The gays sure do have a love-hate relationship with camp. And, for once, we’re not talking about the kind you look right in the eye—we’re talking about good old-fashioned summer camp.
Whether you’re an outdoorsy queer or not, camp holds a special place in our memories. A break from the norm, these summer retreats allowed us to explore and experiment away from the judging eyes of parents. Sure, sometimes they were their own kind of hell, but camps offered many baby gays their first taste of freedom and helped us meet new friends. Even if it was just for the summer, it was a space to find some of our earliest chosen families.
Related: Strangers By The Lake: 10 sexy, queer lakeside stories perfect for a summer watch
Perhaps that’s why camp, in all its forms, is a setting frequently revisited in LGBTQ-focused films, for better and for worse. With summer in full swing and a frightening new addition to the camp canon on its way (more on that in a second), we decided to assemble a list of nine notable queer and queer-adjacent stories set at campgrounds worth packing an overnight bag for.
And, because queer camp films come in many forms—comedy, horror, musical—we went ahead and labeled them according to which type of camper they’ll most appeal to. So, take a look below, and happy camping!
The Newbie: They/Them (2022)
Remember when we said camp could be hell? That’s made literal in this fresh fright fest from filmmaker John Logan, which takes us to a sinister conversion camp where a diverse group of young queer and trans campers has to band together to contend with both a sadistic counselor (Kevin Bacon) and a mysterious masked murderer. This summer, They/Them aims to put the “slash” in slasher flicks.
Streams on Peacock.
JTinToronto
In “Eating Out” they’re “ditching their close”. What are “close”? Are they anything like “clothes”? Ever heard of proofreading before posting? lol
PQ
Calm down Sally
mujerado
Proofreading hasn’t been a viable career choice for many years, let alone a publishing expenditure in this day of spell-check. I’m almost surprised by this post.
mrrasheed
@mujerado Do you think that’s a good thing? have you not noticed the terrible quality of copy in these articles? We should just get used to poor writing in publications? I’m almost surprised that you’re almost justifying bad journalism/blogging.
Diplomat
The Horn Dog and Wet Hot tick all the boxes.
bachy
I’ve always wanted to have sex in a tent but I have a thing about bugs.