LGBTQIA+ Summer Camp Guide

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92Y’s Camp Pride
Website: www.92y.org/camps/camp-pride
Ages: Grades 6 – 12
Location: Rockland Conty, NY
Day or Overnight: Day
Description: Imagine all of the joy and fun of summer camp—the swimming, arts, sports, day trips and more—in an environment that offers safety, freedom, and support to LGBTQ+ campers.

Appel Farm Arts Camp
Website: www.appelfarm.org/camp
Ages: 7 – 17
Location: Elmer, NJ
Day or Overnight: O/N
Description: Appel Farm Arts Camp is a gender-affirming overnight summer arts camp for kids ages 7 – 17. We offer connection and learning through an arts-based curriculum, in a safe environment of community, personal growth, and fun!

Brave Trails
Website: www.bravetrails.org/summer-camp
Ages: 12 – 18
Location: Big Bear, CA
Day or Overnight: O/N
Description: All of the elements of a typical summer camp with a LGBTQ twist! Camp Brave Trails is designed to be a haven for LGBTQ youth, where they can build community, meet supportive adult mentors, and gain leadership skills.

Brave Trails
Website: www.bravetrails.org/summer-camp
Ages: 12 – 18
Location: Near Frederick, MD
Day or Overnight: O/N
Description: All of the elements of a typical summer camp with a LGBTQ twist! Camp Brave Trails is designed to be a haven for LGBTQ youth, where they can build community, meet supportive adult mentors, and gain leadership skills.

Camp Aranu’tiq
Website: www.camparanutiq.org
Ages: 8 – 13, first camp experience, 14+ returning campers
Location: New Hampshire
Day or Overnight: O/N
Description: We operate as a typical overnight camp; do not formally talk about gender, we just let our kids be kids!

Camp Artistree
Website: artistreearts.com/ee-semester/summer
Ages: 3 – 18
Location: Mamaroneck, New York
Day or Overnight: Day
Description: Artistree Performing Arts is a performing arts studio offering classes​ in acting, singing, dance, music and film ​for students ages 3 to 18 years old. The focus of Artistree’s instruction is to enhance the techniques required in all disciplines of theater and the arts. We strive to foster a community where students can build their confidence and establish friendships in a supportive, fun, and nurturing environment.

Camp Dragonfly
Website: camp-dragonfly.com/summer-camp
Ages: 6 – 13
Location: Edmonton, AB Canada
Day or Overnight: Day
Description: Camp Dragonfly is a summer camp for trans+, gender-creative and gender-diverse kids, their siblings, and friends. Since the summer of 2018, Camp Dragonfly has hosted a summer and winter camp each year, so far serving over 160 families from Alberta and beyond. Our mission is to bring trans and gender-creative children together for creativity, connection, and celebration. By hosting a summer camp that encourages self-exploration and affirmation, we embrace children of all identities and experiences.

Camp Hawkeye
Website: www.camphawkeye.com
Ages: 7 – 17
Location: Charlestown, NH
Day or Overnight: O/N
Description: Camp Hawkeye cuts across these seemingly harmless boundaries and brings together kids who don’t live near each other, attend the same schools, or belong to the same clubs. We intentionally recruit campers and staff from a variety of backgrounds, family situations, self-identifying characteristics, religions, socioeconomic realities, and geographic locations, and we believe that our camp is all the better for it! Our development is deeper, our understanding is better and our perspective is broader. That means our campers have a more well-rounded experience and build deeper relationships that last beyond the summer.

Camp Highlight
Website: www.camphighlight.com/chl
Ages: Camp Highlight 8 – 15, Highlight Leadership Academy 16 – 18, Families
Location: Wernersville, PA
Day or Overnight: O/N
Description: Camp Highlight is a community where children of LGBTQ families can connect, grow, and play! We provide an amazing range of camp experiences that are fun and encourage campers to be more mature, more community focused, and kinder. Some campers identify as LBGTQ+ themselves however, the tie that binds them is their experience of being children of LGBTQ+ parents. Camp Highlight is more than just a specialty camp. Our mission is to create a generation of children that are kind, generous, responsible, and united. To that end, everything we do at Camp Highlight is rooted in our Nine Virtues: peace, honesty, generosity, respect, courage, acceptance, responsibility, cooperation, and unity. We encourage every camper to practice and live those virtues in order to become the very best version of themselves they can be. We believe that every camper should “Shine Brighter.” By practicing the Virtues and being their best selves, campers will encourage others around them at home and in their communities to do the same.

Highlight Family Camp takes place Friday October 6, 2023 – Monday October 9, 2023. Alongside their children, LGBTQ parents will experience challenging camp activities such as the climbing wall and celebrated pastimes like the Talent Show. Many optional activities are offered throughout the day so families can choose to enjoy their time together or separate for different experiences. Camp Highlight staff will be on hand to facilitate the fun for children of all ages and supervise when parents are occupied.

Camp Indigo
Website: www.thecampindigo.org
Ages: 4 – 17
Location: Boulder, CO
Day or Overnight: Day
Description: Camp Indigo was founded on the belief that trans and gender diverse kids deserve a ‘normal’ summer day camp experience. When so much of a child’s life is based on educating others and trying to find their place in the world, Camp Indigo is what childhood is meant to be: fun, friend-centered, and full of wonder.

Camp Indigo
Website: www.thecampindigo.org
Ages: 4 – 17
Location: Oakland, California
Day or Overnight: Day
Description: Camp Indigo was founded on the belief that trans and gender diverse kids deserve a ‘normal’ summer day camp experience. When so much of a child’s life is based on educating others and trying to find their place in the world, Camp Indigo is what childhood is meant to be: fun, friend-centered, and full of wonder.

Camp Lightbulb
Website: www.camplightbulb.org/summer-camp
Ages: 14 – 18
Location: Provincetown, MA
Day or Overnight: O/N
Description: We create awesome camp experiences that are a rollercoaster of inspiration and celebration and incorporate elements of Art, Community, Fun, Learning, Outdoors, Service, and Well-being.

Camp Lightbulb
Website: www.camplightbulb.org/summer-camp
Ages: 14 -18
Location: New York, NY
Day or Overnight: O/N
Description: We create awesome camp experiences that are a rollercoaster of inspiration and celebration and incorporate elements of Art, Community, Fun, Learning, Outdoors, Service, and Well-being.

Camp Lilac
Website: www.camplilac.org
Ages: 12 – 17
Location: Ohio
Day or Overnight: O/N
Description: Camp Lilac is a summer camp in Ohio for transgender and gender diverse youth. Our mission is to provide a safe, welcoming space for transgender youth to be themselves in a positive, supportive, youth-focused environment.

Camp Mulberry
Website: laurel-foundation.org/programs/campmulberry
Ages: 6 – 17
Location: Southern CA
Day or Overnight: O/N
Description: Camp Mulberry provides campers an opportunity to enjoy traditional camp activities (archery, swimming, and kayaking), while being surrounded by peers who understand their unique experiences as transgender/gender-diverse youth. Camp Mulberry is an inclusive, gender-affirming community where campers meet adult mentors and role models and create a positive self-identity.

Camp OUTdoors!
Website: outdoorsgaycamp.com
Ages: 11 – 24
Location: Arizona
Day or Overnight: O/N
Description: Camp OUTdoors offers youth empowering workshops, lead by college professors, LGBTQ professionals, and leaders of the LGBTQ movement! Our fun team building activities are facilitated by passionate & qualified professionals, community activists, and counselors in training (CIT’s).

Camp Outright
Website: www.outrightvt.org/camp-outright
Ages: 13 – 17
Location: Starksboro, VT
Day or Overnight: O/N
Description: A traditional residential summer camp with a queer twist. A place where youth find their people. A place of silliness and play, self-expression and belonging. Camp Outright is committed to equitable and inclusive spaces for queer youth of color and trans femme youth, making sure that these groups are highly represented among our leadership and camper body.

Camp Quest Blue Ridge
Website: CampQuestBlueRidge.org
Ages: 8 – 17
Location: Thaxton, VA
Day or Overnight: O/N
Description: Camp Quest provides a fun, memorable summer experience for campers to celebrate their diversity, discover the natural world around them, and forge lasting friendships in a supportive, like-minded community. Our Camp Quest campers come as unique individuals, learn and share in educational and inquisitive adventures, and leave as enriched individuals, confident in making an impact and passing on their humanist values in their own home communities.

Camp Quest Kansas City
Website: campquestkc.com
Ages: 8 – 17
Location: La Cygne, KS
Day or Overnight: O/N
Description: All Camp Quest® programs focus on seven educational content areas which form the foundation of our unique approach to program development. We pride ourselves on having innovative, leading-edge programming and empower our camp leaders to incorporate the latest in research, technology, and best-practices when developing camp activities.

Camp Quest North
Website: campquestnorth.org
Ages: 8 – 17
Location: Mound, MN
Day or Overnight: O/N
Description: Camp Quest provides a fun, memorable summer experience for campers to celebrate their diversity, discover the natural world around them, and forge lasting friendships in a supportive, like-minded community. Our Camp Quest campers come as unique individuals, learn and share in educational and inquisitive adventures, and leave as enriched individuals, confident in making an impact and passing on their humanist values in their own home communities.

Camp Quest North
Website: campquestnorth.org
Ages: 8 – 17
Location: Boone, IA
Day or Overnight: O/N
Description: Camp Quest provides a fun, memorable summer experience for campers to celebrate their diversity, discover the natural world around them, and forge lasting friendships in a supportive, like-minded community. Our Camp Quest campers come as unique individuals, learn and share in educational and inquisitive adventures, and leave as enriched individuals, confident in making an impact and passing on their humanist values in their own home communities.

Camp Quest NorthWest
Website: http://campquestnorthwest.org
Ages: 8 – 17
Location: Washington
Day or Overnight: O/N
Description: Camp Quest provides a fun, memorable summer experience for campers to celebrate their diversity, discover the natural world around them, and forge lasting friendships in a supportive, like-minded community. Our Camp Quest campers come as unique individuals, learn and share in educational and inquisitive adventures, and leave as enriched individuals, confident in making an impact and passing on their humanist values in their own home communities.

Camp Quest Ohio
Website: http://campquestohio.org
Ages: 8 – 17
Location: Ohio
Day or Overnight: O/N
Description: Camp Quest provides an educational adventure shaped by fun, friends, and freethought, featuring science, natural wonder and humanist values. Camp Quest envisions a world in which children grow up exploring, thinking for themselves, connecting with their communities, and acting to make the most of life for themselves and others.

Camp Quest on the Farm
Website: campquest.org/onthefarm
Ages: Grades 4 – 5
Location: Staunton, VA
Day or Overnight: Day
Description: Camp Quest on the Farm will offer a fun, inclusive summer experience that challenges campers to build relationships, develop critical thinking skills and explore humanist values. Through the partnership with Project GROWS, campers will engage in activities that encourage natural discovery, offering education about nutrition and sustainable agriculture.

Camp Quest Pioneer Valley
Website: CampQuest.org/Pioneer-Valley
Ages: Grades 1 – 6
Location: Greenfield, MA
Day or Overnight: Day
Description: Camp Quest provides a fun, memorable summer experience for campers to celebrate their diversity, discover the natural world around them, and forge lasting friendships in a supportive, like-minded community. Our Camp Quest campers come as unique individuals, learn and share in educational and inquisitive adventures, and leave as enriched individuals, confident in making an impact and passing on their humanist values in their own home communities.

Camp Quest Smoky Mountains
Website: www.cqsmokymountains.org
Ages: 8 – 17
Location: Eastern TN
Day or Overnight: O/N
Description: Our location in the Great Smoky Mountains of Eastern Tennessee allows us to promote stewardship of nature and to help campers explore the natural world every day. We also hold typical camp activities, like swimming, hiking, and arts and crafts, in addition to our signature Camp Quest offerings, like Socrates Cafe and Famous Freethinkers.

Camp Quest Texas
Website: campquesttexas.org
Ages: 8 – 17
Location: Graford, TX
Day or Overnight: O/N
Description: Camp Quest provides an educational adventure shaped by fun, friends, and freethought – featuring science, natural wonder, and humanist values.

Camp Quest West
Website: www.campquestwest.org
Ages: 8 – 17
Location: California
Day or Overnight: O/N
Description: Camp Quest provides an educational adventure shaped by fun, friends, and freethought, featuring science, natural wonder and humanist values. Camp Quest envisions a world in which children grow up exploring, thinking for themselves, connecting with their communities, and acting to make the most of life for themselves and others.

Camp Quinebarge
Website: www.campquinebarge.com/lgbt-friendly-summer-camp
Ages: 6 -16
Location: Moultonborough, NH
Day or Overnight: O/N
Description: As an LGBT friendly summer camp, we provide a safe space for members of the LGBT+ community to be themselves, while immersing them in a fun, safe, and enriching summer program. Though our program is not tailored specifically to LGBT+ individuals, we are committed to being an intentionally open, inclusive environment for all who choose to join us.

Camp Ten Trees
Website: camptentrees.org
Ages: 8 – 17
Location: Washington
Day or Overnight: Virtual for 2023
We are offering two programs for 2023: Camp Ten Trees 365 and Virtual Summer Camp.

CTT365 is a free, year-round online program that meets weekly for a variety of activities; role-playing and digital games, creative arts and writing, trivia nights and community hangout sessions to name a few. Once your kiddo is registered, they can choose whichever sessions they would like to join.

Virtual Summer Camp will be a dedicated virtual program held in the summer that will include a full schedule of activities. Last year’s VC had everything from Dungeon’s & Dragons to a talent show. Dates will be announced this spring.

Our goal is to bring back in-person camp summer 2024.

Camp True Colors
Website: oneheartland.org/camps-and-programs/camp-true-colors
Ages: 7 – 17
Location: Willow River, MN
Day or Overnight: O/N
Description: Camp True Colors is a place designed just for LGBTQ+ youth, where you can have fun and enjoy summer camp activities in a welcoming environment, while building community with peers and adults with similar shared experiences.

épanouie Day Camp
Website: gendercamps.com/epanouie
Ages: 10 – 12
Location: La Cañada Flintridge, CA
Day or Overnight: Day
Description: Connect, create, and get empowered! épanouie is a summer day camp for transgender and gender nonbinary youth on the transfeminine spectrum, ages 10 to 12. It’s five fun-filled days of games, art projects, education, and water balloons! This summer will be a blast as you get creative, make new friends, and learn important skills for growing up.

Highlight Leadership Academy
Website: www.camphighlight.com/hla
Ages: 16 – 18
Location: Wernersville, PA
Day or Overnight: O/N
Description: The Highlight Leadership Academy is for teens aged 16-18 who come from LGBTQ families. Developed with the understanding that Leadership is a skill and an art, the Academy’s curriculum achieves the perfect balance of learning, group engagement, and fun! Throughout the year, our staff Mentors work to create interactive seminars to help teens build skills in active listening, public speaking, facilitation, and more. While at Leadership Academy, teens engage in these seminars as a small group, which allows them to ask questions and work at their own pace to build on their leadership skills.

Naming Project Summer Camp
Website: www.thenamingproject.org/summer-camp
Ages: 13 – 18
Location: Deerwood, MN
Day or Overnight: O/N
Description: The Naming Project Summer Camp is for 13-18 year-olds or those who have completed 7th-12th grades who are of any sexual orientation or gender identity or expression who are interested in discussing and understanding sexuality and gender in terms of their own spiritual journey and are excited to spend time with other teen campers and staff while canoeing, swimming, hiking, singing, doing arts and crafts.

New Country Pride Camp
Website: www.14streety.org/Camps
Ages: 5 – 13
Location: New York, NY
Day or Overnight: Day
Description: A specialty program of New Country Day Camp (NCDC), New Country Pride Camp (NCPC) is a welcoming, open-tent community of LGBTQ+ young people and staff that celebrates and sustains joyful, outdoor summer experiences where all can thrive.

Odyssey Teen Camp
Website: www.odysseyteencamp.com
Ages: 13 – 18
Location: Berkshire Mountains, MA
Day or Overnight: O/N
Description: poets, artists, LGBTQ+, theatre kids, gamers, hippies, goths, shy kids, activists, punk rockers, geeks, nerds… can express themselves and embark on their own personal odyssey of self-discovery.

Pride Camp
Website: pridecamp.org
Ages: 14 -18
Location: Des Moines, IA
Day or Overnight: O/N
Description: Pride Camp is an epic, life-changing program for LGBTQ and allied youth in 9th-12th grade (ages 14-18) to learn, grow, and connect with each other!

Pride Camp University
Website: pridecamp.org
Ages: 11 – 13
Location: Des Moines, IA
Day or Overnight: Day
Description: Iowa Safe Schools is excited to bring the Pride Camp experience to 6th-8th grade (ages 11-13) students through Pride Camp University. Structured in an interactive day camp format, we can’t wait to offer your camper new experiences that encourage students to be Confident, Healthy, Innovative, Qualified, and Engaged

Queer Oriented Radical Days of Summer
Website: qords.org
Ages: 12 – 17
Location: Virtual
Day or Overnight: Day
Description: By empowering Southern queer youth and building community through music and the arts, QORDS is a vehicle for expressing gender and sexuality, and harbors an environment of self-discovery and social change.

Rainbow Camp
Website: http://www.rainbowcamp.ca
Ages: 12 – 17
Location: Sault Ste Marie (Ontario) * USA Youth are welcome!
Day or Overnight: O/N
Description: Welcome Friend Association’s Rainbow Camp® is a camp for young people who are 2 spirited, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer questioning (2SLGBTQ+) and allied youth, their siblings and children in Queer families. WFA’s Rainbow Camp® is committed to developing a camp community which honours creativity, individual choice, and social justice while having fun!

Rebels of the Moon
Website: www.willowell.org/rebels-of-the-moon
Ages: 12 – 17
Location: Monkton, VT
Day or Overnight: Day
Description: Rebels of the Moon a summer camp built for young women and gender non-conforming folks who are interested in connecting to nature, yoga, social justice, community and radical self-love. We will spend each day focusing on one of the 7 energy centers in the body as we explore what it means to step into your personal power and voice.

Unicorn Day Camp
Website: gendercamps.com/unicorndaycamp
Ages: 6 – 9
Location: La Cañada Flintridge, CA
Day or Overnight: Day
Description: Unicorn Day Camp is a summer program for transgender and gender nonbinary kids ages 6 to 9. It’s four exciting days of arts, crafts, games, and lots of unicorn magic!

We Rock Charlotte
Website: www.werockclt.org/rock-camp
Ages: 8 – 17
Location: Charlotte, NC
Day or Overnight: Day
Description: By uniting musical education with social justice programs, We Rock Charlotte teaches campers to stand up for themselves and each other as artists, activists, and allies. We invite all girls and gender diverse individuals to make disruptive change and rock with us!