Trying to bust a violent trans conversion camp in Southern United States
I don't know if this is the correct place for such a post, but I've been trying for years to get into contact with others who experienced this and bust this camp, but I've hardly had any luck. This happened seven years ago, but I'll try to be as in-depth as possible here.
On June 10, 2019, I was sent away to a conversion camp. I was 17 at the time. The night prior to leaving, my dad instructed me to pack some clothes in a suitcase. I had no clue I was going until then. I woke up between 6:30 and 7:00 am and my dad told me to get ready to leave. I had breakfast and then went back to my room for a while until my dad came and grabbed me about an hour later (around 8:30 am) and walked outside to see an unmarked van parked outside by the curb.
My dad talked to the driver and then told me to hop in. I asked him one more time where I was going and he replied: “you'll see.” I reluctantly got in and inside the van there weren't any seats, so we had to sit on the floor and had no windows. It was dark and was the second person to be picked up. I was told to sit down, put my suitcase next to me, and be quiet.
We made several more stops after that and picked up a few other kids and remembered there were seven of us (including me) in total. I didn't know where we were driving, since there weren't any windows and we couldn't see through the driver's cab, but when we stopped and were told to get out, it was already nighttime. We were led in, and went into one of the first rooms in the hallway we entered, and it was just a room with four bunk beds. We were each given a bunk and told to go to sleep. Our luggage was taken and they said they'd give it back in the morning after they checked it. All we were allowed to have were our clothes, watches, and toiletries. There was one other bunk room in the building specifically for the boys that were there. If I remember correctly there were about 15 of us there, a variety of boys and girls between the ages of 13 and 17, but most being 16 and 17.
We woke up in the morning to come in and sit in a front room with chairs. We were essentially given an explanation about why we were there—because we were all experiencing "gender identity issues"—and that we were going to be cured. We were all given name tags with our first names on them. The counselors gave us a prayer that we would be cured and gave us a paper of the schedule—wake up, shower, breakfast, therapy, lunch, more therapy, dinner, and bedtime.
The therapy sessions involved praying, biblical readings, prolonged food and water fasts as punishment, as well as loud, yelling lectures about how being trans was sinful and was going to destroy our lives and the lives of everyone around us. The once-a-day small group therapy sessions during the times involved sitting in a circle, confessing to any urges about transitioning, and getting a verbal battering about how disgusting and shameful we were from the counselors and from the other kids. Most of the kids cried a lot, and I cried too during some of the sessions. None of us actually wanted to be saying those things to each other, but we were willing to do what it took to get out, and were starting to genuinely believe those things about ourselves and about being transgender in general.
By the two week mark, the camp had been mostly just deprivation of the outside world, verbal abuse, and being taught and internalizing all kinds of terribly transphobic beliefs, but things changed after. We would go days without eating and the counselors started hitting us with paddles and whipping us with belts when they'd make us confess during the small group sessions after lunch, and I can't tell you how many hours all of us spent crying and/or vomiting after being forced into that right after lunch.
After a little while longer, they doubled down even more. I want to say we had been there for four weeks at that point, but with all the abuse, long fasts, and the violence it all kind of blended together. They got more extreme with the physical harm and the yelling, and I remember sobbing and wanting to die, but also feeling terrified out of my mind enough to do just about anything the counselors said at that point. Most of all, they really got to me with shame and self hatred.
During the final week, they started telling us that we were going to start "experiencing the consequences" of our gender identity, and pulled each of us one by one to a room by ourselves, where we'd have to answer questions about our thoughts of being trans. I tried to answer however I felt would get me out of there quickest, but looking back I don't think our answers mattered, I think it was just reinforcement of what they taught us. They tied us to tables, brought in men who were all much taller and stronger than we were and raped us. The counselors told us afterwards that that's what being trans is and does to you. They returned our belongings and dropped us off back home.
The camp lasted about six weeks total, and I got home on July 22nd. I returned about 10 pounds underweight, suicidal, and traumatized. Things at home weren't good, as you can imagine—my parents were the types who would send their kid to that kind of a camp, after all—but I did find out I was pregnant about three months after coming home. I had never had any kind of sexual experience before the camp. The pregnancy made things worse because I didn't know anything about raising a kid, especially as a teenager. Since I obviously couldn't afford to get an abortion and my parents refused to pay for the abortion, I had no choice but to carry it to term and put it up for adoption.
I'm posting this because I'm trying to find the camp, get into contact with others who went through them, figure out who ran it, and whether they ever faced any consequences for what they did. I've managed to get into contact with three others who attended.
I know 2019 wasn't the first year they ran the camp, because one of the three survivors I've found attended in 2016, and I doubt that 2019 was the last year either. It was a religious camp, all the kids there were christian, and everyone seemed to be at least middle class. It was in a rural area, with lots of trees, and the facility had a fenced in dirt parking lot and a very large, single-story, cabin-like building that looked like this, but much larger. Due to the length of the drive and us crossing a couple of states, I'm not sure which state the camp might be in. I don't know who the counselors were or what organization they were a part of, and don’t know if the camp had a name.
If anyone knows anything about any religious conversion camps in the southern United States, or would be willing to help investigate these camps, I would appreciate any help or info you may have. I know it's been a while since it happened, but I don't want this to go forgotten or unpunished. If you have ever conducted any kind of investigation like this and happen to know anything about finding information on things like this, I would greatly appreciate your suggestions on where to look next.
And if this sounds like your experience, please PM me! I'm trying to gather as much info as I possibly can about all of this in the hopes that we can figure out who runs these places and hopefully have them held accountable for abusing and traumatizing trans kids.
Posted Aug 29, 2026, 3:02 AM UTC