The Awesome Summer Camp for Transgender & Gender Fluid Kids

Jeff Chiu/AP

California’s Rainbow Day Camp entertains kids with fun activities like sports games and arts and crafts. However, the cool thing about this camp — it serves transgender and gender fluid children. This year, the camp welcomed 60 campers!

The program was started two years ago by Sandra Collins who was trying to find a safe space for her transgender daughter.

“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.”

“I like to be who I am and it’s not fun to be who I am not,” her daughter, Scarlett, said.

Many of the counselors of the camp are also transgender. One counselor explained the benefits of having transgender and gender non-conforming counselors there for the kids:”[The kids are] following their creative interests and they don’t have this added stress or weight of being ‘othered.’ They get to be their most authentic selves and build a community with other people who understand their same life experiences.”

The camp has had such positive results and there are plans to open a camp in Colorado next summer, as well as other major metropolitan areas in the future.

Watch the video below to learn more about the camp and more from parents who have kids who attend the camp: