The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Camp gives LGBTQ+ teens a place to be themselves
Attendees of Camp True Colors describe it as ‘like a paradise.’
MINNEAPOLIS — Camp True Colors, at a woodsy, lakeside retreat just north of Hinckley, Minnesota, is summer camp with all the trappings.
There’s canoeing and archery and tie-dyeing and a giant water trampoline. There are bunks in the cabins and cookouts over campfires — and, some believe, a friendly ghost inhabiting the bathroom, who campers contact via a homemade Ouija board.
There is also an abundance of rainbows: on socks and masks and shirts. And painted on the wooden name tags campers wear to share their pronouns.
Attendees describe Camp True Colors in otherworldly terms, as if they’ve found the proverbial end of the rainbow: “like heaven on Earth” and “like a paradise.”
Evan Mcniff, 16, a veteran camper attending his fifth session, keeps coming back to his “happy place,” he said, “because life is really hard sometimes — especially being a queer kid.”
Camp True Colors, run by the Minnesota-based nonprofit One Heartland, is one of the country’s few camps for LGBTQ+ youth.
Camper Syd Anderson, 14, of Edina, played a ukulele before dinner.
In a world that can often be misunderstanding of, if not outright hostile to, people of diverse sexual orientation and gender identities, campers say True Colors makes them feel not just accepted, but celebrated for who they are.
Being around people “who get me,” as Mcniff put it, “takes all the weight off — at least for a week.”
During the past three decades,
One Heartland has hosted some 20,000 campers dealing with a range of health and social challenges.
The organization began as Camp Heartland, in 1993, to give kids with HIV/AIDS a respite from the worries and discrimination they faced.
When he was 22, founder Neil Willenson knew a 7-year-old boy who was Hiv-positive. Willenson
raised money to rent a summer camp near Milwaukee for a week to host his young friend and youth like him.
Willenson thought Camp Heartland would be a one-time event. But when a very ill camper, who had spent more time in the infirmary than attending activities, called the experience “the best week of my life,” Willenson knew he needed to keep it going.
A few years later, when Paul Molitor, the former Twins player and manager, was negotiating a new contract, he suggested that owner Carl Pohlad close the gap with a $250,000 donation to Camp Heartland. Those funds helped Willenson purchase the camp’s permanent home.
In recent years, demographic changes and funding declines have caused some of those sessions to be reduced or phased out. But Camp True Colors has been growing. (It takes its name from the song made famous by pop star Cyndi Lauper, who is a major funder.)
After canceling 2020’s programs because of COVID-19, One Heartland offered four weeks of True Colors sessions this summer, which attracted campers from as far away as Alaska and Hawaii. Due to long wait lists, True Colors will expand to six weeks for summer 2022. (Registration begins Dec. 1.)
One of this summer’s sessions was offered specifically for youth who are transgender, nonbinary or otherwise gender-expansive — a rarity even among other Lgbtq+-focused camps.
This made it especially popular among campers, and, not unexpectedly, a target for transphobic comments, said Patrick Kindler, who has served as One Heartland’s executive director since 2011.
“We were one of the first and we didn’t blink,” Kindler said.
“We didn’t worry about this, that or the other. We knew it was needed and we started it.”
Programming at One Heartland’s camps includes educational discussions on topics such as healthy relationships, leadership and life skills. Some are tailored to specific camps. True Colors includes discussions on LGBTQ+ history and intersexuality.
A typical afternoon at Camp True Colors looks like teens being teens: splashing around in the lake, cracking corny jokes, or doing one another’s makeup. But doing those ordinary activities within this special community has a much deeper impact.
Experiences that affirm the identities of LGBTQ+ youth, such as True Colors, can positively impact mental health — and save lives among those at increased risk of self-harm.
The CDC’S most recent Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance survey, from 2019, found that gay, lesbian and bisexual youth reported having attempted suicide at three times the rate of straight youth. Transgender youth reported suicide attempts at four times the rate of cisgender peers.
Camper C.J. Schlotthauer, 17, of Rochester, who recently started experimenting with using gender-neutral pronouns, said that True Colors has been a fertile ground for forming friendships — a sentiment many other campers express.
“A big piece of this is for our campers to meet other kids dealing with the same things they are, so they have a support network,” executive director Kindler said.