Chicago Institute's Camp Builds Spaces for Queer Kids

For five days last summer, Hailey Fay got to live in a “dream utopia” for the first time in their life. That paradise was Action Camp, a five-day sleepaway camp in the Chicago area that has fostered a strong community among queer youth from across Illinois in need of an accepting space. Fay, 18 and of the Chicago suburbs, will be attending the camp again when it starts on Monday. “Knowing there’s a place you can escape and live in your dream utopia for a week is just perfect,” Fay told the Sun-Times. Fay said had they gone to the camp when they were younger, they could’ve avoided “a lot of the self-hatred when I was coming out and the fear of not being accepted in the world.” Action Camp is put on by the Public Health Institute of Metropolitan Chicago and Youth Services. First started in 2012 as a weekend sleepaway camp, it now hosts nearly 50 youth campers ages 12 to 17 and 15 youth leaders from around the state annually.