Wan Qing made sure her graduations was a big occasion, and brought the fight for equal rights to her academic ceremony.

Pictures show 22-year-old Wan hugging the university president, with both of them holding up fists in solidarity with the LGBT community, reports Shanghaiist.

Wan Qing, who was graduating from Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China, took the opportunity to come out as a lesbian, draped in a rainbow flag.

Wan said on her Weibo account:

I’m a lesbian and I hope the legalisation of gay marriage will not be the end but a starting point for equal rights.

Those who don’t want to get married receive respect too.”

Her emotional post was shared more than 3,500 times.

Inspired by the US Supreme Court ruling legalising same-sex marriage, she said:

The dean of media and entertainment studies shook my hand and complimented my action. Many other professors didn’t even know what the rainbow flag stands for! I had to explain.”

A journalist with the university newspaper alleged that Communist Youth League Committee professors at the school asked for pictures of Wan’s rainbow flag to be pulled from their WeChat account, but Wan says she has only received positive messages.