‘Special Person’s Day’: Campaign to change Father’s Day sparks outrage

The Australian activist’s comments have been labelled ‘offensive’

Dr Scarlet says that shifting the language around events like Father’s Day will help instil a better sense of belonging (

A woman is calling for Father’s Day to be renamed ‘Special Person’s Day’ so that children without dads don’t feel left out or upset by their situation.

An Australian activist with a doctorate in early childhood studies, Dr Red Ruby Scarlet is campaigning for the name of the annual holiday to be changed, as she believes it would help a lot of youngsters.

Appearing on Today Tonight, the university academic explained that shifting the language around events like Father’s Day will help instil a better sense of belonging.

While Dr Scarlet eluded to mention whether or not the same change should apply to Mother’s Day, she insisted that the move would benefit wider families, not just children.

“There are children who have a dad, who also have a grandfather and also have an auntie and also have other kinds of relatives,” she told host Rosanna Mangiarelli.

“There are also a huge range of different family structures, so we have single parent families, satellite families, extended families, lesbian and gay families.

Her comments have since been met with stern criticism by New South Wales Education Minister David Elliot, who reportedly wrote on Facebook, “People still celebrate fatherhood even after their father and grandfathers have passed away, in fact for many people Father's Day is a wonderful time of reflecting and remembering.

”Dr Red Ruby Scarlet you are the offensive one. Maybe we should start a campaign to address that."

Fathers4Justice founder Matt O’Connor added: “This is yet another attempt to further undermine and marginalise fathers by a repugnant, fatherphobic minority.”

Others took to Twitter to share their views on Dr Scarlet’s campaign writing, “Apparently the PC brigade now want to rename Father's Day to Special Person's Day. Seems a bit of a sexist view.”

Despite the backlash, Dr Scarlet defended her comments and the necessity for young children to see social justice by saying, “There's a lot of Australian research that has actually informed a lot of international research.

“Teacher research for example, that has demonstrated children's capacity to be really inclusive once they know about these ideas and they think 'wow why are people seeing this as a controversy, why are we calling this political correctness when in fact it's about our rights."