By: Seawitch  RUMOR MILL NEWS

A parent that was considering sending their child to an overnight 4-H camp run by the N.C. State 4-H Cooperative Extension discovered that campers can be assigned to sleeping accommodations by their preferred gender identity.

The policy was not given to parents prior to enrolling their children at 4-H camps. Parent Van Brinson tells North State Journal he had signed his 11-year-old daughter up for a weeklong "Fur, Fish and Game" 4-H overnight camp this summer. The camp was held in the Richmond County town of Ellerbe.

"I find this exceptionally deceptive," Brinson said. "If this is going to be their policy, then parents need to be informed. I am not anti-trans, or anything else. I am, however, staunchly pro-information."

Brinson said he only found out about it after a phone call to make sure he had all of his paperwork in order at which time he inquired about cabin assignments and was told they were set up by age and gender.

"As an afterthought, and because I was aware of similar situation that occurred in another state, I asked how the camp decided who was a boy and who was a girl," Brinson said. "When I asked, the lady on the phone got very quiet. Then, after a pause, she told me that the children would be assigned to cabins based on their perceived gender, or the gender that their parents tell the camp the child prefers."

“So, I asked, my daughter could be in a cabin with a male for sleepover camp and the answer was, yes, that could happen,” said Brinson.

Brinson was also told if any counselors identified as transgender, the camp would allow them to bunk under the gender they identify as. Additionally, when Brinson asked if parents were going to be informed of the policy, the camp’s director Sarah Moss told him she would pass his concerns “up the chain.”

After several follow-up emails to Moss, Brinson finally was contacted by Mike Yoder, the Associate Director & State Program Leader attached to 4-H at N.C. State University.

“Mr. Yoder informed me that there was no plan to announce this policy,” Brinson said. “Furthermore, he said, they were not allowed to publish this policy due to the federal funds that they received.”