Summer Camp

I wish they had a summer camp like this when I was a kid.

Camps for transgender teenagers: 'It was almost magical'
Huge demand for summer trips in Essex that give young people the chance to have fun and build support networks
The Guardian
By Kate Lyons
July 13, 2016

A year ago, Nick was leaving his house only once a week – to go to Sunday lunch at his grandmother’s house. The 20-year-old from Manchester had dropped out of education because of his anxiety about how people would react to him as a trans man.

A friend he’d met online told him about a summer camping trip run by trans support organisation Gendered Intelligence (GI) and, despite his anxieties, Nick signed up.

“I arrived at the GI camp with no friends, I hadn’t left the house in a year and a half aside from visiting family, and I left full of hope, acceptance, confidence and several extremely strong friendships,” said Nick, who re-enrolled in college shortly after returning from the trip last year.
[…]
As well as participating in traditional camp activities such as canoeing, kayaking, archery and climbing, the group books the swimming pool at the campsite for two afternoons, so they can use it exclusively. For some campers, it is the first time they have been swimming in years.

Over on this side of the pond we also have trans camps, one of the first ones was Camp Aranu’tiq that is located at one time in the Berkshire’s of Massachusetts. A 2014 article in the Huffington Post by Mary J. Moss who writes about the camp,

Camp Aranu’tiq: A Safe Haven for Transgender Kids
The smell of campfires in the night air and the sound of Cicadas outside my window reminded me it was summer in Upstate NY. I haven’t ever liked summer. It’s not just because I am always warm. You’ll never see me wear a coat even on the coldest winter day. That wasn’t the real reason I disliked summer, my childhood was the reason. I loved school as a kid and I didn’t want it to end. I knew that ending of the school year meant loneliness. The other kids looked forward to a summer of playing hopscotch and marco polo in the pool. To most it meant a summer of overnight camps with ghost stories and s’mores to look forward to. I longed for an overnight camp but that wasn’t in the cards for me. Most of my childhood was in a wheelchair which wasn’t conducive to me playing hopscotch or marco polo. School days or rainy days meant the other kids were inside and would keep me company. But hot summer days meant all of the kids were outside and I was alone. I wished for a summer full of rainy days but I knew that wasn’t realistic.
[…]
My son attended his first year at Camp Aranu’tiq in 2011. I remember the drive with my parents and my son, Chris, to their New England location. My son was so overjoyed he could barely contain himself. We arrived in the beautiful woodsy location to see many parents and kids with that same anticipation. Nick greeted us as did his mom and dad who both work at Camp Aranu’tiq. He gave Chris a t-shirt and name badge where he put his first name and the pronoun he preferred to be called. He proudly wore his badge with Chris and “he” on it and he ran off to find his bunk mates. My parents and I walked the beautiful trail to find his bunk. It overlooked the water and was quite rustic. Each bunk house had several cots in bunk bed style. A camp counselor was assigned to sleep with the campers in every bunk. It smelled of pine trees and had dirt floors that reminded you of real camping. It was perfect.

Now there are other camps around the country,

Camp Aranu’tiq has grown from one New England camp and about 60 campers in 2010 to the addition of a West Coast camp, a family camp and a leadership camp with 400 campers in 2014. My son attended Camp Aranu’tiq 3 years in a row. He made lifelong friends and wonderful memories. My son spoke of his love of Camp Aranu’tiq when we taped the Katie Couric TV show in 2013. (see video [the video is embed in the Huffington Post article is you want to watch it, it is 34 minutes long]) As he proudly says to Katie, “Camp Aranu’tiq is like any other camp the kids just happen to be transgender.”

This is great for many of the children they are not “out” at home and also many times the schools that these children attend are not conducive to trans students so this gives them time to be themselves in a non-judgmental setting.