Summer Camp Demands Transgender Teen Leave Due to “Life Choice”
metroweekly.comWALB. She also objected to the camp’s framing of her gender identity as a “life choice.”“If it was a choice, I wouldn’t choose to be a part of the LGBTQ community or be trans because I wouldn’t want to put myself through the struggles that other people don’t have to go through,” Clark said.Connie Bivens, the counselor at Connect Camps who sent the message, noted that the organization is a faith-based camp that travels around the world and holds week-long camp sessions for elementary school children ranging from kindergarten to eighth grade.
But she denied that Clark’s gender identity had any influence on the decision.Rather, Bivens said, she had overheard other girls at the camp talking about Clark in a negative way, prompting the counselors to hold a meeting to discuss the situation.
She said the counselors decided it was best that Clark not return, for her own safety.“Our choice, our decision was based on ‘can we keep her safe and can she have a wonderful time at camp,'” said Bivens. “We felt we couldn’t do that, and it had nothing to do with Lizzie being transgender.”She noted that the girls who were talking about Clark were also asked to leave the camp, and that Clark could come back as a camper, but not as a volunteer leader.Daabes says it was difficult to hear the reasoning behind the camp’s decision to ask her daughter to leave.“It was hard…it was really hard.
I just wanted to know why, why you singled out my child home why not address the bad behavior,” she said.“I know that we’re seen as outcasts and different.
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