A Christian camp said a transgender child couldn't stay in a boys' cabin. Then came the human rights battle
CBC
For parents of transgender children, normal kids' activities — like going to summer camp — aren't so simple.
Jan Gootjes, a New Brunswick mother of a transgender boy, knows this all too well. She regularly screens programs and activities to make sure they'll welcome him, will use his correct pronouns and provide the right accommodations.
That's what she did one day in the summer of 2020, when her son asked if he could go to Caton's Island summer camp and stay in a cabin with his male friends.
But because she didn't formally register her son to attend, the human rights complaint she later filed against the camp, a Christian program operated by the Wesleyan Church, was dismissed.
In the summer of 2020, Luke — CBC has changed his name for this story — was 11, and had come out as transgender nearly two years before.
He came home one day from playing with his friends, who'd told him they wanted to go to Caton's Island summer camp.
The camp, on a 120-acre island about a half-hour drive north of Saint John, has been operating since 1985. It advertises itself as a "small piece of paradise" on its website.
Luke wanted to go to the camp too, Gootjes said, but first he had to know: would he and his friends be able to stay in the same cabin?
Gootjes decided to message the camp on Facebook before beginning a formal registration process. She explained the situation and asked whether Luke could stay in a cabin with his male friends.
Eleven days later, on June 30, the camp responded:
"Hi Jan, unfortunately at this time we are not able to place your child in a cabin with the gender they identify with. Thank you for considering us!"
Right away, Gootjes asked for an explanation. Unless there was a logistical reason Luke couldn't stay in a cabin with his friends, she wrote, she would assume the camp's decision had to do with his transgender status.
"Yes, let's talk," the camp wrote back to Gootjes that evening.
Neither Caton's Island summer camp nor the Atlantic District of the Wesleyan Church responded to requests for comment for this story.
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