LGBTQ+ youth summer camp in West Virginia reduces isolation of many attendees from rural communities

LGBTQ+ youth can often feel isolated in their home communities or schools, and that is especially true for rural LGBTQ+ youth. The ACLU of West Virginia is trying to remedy that isolation with its Appalachian Queer Youth Summit. Gabriella Souza reports for Black By God that the organization has hosted the summit every year since 2020 "after a convening of Appalachian human rights organizations and the realization that queer youth in Appalachia were the most isolated of any group." 

Mollie Kennedy, the community outreach director for ACLU-WV and the camp's director, told Souza that many LGBTQ+ youth in West Virginia “are living in places where there’s no other kid like them in school," and being at camp is often the first time in their lives when they can be around other kids like them without fear of bullying, being made fun of, misgendering or being physically hurt. At camp, she said, "they just get to be kids." 

About 10% of rural youth identified as LGBTQ+ in a 2021 Movement Advancement Project study. An updated MAP study from 2025 shows that the largest percentage of LGBTQ+ youth (38%) lives in the South. A report in 2017 found that West Virginia had the highest per capita rate of transgender teenagers in the county at the time, and a 2022 West Virginia University study found that more than 7% of rural Appalachian youth identified as gender diverse at the time. 

And yet, despite the numbers, LGBTQ+ youth in rural places still feel isolated and singled out. The Appalachian Youth Queer Youth Summit provides a space where LGBTQ+ youth can coexist with others who understand their lived experiences and where they can be themselves without fear. The camp is free for participants, removing financial barriers that some youth might face in attending, especially rural youth who live further from the camp's location in northeastern West Virginia. 

“Until camp, I felt alone pretty much all the time," junior counselor Mykah Smith told Souza. "In my friend group, I’ve always been the gay one and the Black one." But at camp, Smith found peers that came together around "the intersectionality of being queer and Black." She said "it was the first time that people actually listened to me.” 

For locals in East Tennessee, Dolly Parton's death is personal. Here's how local news covered the story.

There are no shortage of tributes and obituaries pouring in from all corners of the country honoring the life and legacy of Dolly Parton this week after news of her death broke on Tuesday. But news of the country music legend's passing hit especially hard in Sevier County, the East Tennessee county where Parton was from. 

She never lost sight of Sevier County over her nearly 70-year career, and contributed millions to the county over decades. She gave money to help start a local hospital in the county, which opened in 2010 with a women's health center named for Parton. She started her beloved Imagination Library in Sevier County, hoping to increase childhood literacy rates there, and her scholarships for high school and middle school students caused the dropout rate to decrease from more than 30 percent to less than 10.

Here's how outlets in Tennessee covered the news this week:

WZTV in Nashville reported that Sevier County Mayor Larry Waters and Mayor-Elect Bryan McCarter declared Aug. 26 a day of mourning in the county.

WATE in Knoxville offered a list of Parton's "major impacts" on East Tennessee, reporting that "her impact on her East Tennessee community and the world beyond is a large reason why she is loved by so many."

The Mountain Press, Sevierville's local newspaper, reported reflections from local city and county officials who had direct ties to Parton outside the connections made through her charitable giving. Pigeon Forge City Manager David Wear told the paper that Pigeon Forge, where Parton's theme park Dollywood is located, has "lost one of our own," and that "Dolly loved these mountains, she loved this community, and she never forgot where she came from." 

And the Knoxville News Sentinel offers a list of Sevier County "landmarks that pay tribute to the Queen of Country back where her story began." Included are a statue of her in downtown Sevierville where a public memorial to Parton began on Tuesday, and several locations in town that Parton frequented or performed.