Rights champion to lead Pride March
Wilbur Turner, who has done “vital community and advocacy work” on behalf of Kelowna’s 2SLGBTQIA+ community, has been named grand marshall of this year’s Kelowna Pride March on Saturday.
Turner has been volunteering in the local Pride community since moving to Kelowna in 2011. He was a co-chair of the Pride festival and then president of the Kelowna Pride Society for several years.
“Wilbur has been a champion of 2SLGBTQIA+ rights in Kelowna and across Canada for many years. Our community is incredibly lucky to have him as a leader,” current Pride president Fahmy Baharuddin said in a Wednesday release.
The Kelowna Pride Society says Turner’s selection as parade grand marshall is “in recognition of the vital community and advocacy work Turner has done over many years — and his ongoing passion and commitment to 2SLGBTQIA+ rights,” the release states.
Pride Week began Monday and continues with a variety of activities, including FruitCake: Pride Party at Rutland Centennial Hall on Saturday, and the Out and Proud Film Festival at the Rotary Centre for the Arts on June 16, 17, and 19.
The most well-attended event is always the Pride March, which this year begins at Stuart Park in downtown Kelowna at 10 a.m. with participants heading to City Park for a festival that continues until 3 p.m.
The theme of this year’s Pride Festival is ‘Together in Pride’, a reference to the fact that pandemicrelated restrictions greatly curtailed the scope of festivals in 2020 and 2021. It’s also a nod to the wider acceptance of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community than was the case when the first festival was held in 1996.
The following year, mayor Walter Gray refused to sign a Gay Pride Day proclamation, striking out the word Pride. In 2000 Gray was found to have violated the B.C. Human Rights Code.
Later, Gray kissed and made up — literally — with the Pride community. At the opening ceremonies for Pride Week in 2012, he shared the stage with Turner’s drag persona, Oddree Mayormaynot, who kissed Gray on the cheek.