A Washington state dad is fighting back after a summer camp rejected his son.
James Taylor is currently trending online after he wrote about his son’s mistreatment but his favorite summer camp. The son, Jace, has been attending the Firs’ Christian Camp for years with his siblings. He’s a recognizable face there.
Then this summer, while on the cusp of his first year at college, Jace decided to become a camp counselor at the Fircreek campsite. While Jace was initially accepted for the job, he was later fired after the camp found out that Jace is gay. Camp officials discovered this after finding an online picture of Jace and his boyfriend.
This is when Jace’s father James posted to Facebook about the situation.
“This summer Jace applied to be a counselor at Fircreek before he goes off to college,” wrote the enraged father. “Something he has always wanted to do. He is amazing with kids and has volunteered with Royal Family Kids Camp in years past for abused children. Jace got accepted as a counselor and he was excited. They called him to the office today and said he now cannot be a counselor because he is gay. He is one of the most loving honest people you will meet. Wonder why people have issues with the Christian Church and it’s organizations? We are called to love everyone no matter what race, gender, sexual orientation etc.”
James’ post then went viral with 451 shares and 1.2K reactions. Members of the Firwood community then joined James in questioning the organization over this choice. Eventually, that led to the organization releasing the below statement to address the issue.
“We recently extended an invitation for a young man well known and loved by many of us at The Firs to serve as a counselor at our Fircreek Day Camp program,” said Firs’ Executive Director Tom Beaumont.
“It became evident in the hiring process that he did not personally align with our Doctrinal Statement (regarding sexuality in particular). In this case, in order to be consistent to our Mission and Doctrinal Statement, we unfortunately had to withdraw our invitation to this young man, who we truly like, for this summer staff role.”
As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, I want to see change! I’m pissed and frustrated with the Firs. I dreamt about this for so long, and that was striped away from me because I was gay. pic.twitter.com/aNVRQDi0Go
— Jace (@jaceandrewt) June 13, 2019
In reaction to Jace’s firing, not only has James pulled out his kids from the program but so too have several other parents within the community. Many of whom have decided to create a weeklong summer camp of their own in protest.
