Christian YMCA center to host ‘LGBTQ+ youth’ camp

The Stephens Family YMCA in Champaign, Illinois, will host a disturbing program centered around the sexuality of young children.

To make matters worse, the supposed Christian nonprofit has partnered with an activist organization that is willing to provide “gender affirming” clothing to “any age.”

The Stephens Family YMCA proudly boasts a diversity, equity, and inclusion policy on its website and says it is “prioritizing equity” in all that it does.

‘Stephens Family YMCA is a nonprofit association committed to a mission of putting Christian principles into practice …’

With a commitment to implementing DEI programs, the organization seems to be working in line with its mission statement with its 2025 summer camp called “Camp Kaleidoscope.”

The summer camp is for “LGBTQ+ youth or youth who are part of LGBTQ+ families” and promises to provide children with a “safe space,” where they can “experience character growth and development.”

There are two four-day camps: June 23 to 27 for 2nd to 5th graders and July 14 to 18 for 6th to 9th graders. Both cost $250.

The goal of the camp, the guide states, is to let youth “who are part of the LGBTQ+ community to be authentically themselves.”

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Photo by Roberto Machado Noa/LightRocket via Getty Images

The gay camp will run in collaboration with Uniting Pride of Champaign County, an activist group that provides sex- and gender-based literature aimed at children and cross-dressing clothing to “any age.”

As reported by the Daily Wire, Uniting Pride openly says it will provide free chest binders, waist cinchers, or “tucking underwear” to “anyone of any age.”

Chest binders are meant to flatten women’s breasts to make them appear more masculine, while waist cinchers are to narrow a man’s waist. Tucking underwear is meant to conceal a man’s genitals.

The organization welcomes donations of used undergarments but requests they are in “generally good condition and be free of stains and scents of any kind.”

Additionally, the organization offers “free sizing consultations” for the garments.

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Uniting Pride also loans out gender ideology literature aimed at children. Titles include: “A Kids Book About Being Transgender,” “Drag Teen,” and “You Be You! The Kid’s Guide to Gender, Sexuality, and Family.”

The pro-transgender organization is certainly a peculiar one for the Stephens Family YMCA to partner with given its mission statement that positions itself as a Christian nonprofit.

“Stephens Family YMCA is a nonprofit association committed to a mission of putting Christian principles into practice through programs that build a healthy spirit, mind, and body for all,” the website reads.

The location allegedly has a chapel, too. In late 2024, a local reporter from WCIA News reminisced about how she often spent time in the YMCA’s chapel when she had two young children, bringing her kids there as she completed school work.

The nonprofit’s mission statement is doubly confusing when taking some of the location’s policies into consideration.

In the Stephens Family YMCA membership handbook, locker room policies state that all members will have access to “restroom and locker room facilities that correspond to their self-identified, self-reported gender identity to the extent permitted by applicable law.”

Yet at the same time, parents with children of the opposite gender are to use the family locker room.

“The YMCA’s prioritization of gender ideology over child safety ought to gravely concern any parent considering sending their child to summer camps or activities,” Alleigh Marré, executive director of American Parents Coalition, said in a statement to Blaze News.

She added, “Children deserve activist- and agenda-free summer fun, and parents deserve transparency from the organizations they entrust to care for their children.”

Stephens Family YMCA did not respond to Blaze News’ request for comment.

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