On Friday, July 17, 2026 the White Rock Pride Society’s Pride Flag Raising Ceremony brought community members together to celebrate diversity, inclusion and the importance of Pride in White Rock.
The ceremony was attended by local dignitaries, including White Rock Mayor Megan Knight, and featured powerful remarks from guest speakers Denise Darrell and Sevdin MacDonald. Each shared a meaningful perspective on Pride, community and the importance of continuing to create spaces where everyone feels welcomed, valued and free to be themselves.
We are honoured to share their messages below.
Denise Darell
Good afternoon, community leaders, allies, and friends. My name is Denise Darrell, and I use she/her pronouns. So great to be here as we launch White Rock Pride Week 2026.
Looking out, I see a community of many ages, cultures, faiths, identities, and lived experiences standing alongside members of our 2SLGBTQ+ community. We may not all share the same perspectives, but we can stand together in our commitment to dignity, safety, kindness, and respect.
As we raise this flag, we are not asking anyone to abandon personal values, cultural traditions, religious beliefs, or convictions. We are simply promising to listen with humility, show up with care, speak with courage, and stand beside those who may still be carrying fear, uncertainty, or pain as they seek to live… fully and openly as themselves.
Both of my children attended high school here, and I remember how fiercely—and hilariously—they stood up for their “two moms.” As a teenager, my daughter Angela decided that anyone she dated had to respect and accept our “different” family unit. One day she announced, “I’m not dating anyone who puts down gay people or refuses to meet my two moms.” Not to be outdone, her younger brother Tony added, “If my friends don’t support my two moms, they don’t get past the front door.”
Soon, Angela and Tony became our unofficial Pride Bouncers—brave, funny, and wholehearted allies. And that is what Pride Week is about: uplifting voices and building a more inclusive, vibrant, and welcoming community for everyone.
Today, let’s each make a personal and collective promise: to speak up when we hear words that wound or exclude, to make room for every voice, to choose kindness over judgment, and to help ensure that every person—regardless of background, identity, or who THEY LOVE—feels safe, respected, and truly belongs.
Let us remember that inclusion is something we practice every day—in our words, in our policies, in our schools, in our worship spaces, our workplaces, and in those times when someone needs to know they are seen, valued, and not alone.
May this flag RISE above us today and within us every day—as a reminder of the belonging we can build together. Let us celebrate, by honouring every identity and every story.
Rainbows will shine bright this week — because the world is better when you show up exactly as you are!
Sevdin MacDonald
Good afternoon, everyone.
Mayor, Council, honoured guests, community leaders, friends, and neighbours—
Thank you for being here today.
Before I begin, I would like to respectfully acknowledge that we are gathered today on the traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory of the Semiahmoo First Nation, who have cared for these lands and waters since time immemorial. I am grateful to live, work, and gather on these beautiful lands, and I recognize the enduring history, culture, and contributions of the Semiahmoo people. As we celebrate Pride today, may we also reflect on the importance of respect, inclusion, reconciliation, and community, and our shared responsibility to create spaces where everyone feels welcomed, valued, and belongs.
It is truly an honour to stand before you as we gather to raise the Pride flag here in White Rock.
When I think about White Rock, I don’t just think about the beautiful waterfront or the iconic pier. I think about something much deeper.
I think about community.
I think about kindness.
I think about belonging.
I think about a city where people from different cultures, religions, backgrounds, abilities, and identities can come together, not despite our differences, but because our differences make our community stronger.
That is what makes White Rock such a special place.
And that is why I am proud to call it home.
My story, however, began thousands of kilometres away.
I was born in Romania into a Romani family during one of the most difficult periods in that country’s history.
Many people remember seeing the heartbreaking images from Romania in the early 1990s—images of overcrowded orphanages and children who desperately needed families.
Among the millions of people watching were two Canadians who would eventually become my parents.
My parents grew up in Halifax, Nova Scotia. They later moved to Calgary, Alberta, where they started their family.
They already had two children.
Their family was complete.
But when they saw what was happening in Romania, something in their hearts told them they could do more.
In 1992, they made the extraordinary decision to adopt me.
At almost three years old, I arrived in Canada.
Although I was too young to understand it at the time, that single act of love changed the course of my entire life.
My parents gave me opportunities I never could have imagined.
They taught me compassion.
They taught me resilience.
They taught me that every person deserves kindness and respect.
Most importantly, they taught me that family isn’t only defined by biology.
Family is built through love.
Everything I am today because someone chose compassion.
That lesson has stayed with me throughout my life.
Today, I stand before you as a proud Canadian.
A proud resident of White Rock.
And a proud transgender man.
Like many members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, my journey has not always been easy.
There were moments of uncertainty.
Moments of fear.
Moments when I questioned whether I truly belonged.
But there were also moments of incredible support.
Moments when people saw me for who I truly am.
Moments that reminded me that acceptance has the power to transform lives.
Those experiences taught me something incredibly important.
Belonging is not something we should have to earn.
It is something every human being deserves.
Every person deserves to walk into their workplace feeling respected.
Every young person deserves to go to school without fear of bullying.
Every family deserves to know they are accepted.
Every senior deserves to age with dignity.
And every member of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community deserves to know that they are valued exactly as they are.
That is why today matters.
Some people see a flag.
I see something much more.
I see hope.
I see courage.
I see generations of people who fought for the rights many of us enjoy today.
I think about those who came before us.
The people who lived authentically when it wasn’t safe to do so.
The people who spoke up when it would have been easier to remain silent.
The people who marched, advocated, educated, and believed that future generations deserved something better.
Because of them, young people today are growing up in a world with more visibility, more representation, and more opportunities than ever before.
There is still work to do.
But today reminds us how far we have come.
As someone who works in mental health and substance use as a Peer Support Worker to adults who are trans, I have the privilege of meeting people where they are.
I don’t meet people on the best days of their lives.
I often meet them during some of the hardest.
People who are navigating grief.
Addiction.
Mental health challenges.
Homelessness.
Isolation.
Or simply trying to figure out where they fit in.
One thing I have learned from every person I have met is this:
People heal through connection.
We often think healing begins with the perfect program or the perfect solution.
But sometimes healing begins with something much simpler.
A conversation.
A smile.
Someone remembering your name.
Someone asking, “How are you doing?” and genuinely wanting to hear the answer.
Sometimes the smallest acts of kindness become the moments people remember for years.
Community saves lives.
Not because communities are perfect.
But because communities remind people, they don’t have to face life’s challenges alone.
That is what I love about White Rock.
This is a community that shows up.
I’ve watched neighbours support neighbours.
I’ve watched volunteers give countless hours to organizations that strengthen our city.
I’ve watched people come together after difficult times and choose compassion over division.
Those moments don’t always make headlines.
But they matter.
They shape the kind of city we become.
Today is another one of those moments.
By raising this flag, White Rock is making a simple but powerful statement.
You belong here.
You matter here.
You are welcome here.
Those words may seem small to some people.
But for someone who has spent years wondering if they would ever be accepted, those words can change everything.
I also want to acknowledge that we gather today on the traditional lands of the Indigenous Peoples who have cared for these lands since time immemorial.
Their teachings remind us that healing is holistic.
It includes our relationships with one another, with the land, and with our communities.
Those teachings remind us that every person has value.
That we are all connected.
And that when one member of our community thrives, we all become stronger.
There is wisdom in those teachings that continues to guide us today.
As I reflect on my own life—from a little boy born in Romania, to being adopted into Canada, to eventually finding my home here in White Rock—I realize that every meaningful chapter of my journey began because someone believed in me.
Someone offered kindness.
Someone opened a door.
Someone gave me an opportunity.
Someone made me feel like I belonged.
Today, each of us has the chance to do that for someone else.
Maybe it’s a coworker.
Maybe it’s a neighbour.
Maybe it’s a family member.
Maybe it’s a young person who simply needs one adult to tell them they are enough.
None of us know the impact one moment of acceptance can have on another person’s life.
But we all have the ability to create those moments.
Pride is about celebrating who we are.
But it is also about celebrating who we are together.
A community that chooses inclusion over exclusion.
Compassion over judgment.
Understanding over fear.
Hope over hate.
When we choose those values, everyone benefits—not just members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, but every person who calls White Rock home.
That is the kind of community I want to continue building alongside all of you.
One where diversity is celebrated.
Where differences are respected.
Where young people can dream without fear.
Where seniors feel valued.
Where families feel supported.
And where every person knows they belong.
Because at the end of the day, that is what all of us are searching for.
A place to belong.
A place to feel safe.
A place to call home.
My life is proof that when people choose love, extraordinary things happen.
When communities choose acceptance, lives are transformed.
And when we stand together with kindness and compassion, there is no limit to what we can accomplish.
Thank you for listening to my story.
Thank you for believing in inclusion.
Thank you for believing in community.
And thank you for helping build a White Rock where every person is seen, valued, respected, and welcomed.
Happy Pride, everyone.
Thank you.
Thank you White Rock
Thank you to everyone who joined us for the Pride Flag Raising Ceremony and helped demonstrate that diversity, inclusion and belonging are deeply valued in our community.
We look forward to celebrating again with our community at the annual flag raising ceremony in 2027.