Top 30 Under 30: #28

Trevor Loke


Despite his youth, Trevor Loke is already something of a political veteran.

In 2011, at the age of 22, he became the youngest-ever elected official in Vancouver history when he won a seat on the city’s parks board under the Vision Vancouver umbrella.

“I believe everyone should consider giving public service a shot at some point,” he says. “It’s an incredible experience to be able to work for people and help them with issues that affect their day-to-day lives.”

Before becoming a parks board commissioner, he was a director-at-large on the provincial council of the BC Green Party and worked as a constituency assistant for Delta South MLA Vicki Huntington and as an aide to former Surrey North MP Chuck Cadman. He also ran unsuccessfully as a candidate for the Green Party in the 2009 provincial election.

Since taking office, he’s pushed for more inclusive policies for trans and gender-variant people in local parks and recreation facilities.

“Of course, I considered myself as part of a broader set of communities, but my experience and understanding of these communities was most deeply rooted in my experience as a white, gay male, an experience of privilege,” he notes.

Along with the policies, he helped create a community working group to address some of the barriers preventing trans and gender-variant people from comfortably accessing parks and recreation services.

Loke, now 24, says he looks forward to working on the group’s recommendations when it completes its report in April.

“When I began to learn of the various barriers to access which existed for our trans and gender-variant communities in Vancouver, it became apparent to me that we had left the ‘T’ behind, both as a broader queer community and as a society,” he says.

“This community is my family, and it’s an incredible family to be part of.”

The Top 30 Under 30 has begun! Join the discussion on our special Facebook event page dedicated to this project.

And check back tomorrow when we reveal #27 as Xtra celebrates BC’s best and brightest young queer leaders.

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Power, News, Vancouver, Youth

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