The Progress Pride flag flies in front of Delta city hall to once again mark the start of Pride Month.
On Monday (May 27), the city held its sixth annual flag raising ceremony, attended by mayor and council, city staff, representatives from the Delta Pride society and Delta School District, members of the Delta Police Department and Delta Fire and Emergency Services, and a crowd of friends, family and allies in a show of support and solidarity for the 2SLGBTQ+ community.
“Pride Month is a time of celebration, reflection and unity. We come together to honour the struggles and triumphs of the Pride community and reaffirm our commitment to creating a more inclusive society,” Mayor George Harvie said during Monday’s ceremony. “As we raise the Progress Pride flag, let us remember the significance of its colours and symbols, including the transgender flag colours and those of marginalized communities.
“This flag is a very powerful reminder that the fight for equality extends beyond sexual orientation, and that our city’s commitment to progress is inclusive of all members of the Pride community. Despite past vandalism of Pride flags in our community, hate has no place here. We stand united with our allies, reminding everyone that love and kindness will always win over hate.”
Pride Month is celebrated in June of each year to commemorate the anniversary of New York City’s Stonewall riots, where members of the gay community protested a police raid of the Stonewall Inn bar in Greenwich Village in the early-morning hours of June 28, 1969, sparking the gay rights movement.
Trevana Spilchen, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) co-ordinator with the Delta School District and a teacher at North Delta’s Delview Secondary, said that while Pride is a celebration and their heart was warmed to see such a big crowd in attendance, “we need to be mindful of the current context.”
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“In our schools and in the community at large there’s an uprising of hate right now towards the Queer community, and we need to be mindful of that,” Spilchen said at Monday’s flag raising. “That’s why I’m so glad that there’s so many people here. I’m assuming many of the people here are allies, and we really need allies in the Queer community and the 2SLGBTQIA+ community right now.
“When I transitioned eight or nine years ago, it really felt like we were there. On my birthday in 2017 (…) gender expression and gender identity were added to the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and at that moment and around that time, it really felt like we were there, like we were at a place where this wasn’t going to be a fight anymore.
“Unfortunately now we’re at a place where it feels like a fight again. It feels like we need activism. And I know that’s not the uplifting celebratory message that you may have been coming here to hear, but it’s important that I put this forward because it’s the current context right now.”
Spilchen said what’s needed right now are allies to speak up and come forward, which is why they are so thankful to see the Progress Pride flag fly outside city hall, especially in light of numerous acts of vandalism in Delta in recent years targeting Pride flags, including in 2022 when someone cut down the Progress Pride flag pole outside city hall.
“We really need to be loud and proud and stand up right now, in this moment,” Spilchen said.
“Allyship is a verb and not a noun. It’s not something you declare yourself, to be an ally. It’s something that you do and become an ally through your actions. So I would invite you all to think about that as you move forward in your daily lives.”
Christa Horita Kadach of the Delta Pride Society echoed those sentiments, saying, “we’re in a difficult season where we’ve seen too many examples of resources, medical care [and] human rights being stripped from the Pride community. This includes our children, our youth, adults and our senior population.”
“There’s a quote that ‘none of us are free until all of us are free,’ by Maya Angelou. It emphasizes our shared humanity and that our liberation is bound together,” Kadach said. “It’s a call for empathy, mutual understanding and a collective responsibility. It encourages us to look beyond our individual concerns and realize that our own freedom is hollow if it doesn’t coincide with the freedom of others.”
Kadach said raising a Pride flag is a sign of solidarity, inclusion and support for the 2SLGBTQ+ community, and doing so makes the city a more inclusive, safe and kind space for all.
“This month and every month, we remind the Pride community that you are seen, loved and cherished,” Kadach said.
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At Monday’s flag raising, Trin Van Rheenen, a Grade 12 student at North Delta’s Sands Secondary, reflected on the importance of Pride in building community and identity, especially for youth struggling to feel accepted for who they are.
“It was Grade 6 or 7 when I first came out as transgendered to the people that I felt closest to and I started to see a shift in (…) how I felt comfortable expressing myself, and it was a really odd thing because when you’re that age people look at you and they’re like, ‘it’s a phase, you’ll move on, so we’re going to leave you alone and just hope that you change later.’ It felt like a false sense of acceptance almost, and I kept that with me as I went into high school, where people were almost waiting for me to snap out of it.”
It was in the school’s Genders and Sexualities Alliance Club where Van Rheenen found other kids who also identified as trans.
“I felt actually accepted, for the first time ever. Then it was about where can I go with that now in high school?”
Van Rheenen said many of the classroom doors had Pride stickers on them, which “were a really cool touch,” but half of those were scratched off or vandalized.
“So I went to my vice-principal and I said I want to change this, and it was that year that we got new Pride stickers. I felt like I had made a step not only for myself, but for the other people who felt the same way I did. From there it only kept going.”
The club started putting on more events at the school and Van Rheenen began mentoring Grade 8 students, talking with them about identity and “how everyone is their own person.”
“Then I wasn’t just doing it for myself, it was for others, and it was Grade 8s taking what I had been through and my experiences and what I had learned and taking it with them. I realized all the small steps I was doing were making things better for everyone who is going to follow — not just these Grade 8s, but the Grade 8s who are coming after, and after, and after.
“So when I look at the Pride flag and I see all of you here to see it rise and everyone just supporting Pride, it’s really cool to know that my story has been happening in other places and we’re all here together to have this moment as a community.”
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In addition to flying the Progress Pride flag all of June, the city will also be displaying rainbow street banners all month “to signal to everyone that they are welcome here, no matter how they identify or who they love,” Harvie said.
Delta will also be launching a new social media campaign encouraging residents to “Be A 2SLGBTQ+ Ally.” A city press release notes the campaign is a “community call to take action to support and educate themselves about, and speak out and advocate for, Delta’s 2SLGBTQ+ communities,” highlighting the importance of allyship and encouraging community members to share what being a 2SLGBTQ+ ally means to them.
Residents can also show their support by wearing an ally rainbow button pin, available at Delta’s recreation centres and libraries while supplies last.
“As we kick off Pride Month, let us continue to march forward together and advocate for a future where everyone is equal and celebrated for who they are,” Harvie said.
— with files from Tom Zillich
