Colours were flaunted and voices were heard as Vernon Pride's third annual Pride Week culminated in a celebratory march that swept through downtown Vernon Saturday, Aug. 17.

Hundreds of people donned bright outfits and waved pride flags as the pride march made its way from Civic Memorial Park to city hall and back, with volunteers manning each intersection along the way, playing music to liven up the streets 91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ” though the streets were plenty lively already with people cheering and celebrating the spirit of the simple yet powerful maxim that love is love, in all its forms. 

Saturday was the penultimate day of the third annual Pride Week in Vernon, and this year's festivities were the biggest and brightest yet. 

Civic Memorial Park was packed with vendors and organizations that set up booths with activities, merchandise and resources for the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. Vernon Pride president Abbie Wilson said there were twice as many non-profit booths as there were in past years. Among them were queer advocacy groups such as Advocacy Canada and Our City Too. Archway Society and BC Emergency Heath Services were among the other organizations present, and the Vernon Community Arts Centre was on hand giving people the chance to make their own pride flag. 

The pride march was preceded by a land acknowledgement, an Indigenous welcome song, and a number of speeches in the park. 

Vernon councillor Kelly Fehr started his speech with a boilerplate message about acceptance, unity and breaking down barriers. He concluded this by saying: "That's what city staff wrote for me."

Fehr then went into a more personal reflection, saying he grew up in an "extremely conservative and religious" home and school.

"When my youngest daughter came out to me many years ago, my instant reaction was nothing but love and acceptance, which shocked me," he said. "It shocked me because that's not how I was raised."

Fehr said he's had "so much unlearning to do, which has been an amazing journey for me, and not only around LGBTQ issues, but also Indigenous issues and how I was raised in a Christian school and within my own home. So if I can do it, anybody can do it."

Coldstream Mayor Ruth Hoyte also spoke on a personal note, saying when her nephew came out just after finishing high school, she was happy for him because "he had found his sense of self."

"But it also saddened me," she said, "simply because I know that throughout his life he's going to come face to face with a whole bunch of horse pucky, barriers, nasty hate."

Hoyte lauded the Vernon Pride board for being willing to "walk the talk of being inclusive," and told the crowd to "keep marching, keep your pride up."

Ella Fisher took the mic on behalf of Vernon-Monashee MLA Harwinder Sandhu.

Fisher, herself a member of the queer community, stressed that despite the progress that has been made around queer acceptance, there is more work to do. 

"Nobody should ever be the target of violence or oppression because of who we are or who we love, and we also know how many people still face this every day, even in our community," she said. 

"My dad 91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ” he's an incredibly wise man 91ÂãÁÄÊÓƵ” he always told me when I was a kid that hatred and oppression are rooted in ignorance," Fisher continued. "One huge step towards equal rights and advocacy for queer people around the world is the simple act of education."

Fisher said she was lucky to have a supportive family when she came out at age 14, but acknowledged that not everyone is so fortunate. 

"It is every person's right to be who they are without fear and stigma, because a more inclusive society leads to a better life for everybody," she said.

Wilson concluded the speech portion of the event with a meditation on "queer joy," a concept she said has roots in Black activism. 

"Queer joy is an act of resistance," she said. "It is counter-cultural in a culture that tells us to bury our gaze. It is disruptive to the thread that runs through entire families, communities and belief systems, that queerness and trans-ness is less than, that it creates unhappy people and unhappy families. All of us here today know that that is not true."

Wilson continued by defining queer joy as "the joy and pleasure and rest and fun that threads through every area of our lives ... from sharing food with friends, from holding the hands of the people we love, from being affirmed by clothing, haircuts, or whatever it is that affirms our gender or sexuality."

Prior to the march, the Vernon Snowflakes Formation Flying Team did a fly-by over the park to much fanfare. 

Vernon Pride Week concludes Sunday, Aug. 18. For a full list of remaining events, visit .