Hoisted onto the mast, the pride flag was officially raised in Vernon on Monday.

The flag represents the official kick off to the third annual Pride Week in the city, with the Vernon Pride society organizing numerous activities from Aug. 12-18.

After opening remarks from Okanagan Band elder story teller Jack Spotted Eagle, Abbie Wilson, president of Vernon Pride, explained the flag to those in attendance.

The yellow with the purple circle represents intersex, with the the circle being unbroken, which stands for wholeness.

"The black and brown colours are for black, Indigenous and other people of colour in the 2SLGBTQIA+ community," Wilson said. "The triangle shape represents the forward progress while reminding everyone how far we've come and how far we'll go."

White, pink and blue represented the trans and gender non-conforming community, while red is for life, orange is for healing, yellow for sunlight, green for nature, blue for peace and violet for spirit.

"We, as part of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, have always have been here and always will," Wilson stated.

Harwinder Sandhu, the MLA for Vernon-Monashee, was also in attendance, as she extolled the importance of having pride events like this in the community. 

"Pride began as a protest and that continues today," said Sandhu. "No one should ever be targeted because of who they are or who they love."

Vernon Pride Week is from Aug. 12-18, with a slew of events planned throughout the week.

While Monday was the kickoff to Pride Week, more information on all the other activities can be found on the .