For nearly two centuries, the YMCA has built its reputation on providing safe, reliable environments for children—from neighborhood gyms to summer camps—where families could trust the institution to protect their youth. Yet recent revelations expose a stark contradiction: some YMCA branches are implementing policies that prioritize gender identity over biological safety and parental rights in children’s most intimate spaces.
American Parents Coalition (APC) has documented how YMCAs nationwide have quietly abandoned longstanding commitments to safeguard girls’ innocence and physical safety. Last summer, APC uncovered widespread practices allowing men and boys into girls’ locker rooms, bathrooms, and private sleeping areas at summer camps. The policies escalated this year with counselors being permitted to share cabins designated for girls—regardless of biological sex—as long as they identify as girls.
In Michigan’s Sherman Lake YMCA, staff follow a 2026 policy permitting counselors to select “gender-segregated” cabins based on their comfort level, even if they are biological males. The camp also offers “all-gender” cabins for children and counselors of any gender identity. Similarly, McGaw YMCA Camp Echo in Michigan promotes “all-gender cabins with multiple counselors who have different gender identities,” acknowledging that counselors assigned to gender-segregated cabins often share the same gender identity as campers.
Colorado’s Camp Shady Brook explicitly assigns both campers and staff to cabin groups based on “gender identity” in its May 2026 handbook. Minnesota’s YMCA Camp Olson states it accommodates children who “don’t fit in the boxes of ‘boy’ or ‘girl,’” while New York’s Camp Gorham labels cabins as “gender specific” but clarifies that “Girl+” spaces include girls, trans, and nonbinary youth.
Compounding these issues, staff at Sherman Lake YMCA are instructed to withhold information from parents if a child identifies as LGBTQ+ unless the child provides “express consent.” The camp also mandates regular sessions where children share preferred names and pronouns with staff. In Connecticut’s Camp Hazen YMCA, families can choose between “Girls+,” “Boys+,” or “all-gender” cabins, with the “+” explicitly designed to include cisgender, trans, and nonbinary youth.
Most alarmingly, South Mountain YMCA in Pennsylvania now offers a “Pride Camp” for children as young as seven—a “safe-space, non-gendered village” featuring programming centered on LGBTQ+ identity and “social justice conversations.”
These policies directly contradict the YMCA’s historical promise of child safety and reliability. As APC executive director Allegie Marré notes, the organization has become a vehicle for enforcing gender ideology in spaces where biological reality and parental rights should prevail. With nearly every camp listed receiving federal funding through taxpayer-supported programs, this shift threatens to undermine decades of trust while violating standards meant to protect children.
