Much has changed since the 2000s — including an overall greater acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community. Waxman, who went from camper to counselor, experienced this shift firsthand — thanks to online culture. The internet often plays a leading role in queer people’s coming out journeys. It’s a place that many, including myself, turned to when questioning their identity and learning about queer culture. “My first year as a camper in 2012, people still saw ‘gay’ as an insult,” he says. “By the time I was on staff so many of the kids were gay and were having complicated conversations about gender theory, and it’s because they have Instagram, YouTube, and Tumblr to learn from, and then they bring that knowledge with them to camp.” Waxman says he “credit[s] all of [his] queerness and gayness to being able to look at whatever the fuck [he] wanted on YouTube. It’s like you had to wait until you got to college or went out to nightclubs to see gay stuff for the first time.”
