FREDERICKSBURG, Virginia (LifeSiteNews) — What’s in a name? In the case of the YMCA, American Life League is calling out the nonprofit for its disingenuity. Research published by American Life League’s Charity Watchlist highlights the incongruity between the name and the stated mission of the Young Men’s Christian Association and the 180-year-old organization’s current policies, programs, and June focus on “pride month.”
The stated mission of the YMCA, often called the “Y,” remains “to put Christian principles into practice through programs that build healthy spirit, mind and body for all.”
The Young Men’s Christian Association was founded in 1844 in London, England, by tradesman George Williams to offer refuge for youth seeking escape from the hazards of sleeping on the streets. According to the history, Williams “organized the first YMCA to substitute Bible study and prayer for life on the streets.”
Throughout the month of June, YMCAs across the United States coopt rainbow icons and promote events to celebrate “pride month.” The YMCA.org website declares, “Pride Month is traditionally recognized in June by communities across the U.S. to celebrate and support the LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, other dimensions of gender identity and allies) community [sic] and honor the history of the LBGTQ+ movement.”
American Life League President Judie Brown observed that “the Young Men’s Christian Association has become the antithesis of Christian teaching.”
Katherine Van Dyke, American Life League’s lead researcher on the Charity Watchlist project, concurred with Brown’s assessment.
“The YMCA’s actions and policies show that ‘to put Christian principles into practice’ is no longer a priority for the organization,” stated Van Dyke. “It would rather defend the deceitful transgender ideology to appease a small group of individuals than defend God’s purposeful design in creating the male and female person in His image and likeness. The organization also fails girls and women by subjecting them to both dangerous situations and taking away the privacy and respect they deserve by forcing them to share changing rooms with men, without apology or amendment to its policies.”
“The Charity Watchlist wants to highlight some of the more deceptive misunderstandings about nonprofit groups, such as the YMCA, and their positions on issues of life and family values,” added Van Dyke, “as well as affirm those organizations that are doing good and remaining true to practices and principles that affirm the sanctity of human life.”
Van Dyke offered some of the incidents that have earned the YMCA its negative red “stop” rating on the American Life League Charity Watchlist:
- A Springfield, Illinois, YMCA allowed a gender-confused man to use the women’s locker room, telling a 16-year-old female patron that there was nothing they could do about it.
- A San Diego area teenage girl scared by a naked man in the women’s locker room at the Sandee YMCA was told by staff that the facility’s transgender policy allows men to shower in the women’s locker room.
- Small town Ohio YMCAs allow men who “identify” as women to access women’s locker rooms, disregarding the safety and privacy of their female members.
According to American Life League, the blame sits squarely on the YMCA’s radical policies and promotions that place LGBT “inclusivity” above all, even over the safety of women and children and prevention of sexual abuse: Read More
