Commencement speeches by queer celebrities

Classes have ended for the majority of Canadian university and college students, but high school pupils will have to sweat it out for a few more weeks.

If you’re a queer try-hard who will be delivering your graduating class’s commencement speech, you can find inspiration from one of the many gay and lesbian celebrities who have talked up tomorrow’s movers and shakers.

From Jane Lynch’s humble and hilarious 2012 Smith College speech to Anderson Cooper’s 2010 Tulane delivery, personal stories usually play best with no-longer-undergrad audiences.

Rachel Maddow, Smith College, 2010

Jane Lynch, Smith College, 2012

Anderson Cooper, Tulane, 2010

Ellen DeGeneres, Tulane, 2009

Algonquin College journalism grad. Podcaster @qqcpod.

Keep Reading

Jimmy Heagarty

‘Big Brother 27’ star Jimmy Heagerty is making for great TV. It could be even better with more queer people

By very virtue of their sexuality, queer houseguests cannot have the same experience as their straight competitors

‘RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars 10’ delivers a wildly entertaining finale—after a waste-of-time semifinals

It’s hard to figure out just what producers were thinking with this merge format
Andrea Gibson, left, and Megan Falley, the subjects of the film "Come See Me in the Good Light," pose for a portrait during the Sundance Film Festival on Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025, in Park City, Utah.

Andrea Gibson helped me see life in the good light

Gibson’s poetry about queerness and mortality taught thousands of people how to reject apathy and embrace life
Collage of greyscale photos of a sofa, chair, shelf and the lower bodies of two people, against a purple and pink background

We need queer gathering spaces more than ever

The 11-part series “Taking Space” explores where we go next as the lights of gay bars dim