The Camp Where Trans Kids in the South Finally Get to Just Be Kids
Transcending Adolescence gives kids ages 8 to 17 one week without hiding who they are. North Carolina just made the other 51 weeks harder.
A North Carolina summer camp gives trans and gender-diverse kids a week without hiding. The state keeps making that week harder to get to.
“Picture a place where you feel completely safe.”
That’s what a counselor told a circle of campers on a June night in rural North Carolina, according to Uncloseted Media, which spent time on the ground at Transcending Adolescence, a weeklong summer camp for trans and gender-diverse kids ages 8 to 17. One camper pictured sitting in a circle with other trans people, deep in the trees, mosquitoes buzzing in the dark.
“That place is here, and this is the place where I feel safe,” the camper said, according to co-founder Jacob Hofheimer, who recalled the moment to Uncloseted Media. “It got all of us.”
That’s the whole point of the camp. For one week, nobody has to guess.
What happened
Transcending Adolescence was founded in 2019 by Jacob and Chrissy Hofheimer, a trans married couple who met as lifeguards at a queer summer camp in New Hampshire. About 30 campers come together each week during the summer to swim, tie-dye, run the ropes course, and put on shows, the same as any other camp. They also hold nightly fireside talks about gender-affirming care, coming out, bathroom anxiety, misgendering, and mental health, guided by outside experts, according to Uncloseted Media’s reporting.
They chose North Carolina on purpose. The queer camp where the Hofheimers met mostly drew kids from wealthy New England families. Jacob told Uncloseted Media that far fewer campers came from Florida, Georgia, or Texas, the places where affirming resources are hardest to find. So they built their camp in the South instead.
A week costs $1,975. Chrissy told Uncloseted Media the camp also offers a “no questions asked” subsidized rate of $1,500 for families who can’t afford full price. “Access is really, really important,” she said.
Why it matters
Camp isn’t just fun for these kids. It’s data. A 2021 pilot study in the International Journal for Equity in Health, based on a six-day LGBTQ summer camp, found that participants reported measurable gains in resilience, self-esteem, and quality of life, with transgender and nonbinary campers in particular describing social connection they couldn’t find at home.
That tracks with what The Trevor Project’s 2025 national survey found: 40% of transgender and nonbinary young people seriously considered suicide in the past year, and 90% of LGBTQ+ youth overall said recent anti-LGBTQ laws, policies, and political debates caused them stress or anxiety. Among trans and nonbinary respondents specifically, that number climbs to 94%.
“Finding places where you literally see yourself and can be seen by others for who you are is important during adolescence. It’s a human need,” Stephen Russell, a professor at Arizona State University’s Sanford School who studies youth development, told Uncloseted Media. “For trans youth, especially those who may not feel fully accepted at school, at home, or in their faith communities, a camp where their identity isn’t something they have to navigate or defend, but is simply centered as part of who they are, can be transformative.”
Who’s affected
The story Uncloseted Media tells in depth is a 12-year-old camper the outlet calls Ruby, whose name was changed to protect her privacy. Before camp, bullying at school got bad enough that her family pulled her out and homeschooled her for the rest of fifth grade. Her mother, called Kate in the piece, told Uncloseted Media her daughter manages a constant, exhausting mental checklist most cis kids never have to think about: What if someone finds out? Are they looking at me? Do I look the part?
At camp, Ruby told Uncloseted Media, that checklist went quiet. “I couldn’t really go anywhere without picking [at] myself because I was anxious,” she said. “It really made me smile knowing that there’s a lot of people out there like me. I’m putting myself out there, I’m being myself, and no one judges me.”
Rory Sowers, a 19-year-old junior counselor from Florida who first came to camp in 2021, put it more bluntly to Uncloseted Media: “There’s so much that trans folks have to worry about just going about their day-to-day lives, especially living in the South. I was able to come into myself a lot more when I didn’t have all of those anxieties on my back.”
Legal and political context
North Carolina’s law hasn’t stood still since the Hofheimers picked it as their home base. Three laws enacted in 2023, after the legislature overrode then-Governor Roy Cooper’s vetoes, now shape daily life for trans kids in the state: the Fairness in Women’s Sports Act bars transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s teams, the Parents’ Bill of Rights (Senate Bill 49) restricts classroom instruction on gender identity in early grades and requires schools to notify parents of a student’s name or pronoun change, and a separate law bans gender-affirming medical care for minors.
That legal picture got more restrictive this year. House Bill 805, vetoed by current Governor Josh Stein and passed over his veto by the legislature, took effect January 1, 2026. It defines only two legally recognized sexes, male and female, cuts off state funding for gender transition care for minors, and extends the malpractice statute of limitations to ten years for doctors who provided transition-related care to minors, a provision advocates warn will chill providers who treated trans youth even before the practice was banned. It also bars students from sharing sleeping quarters with peers of a different “biological sex” during school-authorized activities, which directly touches overnight programs like camp cabins, and lets parents block their kids from specific library books.
The Campaign for Southern Equality has flagged North Carolina’s Parents’ Bill of Rights as a possible Title IX conflict, though that hasn’t yet produced a court ruling reversing the law. As of this writing, all four laws remain in force.
What happens next
For now, Transcending Adolescence keeps its exact location undisclosed, a common safety practice among programs serving trans youth in states hostile to them. Chrissy told Uncloseted Media she hopes the camp’s model eventually gets replicated in other states. It isn’t the only option in the meantime: programs like Camp Indigo Point, Harbor Camps, and Brave Trails run similar affirming spaces for LGBTQ+ youth elsewhere in the country, part of a small but growing network of camps built specifically for kids who don’t have one at home.
Every camper eventually goes home, back to the same schools and laws they left behind. Sowers told Uncloseted Media that campers who arrive reluctant are often the ones crying on the last day because they don’t want to leave.
“After the camp, I really haven’t been talking about how I feel insecure that I’m trans,” Ruby told Uncloseted Media. “I can’t wait to go back and see the people I met and meet new friends.”
If a camp like this didn't exist where you grew up, or still doesn't, share this with someone who needs to know it does now. If you're in a position to help fund a $1,500 subsidized camp spot for a kid who needs one, Transcending Adolescence takes donations directly through their site. And if you're a parent of a trans or gender-diverse kid in the South looking for a place like this, PFLAG keeps a running list of affirming camps by state.
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Editor’s Note: The photos in this article were not taken at Transcending Adolescence and do not depict its campers. They are included for illustrative purposes only.
Sources
In the Middle of the Bible Belt, a Summer Camp Lets Trans Kids Exhale — Uncloseted Media, original on-the-ground reporting, quotes, and camper interviews (Sam Donndelinger, July 18, 2026)
Transcending Adolescence — organization site
The Trevor Project 2025 U.S. National Survey on the Mental Health of LGBTQ+ Young People
Pride Camp: Pilot study of an intervention to develop resilience and self-esteem among LGBTQ youth — International Journal for Equity in Health, 2021
North Carolina House Bill 574, Fairness in Women’s Sports Act
North Carolina Senate Bill 49, Parents’ Bill of Rights (Session Law 2023-106)
Veto overridden: Ban on gender-affirming care for minors takes effect in North Carolina — NBC News, 2023
NC gender identity law: HB 805 in effect Jan. 1, 2026 — ABC11
ASU Sanford School director named fellow of international developmental science society — ASU News (confirms Stephen Russell’s affiliation)