Nation's First Transgender Camp Attracts Kids as Young as 8

Camp Aranu'tiq, the first transgender camp for kids in the nation, held its third annual week-long session in Connecticut in late August, WORLD News Service reports. According to a recent story in the Boston Globe, the 65 campers wear name tags "with the words '(HE)' or '(SHE)' under their names" so others will know how the child wants to be addressed. Programs at the camp, which is run by a 29-year-old transgender male named Nick Teich and now operates a branch in California, include discussions about "coming out," "transitioning," puberty blockers and bullying. Kids ages 8 through 15 attend the camp, and according to WORLD, concerns have been raised that encouraging children and adolescents that young to "come out" as transgender is abusive -- as even the liberal American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders lists transgenderism as a mental disorder.