Whitehorse Centre MLA becomes first openly non-binary MLA in Yukon history

A Yukon MLA made a historic announcement during a point of personal privilege in the territory's legislature on Wednesday.

The member for Whitehorse Centre informed the Legislative Assembly of their name change to Lane Tredger as well as their use of the pronouns they and them.

In doing so, Tredger became the first open non-binary MLA in the Yukon's history. For the foreseeable future, the Yukon NDP says Tredger will go by Lane (Emily) Tredger until people recognize the name.

"It's a big change in the way I interact with the world. But it was also a very easy decision because it was really clear to me that that was the way forward for me and I've had an incredible amount of support," Tredger told reporters.

Tredger said when people used their old name and pronouns, it felt like they were talking about somebody else. But the path to embracing Lane Tredger was complicated.

"It's just such a process and it's not a linear process. It's not one where you start one place and end up in another place," they said. "You go around in circles for a long time."

Two conversations with friends helped. In the first, Tredger realized the need to live as their true self.

"I only get one life. I want to live it the way I want to live. I want to live it as myself in the world. And that felt really powerful to me," they said.

In the second, a friend presented a hypothetical.

"How would you feel if you just decided to put all this to the side? Don't change anything, just go on as is," they said.

"And I realized when they asked me that, how sad that made me feel, how disappointed I felt. And at that point, it really became clear to me that it was a question of when, not if."

Tredger's announcement came before a crowd of students from the Rainbow Room at Porter Creek Secondary School.

Student Akiria Thorsteinson reflected on the milestone.

"It just goes to show how much confidence and how much freedom we're having nowadays. And being able to truly be a part of a community," they said.

Meanwhile, Avery Malcolm saw Tredger as a role model.

"I think it will help with a lot of closeted queer members to help come out to their — not only their family — but peers and schools. And I think it will just help with better acceptance," she said.