Suit was filed this week in a Colorado federal district court by a Christian children's summer camp challenging state regulations that require the camp to allow transgender children to use restroom, shower, dressing and sleeping facilities that conform to their gender identity. The complaint (full text) in Camp Id-Ra-Ha-Je Association v. Roy, (D CO, filed 5/12/2025), alleges in part:
Requiring IdRaHaJe to forfeit its religious status, beliefs, and exercise to maintain an otherwise available license to operate as a children’s resident camp in Colorado triggers strict scrutiny under the Free Exercise Clause....
... [T]he Department engaged in impermissible religious hostility by refusing to grant a religious exemption to IdRaHaJe while granting exemptions from regulations for secular reasons and despite clear precedent that prohibits the State from excluding IdRaHaJe from licensing based on its religious character and exercise....
The gender identity regulations are not neutral or generally applicable because the Department has discretion to create individualized and categorical exceptions, which it has done for certain organizations.
The gender identity regulations also are not neutral and generally applicable because the practical “effect” of those provisions is to exclude only those organizations with religious beliefs and practices like IdRaHaJe’s....
The Equal Protection Clause prohibits the Department from excluding IdRaHaJe from licensing because of its religious status, character, beliefs, and exercise....
ADF issued a press release announcing the filing of the lawsuit.
