Episcopal Diocese hosts affirming Queer Camp at Lake Coeur d'Alene

The Episcopal Diocese of Spokane brought its affirming Queer Camp back to Camp Cross on Lake Coeur d’Alene, keeping the retreat on the west side of the lake even as Idaho lawmakers again pushed anti-LGBTQ measures. The camp’s setting on McDonald’s Point south of Loff’s Bay, reachable only by boat, has become part of its appeal for LGBTQ+ Christians and allies looking for a place that feels protected as well as welcoming.

Camp Cross is a ministry of the Spokane diocese and says it has served nearly 1,000 campers, volunteers and visitors each summer. Organizers have long pointed to the boat-only access as a safety advantage, and that isolation has helped shape the retreat’s identity on the lake in Kootenai County, where visitors arrive not for a resort-style experience but for a church gathering rooted in privacy, worship and community.

The retreat first launched September 6-8, 2024, when one account said about 20 campers attended the inaugural Queer Camp. Bishop Gretchen Rehberg, the ninth bishop of Spokane and the first female bishop of the diocese, has said the camp is intended to give LGBTQ+ people a place to gather and worship together. In a separate comment, she said this was the first time the diocese had offered a camp specifically for LGBTQ youth.

The timing has given the event added weight. The ACLU of Idaho says 11 anti-LGBTQ bills were introduced in the 2026 legislative session alone, following at least 19 bills targeting transgender people in 2025. That political backdrop has made the Lake Coeur d’Alene retreat more than a church weekend for many attendees: it is also a visible statement that the region still has room for people seeking affirmation rather than exclusion.

The Diocese of Spokane has tied that message to its wider history on the lake. It says one of its earliest missionary priests established 23 missions in the late 19th century and that a summer camp for youth on Lake Coeur d’Alene developed in the early 20th century. The church is also marking the 50th anniversary of its 1976 affirmation of LGBTQ+ people’s full and equal claim to the church’s love, acceptance and pastoral care, reinforcing Camp Cross as part of a broader public embrace of inclusion in Spokane and along the Idaho shore.