Gay Days at Disney

We are on our way to our seventh year attending the big party for Queer Mouseketeers. We return every year because Gay Days has so many elements that make for a perfect vacation:

Queer Friendly

There is a reason that GLBT folk like to travel to places that have a lot of us. Coming out is stressful. We have to do it over and over. It gets easier with repetition. That first time telling a friend that you like boys is one of the hardest things any of us ever do. And then informing the parental units! And a little piece of that stress is with us every time we are introduced to someone new and we let them know that "No I am not married. I've been with the same man for 22 years, but we are not allowed to be married".

Why go through that on vacation? When we check in to a gay guesthouse in Key West no one stops to consider our sexual orientation.

Disney is pretty-much queer friendly anytime of the year. I have heard that 30% of Disney World Employees are gay. Not a surprise. They are one of the biggest employers of musicians, entertainers, and service industry employees in the country. And if there are any careers that scream queer they would probably be musicians, entertainers, and the service industry.

Warm

Okay, not such a big deal the first weekend in June as we finally get a taste of summer in Michigan. But after such a long winter I welcome the thought of near-sweltering weather.

Escapist

In my younger years my escapist vacations were trips to the far North Country. Bush pilots (no not THAT Bush) in northern Canada would fly us hundreds of miles away from civilization, and we would paddle our way out. They were great trips. Alas, I am in no shape to try such a trip again, and probably would not be able to arrange enough time off to do so in any case.

In lieu of that, how much more escapist can you get than to spend a part of your day in Muppetvision 3-D or going to Infinity and Beyond to help Buzz Lightyear defeat the evil Zurg? Or going inside a Twilight Zone episode then being dropped 13 floors by a possessed elevator?

How about spending 15-20 minutes with animatronic bears doing a "Country Bear Jamboree" in Grand Ole Opry fashion. If that's not enough, see the show at 1:00 p.m. on Gay Day at the Magic Kingdom when all the Bears (yes, those bears) gather to watch the production. Oh my. It is a hoot and a holler, and one of the most fun things you could ever imagine.

Empowering

Gay Days started seventeen years ago on the whim of some friends. It has grown into a week-long event that is attended by over 100,000 GLBTQ folk and our allies. There are circuit parties and business expos, drag shows and leather contests, Pool Parties and Comedy shows, Film Festivals and Beer Busts. All this and more.

But at the heart of it all remains Gay Day at the Magic Kingdom. It is always the first Saturday in June. Thousands of the entire diversity of the queer community attend. There are gay and lesbian parents with their kids, circuit boyz a bit hungover or strung out from the night before, every gender expression imaginable, bears and twinks, femmes and butches. Singles, couples, and truples.

And we are all there for one reason.

Have fun at the park.

And it is so much more fun when you get to be the majority. And we get to SEE that we are the majority because everyone wears red. The sea of red over the land of the Mouse is a sight to behold.

But here is the best thing. It was not always like this. Disney used to be the evil empire. Gays were banished from the magic Kingdom by edict of Uncle Walt himself. It did not fit with his ideas of "family". I think the change started within minutes of Walt's death. The company was an entertainment behemoth, and therefore had more queers in it than a production of Chorus Line. Once the cult Father Figure (or in this case Uncle Figure) was out of the picture Disney went from oppressor to friend remarkably quickly.

A trip to Gay Days is a celebration of who we are and the change that can happen in our society. It is also a chance to take a picture of your partner with a triceratops.