Growing up, 25-year-old Jaquelyn Furman had never heard about transgender people, and assumed everyone had feelings of wanting to be the opposite gender. Today, Furman has embraced being transgender, and is surrounded by a supportive community, which was on full display Thursday night.

The Okanagan Pride Society hosted its third annual Trans March and Social, which began at 6 p.m. at The Sails in downtown Kelowna and concluded at the Laurel Packinghouse.

Furman, Okanagan Pride Society's director of transgender community relations, says the community is a lot more accepting of transgender people than in the past and things are safer for transgender people today.

“It's amazing, my parents are supportive, all my family is supportive, I have lots of supportive friends, it makes a huge difference having a supportive community,” Furman said. “I've seen people who lack that and the difference in the mental health of someone is huge.”

Thursday's event included speeches from Kelowna-Lake Country MP Stephen Fuhr, Minister of Sport and Persons with Disabilities Carla Qualtrough and 12-year-old Tor Broughton, who considers themself gender queer.

Broughton, who spoke to School District 23 trustees last fall about the importance of gender-neutral bathrooms, talked about the struggle fitting in.

“Today in this room, I feel like I belong,” Broughton said. “I think the reason I feel I belong here is because I don't think anyone here is going to try and label me or put me in a box, or maybe it's just that the box is big enough for all of us to be ourselves together.”