By Tyler Arnold | National Catholic Register
A Christian summer camp network is suing the Colorado government over a state rule allowing males who identify as girls to be given access to girls’ showers, dressing areas, and sleeping facilities.
Camp IdRaHaJe — which separates private facilities on the basis of sex rather than self-asserted “gender identity” — filed the federal lawsuit against Colorado’s Department of Early Childhood on Monday.
The camp, which derives its name from the 1922 Christian hymn “I’d Rather Have Jesus,” is protesting a regulation that requires access to gender-separated showers, sleeping facilities, changing rooms, and bathrooms in all children’s resident camps on the basis of “an individual’s gender identity” even when the gender identity is different from his or her biological sex.
The lawsuit notes that the camps believe and teach that God “has immutably created each person as either male or female in his image” and that “the differentiation of the sexes, male and female, is part of the divine image in the human race.”
It adds that the camps’ beliefs, including its beliefs on biological sex, are integrated into all of its programs and operations.
Camp IdRaHaJe requested an exemption from the state rule because it conflicts with its religious beliefs and mission, but the department denied the request. The department’s rules generally allow for individualized exemptions to “any rule or standard” if it poses “an undue hardship” on any camp, but the government determined the religious objection did not qualify.
If the camps do not comply with the rule, their licenses could be revoked or suspended and they could face fines. According to the lawsuit, the camps open on June 8 and will not operate in compliance with these rules. The camps also need to certify compliance with all departmental rules to have their licenses renewed in June, which the lawsuit asserts they will not be able to do.