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Good morning.
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My colleague Dan Levin wrote a story about an all-gender cabin at a 90-year-old Jewish summer camp in Groveland, near Yosemite National Park.
I asked him to tell us a little more about the experience of heading back to a sleepaway camp like the ones he went to during his own childhood — only this time, as a reporter:
The Indigo Girls’ hit song “Closer to Fine” crooned through the arts and crafts shack, cluttered with campers drying tie-dyed T-shirts and ceramic mugs. Had I suddenly been time-warped back to the summer of 1995?
Sadly, no. But the great thing about sleepaway camp is that pastimes like lanyard bracelets, awkward dances and dodge ball never really change.
When I visited Camp Tawonga, a 90-year-old rustic Jewish sleepaway camp near Yosemite National Park, it felt like returning to the summer camps where I spent many school vacations two decades ago. Almost.
Unlike most sleepaway camps, then or now, Tawonga has sought to blend Jewish tradition with a social justice mission to be inclusive of all campers, particularly youth who are L.G.B.T.Q.
While Camp Tawonga has for years allowed children to bunk in cabins that matched their gender identity, rather than their biological sex, this summer the camp offered a new option: a cabin for all genders.
Amid a nationwide rise in youth who see gender identity as a spectrum, I was curious to meet the campers who chose to bunk in the all-gender cabin, known as AG-6, and learn why Camp Tawonga chose to offer it.
Upon my arrival, I met Meg Adler, a longtime Camp Tawonga staff member, who helped create a “beyond the binary” campfire for campers and staff who did not feel comfortable at the men’s or women’s campfires. She explained that letting young people know they don’t have to conform to gender norms is part of the camp’s larger goal of making sure every camper feels secure and confident being themselves.
“We’re trying to show that you’re right just as you are and we should celebrate you,” Ms. Adler said.
[Read Dan’s full story here.]
Along with hiking and swimming, each cabin participates in activities aimed at helping them challenge gender stereotypes and discover their own resilience.
In an age of gender-reveal parties and conservative criticism over state laws that mandate the inclusion of L.G.B.T. issues in sex education, Camp Tawonga’s approach can seem radical. But for many of the campers in AG-6, the normalcy at camp was transformative — and often healing.
Grae Smith, 13, a transgender boy who was in AG-6, said he has struggled with feeling unhappy about his body and was usually afraid to meet new people.
At first, he said, those emotions followed him to camp, but surrounded by supportive campers and counselors, Grae soon found the courage to let his guard down and simply have fun.
“I’m learning what it’s like to feel safe all the time,” Grae said. “Here I really can be my full self.”
Here’s what else we’re following
We often link to sites that limit access for nonsubscribers. We appreciate your reading Times coverage, but we also encourage you to support local news if you can.
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“We need to be burning close to a million acres each year, just in the Sierras, or it’s over.” It’s clear that prescribed burns can help make wildfire season less deadly and destructive. So why aren’t they happening? [The New Yorker]
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As of Friday afternoon, a fast-moving wildfire near Redding was prompting evacuations. Crews were starting to get it under control, though. [The Record Searchlight]
Also, if you missed it, here’s a look at wildfire prevention on Smokey Bear’s 75th birthday. [The New York Times]
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An anti-vaccine activist shoved State Senator Richard Pan, a lawmaker who has been working to make it harder for parents to opt out of vaccinating their children. The activist, Kenneth Austin Bennett, live-streamed the confrontation. [The Associated Press]
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The San Francisco Public Defender’s office said that two doctors and a consultant who reviewed the autopsy of Jeff Adachi concluded that his death was natural and not drug induced. [The San Francisco Chronicle]
Mr. Adachi was the city’s longtime public defender. His death tipped off a strange controversy that roiled the city. Here’s a timeline. [The New York Times]
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The authorities arrested a co-worker in the slaying of a retired Cal State Fullerton administrator on the university’s campus. [The Los Angeles Times]
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The A.C.L.U. may sue BART over the public transit agency’s possible ban on panhandlers and buskers. The proposed rule hasn’t been officially introduced, but the A.C.L.U. said that panhandling qualifies as free speech. [Curbed San Francisco]
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In the 1980s, just 5,000 commuters headed over the Altamont Pass from the Northern San Joaquin Valley to jobs in the Bay Area. Now, that number is more than 86,000. Experts and officials discussed how to keep those workers in the Valley. [The Modesto Bee]
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Weedmaps, based in Irvine, has agreed to stop carrying listings for unlicensed marijuana businesses by the end of the year. The move, made under pressure from regulators, is a reversal for the company. [The Orange County Register]
Heroes and icons
Today, from The Times’s Styles desk, Molly Lambert brings you the tale of the $1 billion mountain top that sold for $100,000.
It feels like a parable, some sort of made-up real estate Icarus story, but it really happened — just recently, in fact. The land, in L.A., was sold to a lone bidder at auction. The property, once the most expensive in Los Angeles, was in foreclosure.
Like so many things in L.A. it was both as simple as that, and much more complicated. Also, celebrities were involved.
Here’s the story. And with that, have a nice weekend.
California Today goes live at 6:30 a.m. Pacific time weekdays. Tell us what you want to see: [email protected]. Were you forwarded this email? Sign up for California Today here.
Jill Cowan grew up in Orange County, graduated from U.C. Berkeley and has reported all over the state, including the Bay Area, Bakersfield and Los Angeles — but she always wants to see more. Follow along here or on Twitter, @jillcowan.
California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from U.C. Berkeley.
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