An eight-year-old disabled child was barred from attending a summer camp because his mother’s gender-critical views did not fit in with the ‘inclusive environment’, it has been claimed.
She had applied for her son, who has several severe physical defects, to go to charity Over The Wall’s trip from July 6 to 8 at Strathallan School in Perthshire, Scotland.
But the 52-year-old mother was told in March that she had been unsuccessful – moments after a heated phonecall with the charity’s clinical director in which the parent said people could not change sex.
Sally McCluskie had called the mother, who wanted to remain anonymous, after she had written ‘seriously?’ in response to a question on the application asking ‘what are your child’s pronouns?’.
The charity, which was founded by iconic Oscar-winning film star Paul Newman, insisted the decision to reject the application was because the mother was ‘verbally aggressive’ on the phone.
But she managed to uncover documents detailing the call with the help of Free Speech Union Scotland which stated her views ‘do not align with the values we uphold’.
‘We will be making the family unsuccessful for this year’s camp due to the lack of alignment with our inclusive environment,’ Ms McCluskie wrote.
Ms McCluskie documents in the notes, obtained through a subject access request, that the mother had become ‘immediately defensive’ when she had explained the importance of pronouns at the camps, according to The Telegraph.
‘[The mother] immediately became defensive, stating that we cannot tell her child what to say,’ she wrote.
‘She made it clear that if her child sees a girl, he should refer to her as a girl.’
She said the mother had ‘abruptly’ ended the call after saying she was ‘shocked by our stance’ and that she would not change her views.
The mother said the treatment she had received was ‘absolutely disgusting’, before adding: ‘I think it’s sick to have let [gender ideology] bleed into a charity that’s supposed to help these children and their families.’
It is understood a transgender child was going to be attending the summer camp.
A spokesperson for OTW said: ‘The decision was not based on the views expressed on a form, but on [the mother’s] conduct during a phone call with our Clinical Director, where she was verbally aggressive and ended the call abruptly.
‘Our decision was influenced by the fact that we had accepted a family with a transgender child for that camp, and considering [the mother’s] strong views on gender and her right to express them, we thought it prudent that she did not attend that camp to avoid any potential issues or conflict.’
In May, a mother was banned from the playground by her daughter’s primary school after complaining that children as young as nine were having their ‘transgender identity’ affirmed by teachers.
Karina Conway, 42, was said to have complained about the way gender issues were being taught to pupils at Sunnyside Spencer Academy in Beeston, Nottingham.
The mother-of-two claimed the school was teaching 11-year-olds that ‘transgender identity’ was a protected characteristic, when the Equality Act makes no mention of it.
She was ordered to stay away from the playground for eight months in September 2024 and then told she could only return if she didn’t criticise the school online, The Telegraph reported.
Teachers had previously called the police in 2023 when Ms Conway and women’s rights activist Kellie-Jay Keen staged a protest outside the school.
Ms Conway told The Telegraph: ‘This trust is silencing the voices of parents who know sex is real and when it matters, it really matters.’
