A new summer camp in Quebec will offer a place for transgender, intersex and gender creative kids to relax, have fun and just be … kids.
The Camp of Six Colors was created by Gender Creative Kids Canada, a parent action group based in Montreal. During one week in August, transgender kids aged 7 to 15 years and their siblings will be able to enjoy outdoors activities in an environment free from judgment.
“The camp is everything about having fun and being a kid and nothing about being trans.” – Akiko Asano, president of Gender Creative Kids Canada
“It’s important that children have a safe place… to go without having to worry, or even think about the identity/gender issue,” says Akiko Asano, president of Gender Creative Kids Canada.
This is the first camp of its kind in Canada, accordind to Asana. Summer camps for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender children and their siblings exist elsewhere, but they are only available for kids 13 years and older.
“A trans child or a gender creative child does not live the same reality as a child who is gay or lesbian or bisexual,” she says.
The children will be able to choose how they are going to be addressed and whether they prefer to use the boys’ or girls’ dormitories and washrooms.
Besides the summer camp, Gender Creative Kids Canada offers monthly social groups for transgender kids 7 to 14 years of age and their siblings and training in schools where children are transitioning from one gender to another.
Akiko Asano, president of the advocacy organization Gender Creative Kids Canada talks to Gilda Salomone about the Camp of Six Colors, the first summer camp for transgender kids in Quebec.
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