Transgender day camp among first to include 4-year-olds

**Wilsonandson** · 07-08-2017, 07:43 PM

EL CERRITO, California -- In some ways, Rainbow Day Camp is very ordinary. Kids arrive with a packed lunch, make friendship bracelets, play basketball, sing songs and get silly.

But it is also extraordinarily unique, from the moment campers arrive each morning.

At check-in each day, campers make a nametag with their pronoun of choice. Some opt for “she” or “he.” Or a combination of “she/he.” Or “they,” or no pronoun at all. Some change their name or pronouns daily, to see what feels right.

The camp in the San Francisco Bay Area city of El Cerrito caters to transgender and “gender fluid” children, ages 4 to 12, making it one of the only camps of its kind in the world open to preschoolers, experts say. Enrolment has tripled to about 60 young campers since it opened three summers ago, with kids coming from as far as Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. - even Africa. Plans are underway to open a branch next summer in Colorado, and the camp has been contacted by parents and organizations in Atlanta, Seattle, Louisiana and elsewhere interested in setting up similar programs.

In this July 12, 2017 photo, Sandra Collins, executive director and founder of enGender, reads a book to campers at the Bay Area Rainbow Day Camp in El Cerrito, California. (AP Photo)

On a sunny July morning at camp, the theme was “Crazy Hair Day,” and 6-year-old Gracie Maxwell was dancing in the sunshine as a Miley Cyrus song blasted from outdoor speakers. The freckled, blue-eyed blonde wore her hair in a braid on one side, a pigtail on the other and snacked on cereal as she twirled and skipped.

“Once she could talk, I don't remember a time when she didn't say, `I'm a girl,”' said her mother, Molly Maxwell, who still trips over pronouns but tries to stick to “she.”

“Then it grew in intensity: `I'm a sister. I'm a daughter. I'm a princess,”' Maxwell said. “We would argue with her. She was confused. We were confused.”

Living in the liberal-minded Bay Area made it easier. The Maxwells found a transgender play group, sought specialists, and at 4 years old, let Gracie grow her hair, dress as a girl and eventually change her name.

“I see her now, compared to before. I watch her strut around and dance and sing and the way she talks about herself. If she was forced to be someone else,” the mother trails off. “I don't even want to think about that.”

Gender specialists say the camp's growth reflects what they are seeing in gender clinics nationwide: increasing numbers of children coming out as transgender at young ages. They credit the rise to greater openness and awareness of LGBT issues and parents tuning in earlier when a child shows signs of gender dysphoria, or distress about their gender.

“A decade ago, this camp wouldn't have existed. Eventually, I do believe, it won't be so innovative,” camp founder Sandra Collins said. “I didn't know you could be transgender at a very young age. But my daughter knew for sure at 2.”

Collins' experience as the mother of a transgender girl, now 9, inspired her to start the camp, and another for 13- to 17-year-olds called Camp Kickin' It.

“A lot of these kids have been bullied and had trauma at school. This is a world where none of that exists, and they're in the majority,” Collins said. “That's a new experience for kids who are used to hiding and feeling small.”

Fourth grader Scarlett Reinhold, Collins' daughter who was born a boy, says at camp she can be herself. “I feel comfortable for being who I am and who I want to be,” says Scarlett, a confident 9-year-old in a frilly skirt who wears her dark hair long and wavy.

There is little comprehensive data on young children who identify as transgender, but experts say as the number of young people coming to their clinics increases, the prevailing medical guidance has shifted.

The favoured protocol today is known as the “gender affirmative” approach, which focuses on identifying and helping transgender children to “socially transition” - to live as the gender they identify with rather than the one they were born with until they're old enough to decide on medical options like puberty blockers and later, hormone treatments.

The Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Children's Hospital in Los Angeles, started a decade ago with about 40 patients, now has over 900 people, ages 3 to 25, enrolled in its program, with 150 on its waiting list, said Johanna Olson-Kennedy, the clinic's medical director.

“I just think there's a lot more openness to the understanding that trans adults start as trans kids,” Olson-Kennedy said. “When people say, `Isn't this too young?' my question back to them is, `Too young for what? How young do people know their gender?' The answer to that is some people know it at 3, and some people know it at 30.”

Diane Ehrensaft, director of mental health at the University of California, San Francisco's Child and Adolescent Gender Center, says enrolment there has tripled over the past few years with a “sea change - maybe we can even call it a tsunami - in the number of little kids showing up with their families.”

She fields a growing number of calls from families overseas, including South Africa, Ethiopia, Hong Kong, Belgium, England and other countries that lack resources.

Studies show transgender adults have higher rates of suicide and depression than the general population. A 2016 study by the University of Washington's TransYouth Project, published in the journal Pediatrics, found trans children who live as their preferred gender and are supported by their parents have the same mental health outcomes as other kids their age.

At Rainbow Day Camp, a therapist is on hand to talk if kids want. Therapy sessions are extended to parents at a support group after morning drop-off. Many counsellors are transgender, which offers campers upbeat role models.

“I want to show these kids what a confident, happy, successful trans person looks like,” said camp director Andrew Kramer, 30, who goes by AK and came out as a transgender man at 26. “We teach them they are normal, deserving of love, and not alone.”

One family travelled from Africa to enrol their son in the camp for its full three-week summer session. The 9-year-old goes by the name Nao at Rainbow but has not publicly come out as a transgender girl. The family asked that their last name and the country where they live be kept confidential, fearing repercussions there.

Nao's mother, Miriam, said she watched her child blossom at camp. Nao was happier and less prone to outbursts, made friends, opened up about school bullying, and wants to return next summer.

“I think for the first time, (Nao) feels like just a normal kid,” Miriam said.

Before flying home, she said, Nao wrote a note to the camp's counsellors. It read: “Thank you, for making me feel so happy.”

Transgender day camp among first to include 4-year-olds | Bangkok Post: lifestyle

**Slick** · 07-08-2017, 07:58 PM

Good grief I can't wait for this nonsense to die off

**Davis Knowlton** · 07-08-2017, 08:00 PM

The parents should be gassed.

**reddog** · 07-08-2017, 08:05 PM

^
But shot with a ball of their own shit first.

**raycarey** · 07-08-2017, 08:09 PM

Originally Posted by Slick

Good grief I can't wait for this nonsense to die off

don't hold your breath.

hold on....no...on second thought....hold your breath.

**Slick** · 07-08-2017, 08:12 PM

Originally Posted by raycarey

Originally Posted by Slick

Good grief I can't wait for this nonsense to die off

don't hold your breath.

hold on....no...on second thought....hold your breath.

You support what's happening in the OP?

Why??

**raycarey** · 07-08-2017, 08:17 PM

Originally Posted by Davis Knowlton

The parents should be gassed.

if the parents are genuinely following the wishes and instincts of the children, then i don't see anything wrong with this at all.

but OK, what are parents supposed to do with this situation....

Originally Posted by Wilsonandson

“Once she could talk, I don't remember a time when she didn't say, `I'm a girl,”' said her mother, Molly Maxwell, who still trips over pronouns but tries to stick to “she.”

“Then it grew in intensity: `I'm a sister. I'm a daughter. I'm a princess,”' Maxwell said. “We would argue with her. She was confused. We were confused.”

should parents force the children repress their identity? beat them if they catch them wearing clothes not traditionally associated with their anatomical gender?

yeah, that'll work out just fine 10-20 years down the road.

this camp provides these kids a chance to be themselves, spend time with others like themselves, get counselling, etc...

it's 2017, people (particularly in california) aren't as shocked by transgenders as they once were...and still are in certain backwaters.

**raycarey** · 07-08-2017, 08:24 PM

Originally Posted by Slick

Originally Posted by raycarey

Originally Posted by Slick

Good grief I can't wait for this nonsense to die off

don't hold your breath.

hold on....no...on second thought....hold your breath.

You support what's happening in the OP?

Why??

the point of my post...unsurprisingly lost on you...is that "this" is not going to die off. on the contrary, transgenderism is only going to become more accepted.

**Slick** · 07-08-2017, 08:30 PM

4 year olds want to eat boogers and drink pancake syrup too

**Jimmy McNulty** · 07-08-2017, 08:46 PM

Camille Paglia and a few others I've read say that trans-mania / gender fluidity is a sign of cultural collapse.

**Slick** · 07-08-2017, 08:49 PM

"Gender Fluid"

I don't even.....

**Wilsonandson** · 07-08-2017, 11:02 PM

It's all like watching Jerry Springer to me.

**baldrick** · 07-08-2017, 11:10 PM

Originally Posted by Slick

I don't even.....

it cums out the end of a felching straw

embrace your trysexuality and don't let them get your goat

**CaptainNemo** · 08-08-2017, 01:54 AM

that is actual evil. it's like a quasi-religious cult... they are like scientologists.

they just won't stop pushing, will they... they should be arrested, shut down.

this is beyond a joke, beyond sick and wrong, they are like the focking borg.

**kmart** · 08-08-2017, 10:10 AM

Seems to be cyclical.

**bnice2me** · 08-08-2017, 10:23 AM

Originally Posted by raycarey

Originally Posted by Slick

Originally Posted by raycarey

Originally Posted by Slick

Good grief I can't wait for this nonsense to die off

don't hold your breath.

hold on....no...on second thought....hold your breath.

You support what's happening in the OP?

Why??

the point of my post...unsurprisingly lost on you...is that "this" is not going to die off. on the contrary, transgenderism is only going to become more accepted.

As it should be. I agree with your opinions on this camp.
I personally know two pre-teens where I am from who are now dressing and saying they are boys, not girls. The one girl that I know well acted as boy from a young age. She would dress like a boy, and wasn't interested in anything girls did. She who now goes by a boy's name, is just starting to get treatment (hormones) because you can only do the actual hormonal therapy from 15 or 16 (age of consent).

The camp could be a great way for these children to be themselves and make friends, because they are bullied in the real world.

**birding** · 08-08-2017, 10:28 AM

What has gone wrong with the human brain that there are those who dont know their sexuality even though they can clearly see the attachments they have been born with.

Hell even the insects know what they are and that male and female go together for sex and re-creation but in the supposed higher form of life the human there seems to be an increasing number who dont know what they are or want to be the opposite.

Is this natures way of limiting the growth of the human race or has the brain slipped a gear or something, whatever it is not normal anywhere in nature for one sex to think they are or want to be the other.

**bnice2me** · 08-08-2017, 10:34 AM

Originally Posted by birding

What has gone wrong with the human brain that there are those who dont know their sexuality even though they can clearly see the attachments they have been born with.

Hell even the insects know what they are and that male and female go together for sex and re-creation but in the supposed higher form of life the human there seems to be an increasing number who dont know what they are or want to be the opposite.

Is this natures way of limiting the growth of the human race or has the brain slipped a gear or something, whatever it is not normal anywhere in nature for one sex to think they are or want to be the other.

It's called Gender Dsyphoria. You can read about it here.. and it is a real thing. My best friend's daughter (who now goes by a male name) has went through it to the point where I've become quite aware of how real it is.
Gender Dysphoria: What It Is and How It's Treated

**BobR** · 08-08-2017, 01:37 PM

Originally Posted by bnice2me

It's called Gender Dsyphoria. You can read about it here.. and it is a real thing. My best friend's daughter (who now goes by a male name) has went through it to the point where I've become quite aware of how real it is.
Gender Dysphoria: What It Is and How It's Treated
[at] [at]

I'm sure it's real, but sucking kids into this (pardon the expression) at age 4 is more about creating homos than helping them. There's also a multi-billion dollar psychobabble industry in America (that much of the World seems to get along just fine without) seeking ways to lick up new sources of money.

**AntRobertson** · 08-08-2017, 01:54 PM

Originally Posted by BobR

more about creating homos

You can't actually force someone to be gay, Bob. Nor can you catch 'The Gay'. It's not like the flu.

**Passing Through** · 08-08-2017, 02:33 PM

^ Won't stop those homosexualist Muslamic Nazi feminist crypto-Marxists from trying, though will it? They're after BobR's precious bodily fluids and they won't stop until they get them.

**AntRobertson** · 08-08-2017, 02:50 PM

Originally Posted by Passing Through

Won't stop those homosexualist Muslamic Nazi feminist crypto-Marxists from trying, though will it? They're after BobR's precious bodily fluids and they won't stop until they get them.

True, they're an insidious and determined lot.

And the bad news for Bob is that they have a 100% conversion success rate when it comes to people who spend an inordinate amount of time worrying over if their secret attraction to the same sex means they've caught 'The Gay'.

**Lantern** · 08-08-2017, 05:07 PM

I blame the chemicals they are putting in the processed food.

**blue** · 08-08-2017, 05:55 PM

**DrB0b** · 08-08-2017, 06:03 PM

Originally Posted by BobR

but sucking kids into this (pardon the expression)

And that tells me everything I need to know about the validity of your opinion on this subject, you creepy old pervert.

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