IS IT REALLY FUN TO STAY AT THE YMCA?
Before sending your child off for YMCA summer camps and programs this summer, parents should take a close look at their local YMCA’s gender policies. Despite recent pushback on guidelines and mounting scientific evidence, the YMCA continues prioritizing transgender ideology over the safety of kids by allowing boys and men in girls’ and women’s spaces.
Source: Central New York YMCA
Y-USA, the national governing body for local YMCAs, has strategically embedded gender ideology into its national infrastructure while simultaneously publicly stating that “Y-USA does not have a nationwide policy around locker room and bathroom facilities.” The practical effect of its guidance and digital resources tells the real story.
The organization’s Digital Services Division offers local branches a plug-and-play website service built on brand-compliant themes and templates that propagate Y-USA’s institutional values and spells out their “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” (DEI) statement which explains the YMCA works “to ensure that everyone…regardless of…gender, gender identity, ideology…sexual orientation…has the opportunity to reach their full potential with dignity.”
Meanwhile, Y-USA provided guidelines on how to create a “Safe Space for LGBTQ+ Campers” while leaving the implementation of facility, housing, and sports policies up to each local branch, a structure that allows the national organization to shape culture and policy direction without being directly accountable. The consequences have been documented across the country, and the pattern is clear: Y-USA uses their infrastructure and DEI frameworks to direct local branches toward gender-identity-based facility policies.
Source: YMCA
The DEI statement in the Digital Services page explains the YMCA works “to ensure that everyone…regardless of…gender, gender identity, ideology…sexual orientation…has the opportunity to reach their full potential with dignity.”
Source: YMCA
The YMCA’s national website advertises the YMCA’s organization’s “culture and core values” include “fostering a sense of social responsibility.”
Source: YMCA
Source: YMCA
Last year, American Parents Coalition exposed YMCA camps across the country for allowing men and boys to infiltrate biological women and girls’ private spaces, including lodging at summer camps for kids, often without parental consent. Instead of reevaluating their policies, the YMCA responded by quietly deleting content from its websites and online platforms.
Source: Daily Wire
Despite scrubbing materials, the Y-USA website continues to highlight how the core policies and initiatives of the corporate mission include pushing political ideology.
GENDER POLICIES AT SUMMER CAMPS
YMCA branches across the country are running overnight summer camps for kids as young as seven with radical gender policies allowing boys in girls’ cabins, showers, and other facilities.
This summer, some branches offer the option for both attendees and counselors to choose the cabin they prefer, regardless of biological sex. For example, in Michigan, both Sherman Lake and McGaw Camp Echo summer camps have policies that state,“Counselors are asked prior to the camping season which cabins they are comfortable leading and sleeping in, just like campers.”
Source: Sherman Lake YMCA
Source: Sherman Lake YMCA
This camp also states they will hide a child’s gender preferences from parents, stating Sherman Lake Camp will “continue to validate and support,” campers who are already in the process of “transitioning,” and only “inform [a Parent] only If [the child] gives [them] their express consent.”
Source: Sherman Lake YMCA
Source: Sherman Lake YMCA
Source: YMCA Camp Olson
Source: YMCA Camp Olson
Source: South Mountain YMCA
Here are some of the other branches and policies allowing biological boys and men to invade biological girls and women’s spaces:
YMCA Camp Shady Brook (CO) policy: “Gender assigned at birth, physical characteristics, or presentation will not dictate use of gendered space.”
Source: YMCA Camp Shady Brook
YMCA Camp St. Croix (WI) policy: welcomes “campers of all backgrounds, walks of life, and genders,” adding that, “campers are assigned to their cabin based on age and gender-identity.”
Source: YMCA Camp St. Croix
YMCA Camp Hazen (CT) policy: “Families can rank their preference in type of cabin for Girls+, Boys+ and all-gender…“+” reflects their commitment to inclusion – to “welcome cisgender, trans, and non-binary youth who feel most comfortable in that environment.”
Source: YMCA Camp Hazen
YMCA Camp Jones Gulch (CA) policy: “campers should register for the cabin that most aligns with their gender identity, and non-binary or gender-fluid campers should register for the cabin where they will feel most comfortable.”
Source: YMCA Camp Jones Gulch
YMCA Camp Whittle (CA) policy: ensures everyone regardless of gender or gender identity has access participate and that participants can “use the locker room and/or restroom they select based on their gender identity.”
Source: YMCA Camp Whittle
YMCA Camp Gorham (NY) policy: claims their overnight cabins are “gender specific,” but that “Girl+ cabins are a space for girls, trans, and non-binary campers.”
Source: YMCA Camp Gorham
Political Agenda with Taxpayer Dollars
According to the Y-USA’s financial statement for the year ending December 2025, the Y-USA received $5.3 million in federal grants from various government agencies. American Parents Coalition has called on both the Department of Education, Housing and Urban Development, and Health and Human Services and Congress to investigate the Y-USA’s federal funding. It’s time to sound the alarm again.
When entrusting an organization to keep kids safe, parents deserve accountability and transparency, not secrecy, and unanswered questions. American Parents Coalition will continue demanding accountability and safety for parents and families across the country.
Source: Greater Cincinnati YMCA
TIPS FOR PARENTS
OTHER NEWS YOU NEED TO KNOW
Thanks for reading the latest edition of the American Parents Coalition’s The Lookout. If you have a troubling story to share about a school, doctor, company, or other institution working to usurp parents’ rights, please let us know by emailing us at outreach@americanparentscoalition.org.
