by Matt Strudwick, Daily Mail
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 phone call 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.
Watch: Connie Shaw of the Free Speech Union