Surrey Pride Keynote Speaker: Christepher Wee, Mr. Gay Canada 2014
Happy Surrey Pride everyone! I am Christepher Wee, Mr. Gay Canada 2014.
I want to thank the Surrey Pride Society for inviting me to be a part of today’s Pride celebration. It sure feels great to be home after travelling to Prides and events in Jasper, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Niagara, New York, and the Human Rights Conference and WorldPride in Toronto.
During my travels, I have had the honour of meeting many influential political leaders such as the first lesbian Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir from Iceland, the first lesbian Provincial Premier in the British Commonwealth Kathleen Wynne of Ontario, and many other gay and ally elected politicians. I have also met activists from around the world, for example, Justice Monica Mbaru from Kenya, Masha Gessen from Russia, Tamara Adrian from Venezuela, and Dr. Frank Mugisha from Uganda. As well, I have met professional-sports allies such as the captain of the Edmonton Oilers, Andrew Ference, and inspirational youths like Wren Kauffman.
All of them shared one underlying message: Building a tomorrow where everyone is free to live as they are with equality, and to live in environments conducive to everyone having the same opportunities to reach their fullest potentials. By daring to be the voices for our global community, each of them embodies what it means to lead by example and to foster a better tomorrow.
We as citizens of the world need to be engaged with our global communities. We all have the capacity to be more involved with the geo-politics of the world, to be more proactive advocates for progress, and to be more visible voices against the violations of human rights faced by our brothers and sisters in places like Uganda, Jamaica, Sri Lanka, and 76 or more other countries with anti-gay laws.
I believe that our visibility amplifies our voices. Complacency only undermines the rights that our pioneers fought to obtain. Silence condones the hatred, the injustice, and the abuses of human rights that still exist in many corners of our world.
The day when all citizens of our world have an understanding of what it is like to be one with another, when all citizens have a heart of compassion for the person standing beside them, and when all citizens have respect for the differences our diversity should celebrate and embrace – that is the day we can all truly celebrate during Prides.
Until then, we must do our part by tirelessly educating our young and re-educating our antagonists. We must create safe spaces for open dialogue where we can enlighten and teach.
We must give life to campaigns and initiatives that will change perceptions and foster understanding and respect.
During WorldPride in Toronto, I was honoured to meet one such person who gave life to a symbol that represents our LGBTQ+ community, Gilbert Baker, the creator of our Rainbow Flag.
For me, the significance of our Rainbow Flag has evolved beyond the reflection of our struggles, remembrance of our sacrifices and loses, celebration of our victories, education and enlightenment of the causes we still strive to see realized. Our Rainbow Flag has evolved to encompass what it means to be one community, one people, one voice regardless of where we fit into the LGBTQA+ spectrum of our diverse rainbow family of human beings.
Regrettably, in spite of celebrating 15 years of Pride here in Surrey, the City’s unwillingness to raise our Rainbow Flag shows that even in our own home, where our pioneers have done so much to secure our rights, we still have a long way to go.
Our complacency and our silence condone the lack of local social and civil progress. Complacency and silence condone inequality. And complacency and silence condone the lack of political leadership. Even Thompson, Manitoba, which celebrated its first Pride last week, had our Rainbow Flag raised! Our own provincial capital, Victoria, also raised our Rainbow Flag during this week’s Victoria Pride.
I feel that it is unacceptable as a City which prides itself on its GSAs, its support of Protect Surrey Schools Together, and its 15-year history of Pride celebrations, that raising our Rainbow Flag is met with political rhetoric and resistance.
What kind of example are we setting for our youth and for other communities such as Thompson, Manitoba, when civic leaders do not lead by example and do not possess the vision of a tomorrow that embraces, acknowledges, and celebrates our diversity as one community?
We all need to “Rise Up!”, the theme of this year’s WorldPride, to proactively advocate for our rights and to question the contradictions and hypocrisy that still exist in our communities today.
During my Pride travels and Pride involvement throughout Canada and Asia, I often remark how proud I am to be Canadian because of our leadership in securing equality, justice, and human rights for sexual and gender minorities. In my speeches and interviews I often praise my fellow Canadians and our great nation.
Never did I think that I would be delivering a speech that shames any of my fellow Canadian leaders, a speech that has to question Surrey City Councillors’ true understanding of the significance of raising our Rainbow Flag.
It takes strong leaders and visionaries to project ahead and to see the benefits to come. That’s how positive progress and advancements are achieved. Gandhi once said, “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”
“Rise Up!” residents and friends of Surrey, to be the change you wish to see in Surrey. If your current civic leaders lack the foresight to secure harmonious progress as one community, then elect those who dare to look ahead and who aspire to be the change that Gandhi spoke of.
Our political leaders must lead by example. They must be visionaries in order to foster tomorrow’s social and civil advancements.
Thank-you for giving me this honour to share my thoughts with you. I hope you will leave here charged with the phoenix within, to be the change not only in the comfort of your community, but also to be the change in our global community that will impact the lives of our brothers and sisters elsewhere.
I hope that when Surrey celebrates its 16th Pride next year, our Rainbow Flag will fly alongside the other flags that make us all truly proud to be Canadians, and that make us one Canada.
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