I have seen the future (it's awesome!)

[Pat]

Sometimes I mention that I work in the performing arts. One of the things I do is produce a magic show for a local magician who is TS. Last night we had the most awesome show ever -- we were at a summer camp for trans kids. 120 campers; 40 or 60 staff (I don't think all the staff was there.) These kids are 8 to 15 and for a week or two weeks in the summer get to come to camp and just be themselves in a fully accepting environment. And they are incredible.

Sometimes this site can be such a dark place with people talking about their fear and their closeting and decades of hiding (how can that not warp us?) These kids are open and free and everything we should have been at their age. It's always been my hope that future generations would think we were crazy because they wouldn't understand why we waited so long to come out (if we ever did.) And I got to see that future last night. I feel like Moses looking into the Promised Land.

We had a chance to have dinner with them and observe their interactions, then do the show which was very well received. The camp director had asked us to mention our connection to the trans community if we were comfortable doing that, because we represented mature, successful adult TG folks who were out living our lives in the world. So the magician made a little impromptu speech at the front of the show and the kids started cheering and hooting. After the show, with tears in her eyes, the magician said, "I never got a round of applause for being trans before." My personal teary-eyed memory is when one of the younger kids came up to me and gravely said, "I just wanted to say good luck with your transition."

I can't give a lot of detail on the camp because they're very security-conscious (we had to go through a more rigorous background check than even the school systems require when we teach.) Even my therapist who gave me the lead on the camp and has multiple patients going there doesn't know where it is. They do have a public-facing website: http://www.camparanutiq.org/

I know they're going onto my "worthy charity" list.

[Jean 103]

I'm happy to here this. I'm out and live as a transgender person. A number of people have come up to me and told me about their transgender child. It always starts with them telling me that they support me . This includes a close friend of mine. Yes the world is changeing.

[Allisa]

Hope shines great in the younger generation for acceptance, I won't be around to see a more accepting or tolerant world but I hope my footsteps won't wash away as I go about my life in the public eye. It's great that they have a place to express their true selves in a non- threatening atmosphere. On a lighter note, you weren't the stereotypical magicians assistant with the sequined outfit were you?

[Pat]

Hope shines great in the younger generation for acceptance, I won't be around to see a more accepting or tolerant world but I hope my footsteps won't wash away as I go about my life in the public eye.

Every step we take; every impact we absorb; every bump we help to wear down, smooths the path for those who follow. We may never be remembered, but our effect will be felt.

On a lighter note, you weren't the stereotypical magicians assistant with the sequined outfit were you?

I only wear that outfit when we do our Provincetown show in August.

[bridget thronton]

The camp sounds wonderful - thanks for sharing and thanks for entertaining the kids

[Aemilie]

I'm sure that camp was featured in a BBC documentary or one very like it maybe a year or two ago, it was really interesting.

[Lana Mae]

Kudos for your experience! Thanks so much for sharing this great news! Hugs Lana Mae

[IleneD]

Pat,
What a powerful and wonderful story.
Thank you for sharing it.

[Dana44]

That is great Pat and indeed it took us a life time to be comfortable with ourselves. The kids for the future are amazing and so many are coming out in a way we never could have.

[Salina]

What an awesome place for trans kids to completely be themselves!

[Sarah O]

What a beautiful story.

[Angie G]

That's awesome Pat. I would have loved a place like that back in the day. Keep up the great worn hun
Angie

[alwayshave]

Pat, what a positive story. Thank you.

[KristyE]

Saw the documentry and wished there was a camp for us shy folk to break some ice in. Love KristyE