Gay Days Orlando
Please forgive me the momentary unrelated comic moment. I just returned from Orlando Gay Days. For those of you who don't know of Gay Days here is what their official site says about the event.
"Gay Days began in 1991 as a single designated day (always the first Saturday in June) when the community and friends were encouraged to "Wear Red and Be Seen" while visiting the world's most popular theme park."
To read more JUMP
The week long event has grown to include not only trips to the Magic Kingdom but a little something for everyone from wine tasting to off property parties for men and women.
My trip included a group of friends who simply made reservations for a Disney vacation on the same weekend as the more involved event. We stuck to the four major Disney theme parks with the highlight being Saturday in the Magic Kingdom where guests in red shirts were out in full force.
In a day and age where the LGBT community is fighting to gain the same rights as the rest of the country it was a really moving experience to be standing on Main Street USA, watching the afternoon parade, surrounded by thousands of men and women all wearing red. Same-sex partners could be seen enjoying the park with their children. Some grown members of the LGBT community had their supportive parents in toe.
It was not without controversy, my group did come face to face with a few park guests who were unaware and not happy about the day of red shirted gay park guests but the local Orlando news reported very few protests when compared to the ones that plagued the event in the early days. The news also reported an expect $100 million dollars of added income to the Orlando economy. Talk about a demographic worth paying attention too.
It was hard not to feel like a kid again when this weekend the Magic Kingdom felt a little bit more magical.
Now back to your regularly scheduled comic news and reviews.
OracleChele
Posted to on 9 June 2008
· Comments (5)
Other stuff like this: real life
your story makes me happy :-)
Forgive me - in error I wrote Sunday. Call it 12 hour days in the Orlando sun melting my brain.
Saturday was the Magic Kingdom day - and glad you liked boss!
It didn't fit in the piece but I also didn't mention that Gay Days happens to line up with weekend #1 of the Disney Star Wars Weekend.
Gay Geeks haven't lived til you have seen thousands of fellow LGBT Star Wars fans geeking out with them!
FYI, the ex-gays will be in orlando that weekend as well. lord knows who planned that, but there it is. seriously, when they're not being pious, i'm sure they'll be in a bathroom stall somewhere practicing their wide stances.
Instead of protesting at the parks, as I understand they did in years past, they instead held their own meeting/convention in the city.
And this time it was the gay community who protested them
http://www.pflag.org/blog/?p=422