Pairs of moms and pairs of dads.

Isabel Rieser, 16, a Penn Charter junior into soccer and instant messaging, has two dads. So does Jon Nelson, 11, a wrestler and video-gamer from East Stroudsburg, Pa.

Mount Airy twins Emmett and Leo Neyman, 111/2, who share a love of Harry Potter and milk chocolate (without nuts), are being raised by two moms.

At this unusual overnight camp, in South Jersey, no one asks youngsters who their "real" parents are or why their family's not "normal." And that makes all the difference.

"So many kids grow up in communities that are not accepting of their families at all," says Rieser, in her sixth season at Mountain Meadow. "Coming here makes you feel good about yourself."

One of the country's few camps for children in lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) families, Mountain Meadow was established in 1981 by Philadelphia Rabbi Julie Greenberg. There were seven campers.

A total of 64, most from the Philadelphia area but also from Maryland and New York, attended this summer's two-week session, ending a week ago.

Children of LGBT families face unique challenges, says executive director Steve Duffy, 47, a gay man raised in a traditional Northeast Philadelphia Catholic family.

Those challenges range from the maelstrom of emotions around the discovery of a parent's homosexuality to the social awkwardness, if not stigma, of having gay parents.

"Some kids are harassed at school," Duffy says. "Some lead secret lives. It's not something casually shared between children."

Troy Johnson, author of Family Outing: What Happened When I Found Out My Mother Was Gay, says he cried all day when his mother's ex-lover told him his mom was a lesbian. He was 10.

"I didn't know how to deal with it," says Johnson, 34, of San Diego. "Everybody told me my mother was a pervert. Who wanted to bring friends home to a freak? I didn't have the power to think for myself."

Johnson, now close with his mom, labels children of gay parents "a silent minority."

In the Philadelphia area, one third of the 4,300-plus female and male same-sex couples were raising at least one child, according to the 2000 census.

Demographic trends show the numbers increasing as more lesbians bear children and more LGBT couples adopt, says Heather Batson, research associate for the Philadelphia Health Management Corp.

Says Johnson, "We need a sense of community with others who have gone through it. Kids shouldn't be judged for their parents' situation."

Such issues are discussed at Mountain Meadow in daily hour-long "kids' meetings" directed by counselors.

Campers who have never talked about their lives before "open up and find bits and pieces of themselves that help them grow into a bigger person," Rieser says.

This was one of Greenberg's goals when she started Mountain Meadow on central Pennsylvania farmland owned by her mother.