In case you were looking for something alarming and depressing to start off your day on the wrong note, this is probably the story for you. Summer has officially begun and with it, the annual ritual of camping trips. But as the Daily Wire reports this week, there is a new type of summer camp available for parents looking for something a bit different for their children. Secretive overnight camps for gender-confused children are showing up in states across the country, and some of them welcome guests as young as four years old. Instead of traditional activities such as fishing or birdwatching, these camps offer classes in “voice training,” makeup tips, and hairstyle tutorials. Oh, and the parents are not allowed to attend any of the group activities.

From New Hampshire to California, overnight summer camps for transgender children as young as 4 are cropping up all over the United States, with many operating from secret locations where counselors reinforce campers’ gender dysphoria with voice training, makeup sessions, and other “trans-centered activities.”

At Camp Lilac, an overnight camp in an undisclosed location in Central Ohio, more than 100 kids as young as 12 are free to “socialize, grow, and express themselves in an environment without caregiver supervision,” according to its website. By “caregivers,” the site refers to parents, who may volunteer at the camp but cannot attend sessions with their own children. A typical day at Camp Lilac includes “trans-centered activities”  such as makeup and hair tutorials and voice training.

As noted above, the children are put into an environment free of “caregiver supervision.” In other words, no parents are allowed. As a bonus, there are free “chest binders” for all the girls who believe they are boys. Some are even receiving official government endorsements. A trans camp in Maine is being promoted on the state’s Department of Education’s website.

One camp with locations in Oakland, California, and Boulder, Colorado also provides educational opportunities. Can you guess what sort of “classes” they offer for children? How about “Exploration of trans history and trans-focused sex education?” To be fair, there is at least a minimum age to attend the sex-education class. (It’s twelve years old.)

Many of the camps do not disclose their location to the public. Are you starting to get an idea of what’s going on here? Do you know who gathers children in secret locations and bars access to their parents? Pedophiles. Or at least someone who knows they are doing something wrong.

There are links to information about at least a dozen of these camps in the article linked above. The descriptions of the programs they offer should be horrifying to anyone with any level of sanity left. But that is apparently how far and wide this social contagion is spreading. This is yet another example of the systemic normalization of clearly abnormal behavior. It’s an indoctrination program clearly designed to feed children into the trans pipeline as early as possible when they are still developing and may be experiencing confusion as their bodies go through the normal phases of growth.

We can’t place all of the blame on the adults organizing and operating these camps, however. They wouldn’t be in business if there wasn’t a market for these “services.” The true fault lies with the parents or guardians who knowingly deliver their children into such an environment rather than seeking out counseling and/or mental and emotional healthcare for them. Unfortunately, unlike statewide bans on dangerous medical procedures, it’s unclear if the government can regulate summer camps in a similar fashion.