabeth Guzman prominently voted to enact the Equal Rights Amendment in 2019 and is a strong advocate for reproductive healthcare. She also introduced a bill that would enforce LGBTQ+ cultural competence training for state employees, which evolved into a diversity training initiative that is now law.
Make no mistake: there are options for commencement speakers that represent Cox’s positive values that don’t also share his bigotry. Longwood’s administration inviting him to speak at one of the most important events of the year is a slap in the face to LGBTQ+ and BIPOC students, especially those attending the Lavender Graduation ceremony.
Longwood can’t have it both ways — it can either support LGBTQ+ and BIPOC students…or bigoted lawmakers and their views.
