DENVER | A popular children’s Christian summer camp may be forced to shut down for refusing to allow campers to use opposite-sex cabins, showers and restrooms in line with their gender identity.
Camp IdRaHaJe, which is short for “I’d Rather Have Jesus,” filed a lawsuit last week against the Colorado Department of Early Childhood after it refused to grant the camp a religious exemption from a regulatory update that went into effect in February.
The amended “Rules Regulating Children’s Summer Camps” in the Code of Colorado Regulations require camp operators to treat children based on their gender identity, including allowing biological boys who identify as girls to bunk, shower and dress with female campers up to age 17.
“The Camp is now left with the choice of either (a) retaining its license to operate and violating its beliefs and exercise by treating campers based on their ‘gender identity’ and allowing them to use restroom, shower, dressing, and sleeping facilities designated for the opposite sex, or (b) adhering to its beliefs and exercise and facing revocation or suspension of its license and fines,” the lawsuit states.
“Putting the Camp to that choice is unconstitutional,” said the 28-page motion filed in U.S. District Court in Colorado.
Representing the camp are attorneys from the conservative Alliance Defending Freedom, who argued that the state’s refusal to provide a religious exemption violates the First and Fourteenth amendments.
“The government has no place telling religious summer camps that it’s ‘lights out’ for upholding their religious beliefs about human sexuality,” ADF Legal Counsel Andrea Dill said in a statement. “Camp IdRaHaJe exists to present the truth of the Gospel to children who are building character and lifelong memories. But the Colorado government is putting its dangerous agenda — [one] that is losing popularity across the globe — ahead of its kids.”
Founded in 1948, Camp IdRaHaJe is a veritable Colorado institution, a woodsy outdoor camp located in the Rocky Mountain town of Bailey, about 45 miles southwest of Denver.
The camp offers overnight programs for children ranging in age from 6 to 17. For the older campers, the activities include hiking, swimming, horseback riding, whitewater rafting, ziplining, and rappelling.
“Each year, 2,500 to 3,000 students attend, and the camp’s mission is to ‘win souls to Jesus Christ through the spreading of the Gospel,’” the alliance said. “The camp is open to children of all backgrounds and beliefs, and parents are asked to agree to the camp’s policies when registering.”
The camp plans to open June 8, but has refused to operate in compliance with the state’s amended regulations, meaning that it could have its license revoked or suspended for the first time in its 77-year history.
“We are urging the court to allow IdRaHaJe to operate as it has for over 75 years: as a Christian summer camp that accepts all campers without fear of being punished for its beliefs,” Ms. Dill said.
This isn’t the first time the alliance has tangled with Colorado, a Democrat-controlled state known for its crackdowns on religious business owners whose beliefs run afoul of the state’s LGBTQ mandates.
The Supreme Court has ruled twice in favor of ADF clients in lawsuits against Colorado agencies. In 2018, the court sided with Christian baker Jack Phillips against the Colorado Civil Rights Commission after it sought to punish him for refusing to create a wedding cake for a same-sex couple.
The high court again ruled against the commission in 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis, finding in its 2023 decision that the state could not compel a designer to violate her religious beliefs by creating a wedding website for a same-sex couple.
The latest lawsuit was filed against Lisa Roy, executive director of the Department of Early Childhood, which was spun off in 2022 from the Office of Early Childhood under the Department of Human Services.
