Surrey parents host pro-LGBTQ rally at L.A. Matheson Secondary<\/p>\n
Published 2:13 pm Tuesday, June 9, 2026<\/p>\n
Surrey Police were in attendance during a pro-2SLGBTQ+ rally outside L.A. Matheson Secondary School on Tuesday afternoon (June 9) in which counter-protesters turned out in response. <\/p>\n
The Surrey District\u2019s Parent Advisory Council (DPAC) and L.A. Matheson parents arranged a rally at the school to show their support for the 2SLGBTQ+ community. This was after vandals defaced a rainbow crosswalk in Surrey near Holland <\/a>Park<\/a>, at Old Yale Road and University Drive, on May 30.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are here to just have a peaceful, positive presence in the community,\u201d Anne Whitmore, president of the Surrey DPAC, told Black Press Media.<\/p>\n With June being pride month, Whitemore shared L.A. Matheson specifically has been targeted multiple times by hate groups.<\/p>\n She said that the parents and DPAC wanted to be good allies and to put things into action. \u201cI think it\u2019s important for us to show up,\u201d said Whitmore. <\/p>\n The individuals a part of the rally painted a mural with rainbow hand prints on the top and held up positive pro 2SLGBTQ+ signs to show their support. They also played LGBTQ+ friendly music through a bluetooth speaker.<\/p>\n \u201cIt doesn\u2019t cost much to be supportive,\u201d said Whitemore. \u201cYou have the right to believe what you want, but let\u2019s keep it away from our kids.\u201d<\/p>\n Annie Ohana, co-department head for equity at L.A. Matheson, said the rally came to be after parents reached out to DPAC.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re here because parents are stepping up in all the right kind of ways,\u201d she said, noting the rally stemmed from the crosswalk vandalism. \u201cThis is in response. But at the same time, isn\u2019t it beautiful to just have parents show up with a big heart and to say, \u2018You all matter\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n Ohana says that the parents support the public education system and that means they trust the teachers with their kids. She wants the parents to know that these teachers respect and accept everyone.<\/p>\n Ohana shares that the problem lies with the mal information that is being spread. \u201cIt is meant to hurt people, that is such a dangerous reality.\u201d<\/p>\n Surrey Police announced yesterday (June 8) that one man has been arrested in connection with the <\/a>vandalism<\/a>, although no charges had yet been laid. His name has not yet been released.<\/p>\n A well-known anti-LGBTQ+ protester turned out at the Tuesday rally with three supporters holding signs.<\/p>\n The anti-LGBTQ protesters played the national anthem while protesting and spoke out into microphones sharing their point of views.<\/p>\n Parents remained outside the school until the end of the school day, when students came out. Students stopped to talk to both parents and police on their way out of the school. A few staff members also were wearing shirts in support.<\/p>\n Although the anti protestors were in attendance, Ohana shares that she hopes the efforts the parents and DPAC made today (June 9) were valuable to the L.A. Matheson students and that they are here for them. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Surrey parents host pro-LGBTQ rally at L.A. Matheson Secondary Published 2:13 pm Tuesday, June 9, 2026 Surrey Police…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":727312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194299],"tags":[49,48,87674],"class_list":["post-727488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-surrey","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-surrey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=727488"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727488\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/727312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=727488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=727488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=727488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}