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.”
