Wilbur Turner
“Being named a QT-Elder carries real responsibility, especially now. I came of age as a queer person while watching friends die of AIDS, and I learned then that survival without witness is its own kind of erasure. Thirty years of advocacy have only deepened that conviction — the wins we celebrate, from marriage equality to the ban on conversion therapy, were never inevitable; they were fought for. What this recognition means to me is a call to keep showing up: to gather the rainbow community against forces that want to erase us, to help reclaim spaces being taken away, and to turn toward younger people and say, this is yours to carry, and you are not alone.
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Wilbur Turner (he/him) is a gay and queer writer and speaker, nonprofit leader, and community organizer based in Kelowna, BC, whose advocacy spans three decades and reaches from the Okanagan to the national stage. He came out in the mid-1990s and began his advocacy work amid the HIV/AIDS epidemic, a formative experience that shaped his lifelong commitment to the rainbow community.
He is the founder and president of Advocacy Canada, whose campaigns include a successful push to ban conversion therapy and the landmark 2023 You Belong billboard campaign, created with an Indigenous queer artist, which reached over three million viewers across Kelowna.
Wilbur has served as president of both Kelowna Pride and Fierté Canada Pride, and during his career with Rogers Communications received the Humanitarian Award, Employee of the Year, and CEO Award for community contribution and advocacy. He is a peer navigator for 2SLGBTQIA+ healthcare access. He also writes a weekly column for Black Press Media and publishes as QueerGranddad on Substack and social media. In 2025, the University of British Columbia awarded him an Honorary Doctor of Laws for his contributions to community.