Christopher Casanova, left (with sunglasses)
takes a selfie with Danny Eguizabal in front of the Cinderella Castle at
Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom on June 3 in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.
(photo: Thomas Simonetti/WP)
05 June 23
Mark Stegall and Robert Motz knew they’d made the
right decision to travel to Florida when they spotted a sea of people
wearing red T-shirts emblazoned with the words “Say Gay” in front of
Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom.
The partners from Galesburg, Ill., have been coming to the annual Gay
Days celebration at Disney for years and ultimately decided they
weren’t going to let travel advisories, new state laws targeting the
LGBTQ community and a bitter public feud between Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and the entertainment giant keep them away.
“We’re here because it’s Gay Days, it’s that simple,” Stegall said
Saturday. “Disney welcomes everybody. Maybe the governor of Florida
doesn’t, but Disney does.”
The massive Pride Month gathering marked a show of defiance this weekend in a state where librarians have been pulling gay-themed books
off the shelves, teachers are no longer allowed to discuss gender
identity or sexual orientation and many LGBTQ families feel under
attack. Organizers said reservations at the host hotel came in slower
than normal. One event — the Taste of Gay Days — was scratched after
restaurateurs voiced concerns.
But the show did go on. Rainbow-hued merchandise designed by Disney —
including a plush Mickey Mouse waving a Pride flag — flew off the
shelves almost as quickly as it could be restocked. Drag queen bingo was
held. In the end, all 1,001 rooms at the host hotel were booked, though
Gay Days chief executive Joseph Clark said travel warnings from civil
rights and equality groups advising against travel to Florida had
impacted turnout.
“For some it’s the safety aspect, for others, they don’t want to
spend money in a state that doesn’t support them,” Clark said. “My
message has been, ‘We need your help here in Florida.’”
Gay Days at Disney began three decades ago to bring together LGBTQ
people and families in an environment where they felt included rather
than marginalized. While the entertainment giant doesn’t sponsor the
event, it has welcomed hundreds of thousands of Gay Days visitors
through the years, making it one of the nation’s largest Pride Month
events. Travelers dress in red shirts to identify themselves while at
the theme parks. There is also an LGBTQ expo, pool parties and a Miss
Gay Days pageant contest at other venues nearby.
“The birth of Gay Days was really about being visible at a time when
it was dangerous to be visible,” said Brandon Wolf, communications
director for Equality Florida. “The same is true now.”
The gathering has encountered head winds in Florida before. Religious
groups including the Southern Baptist Convention have protested and
boycotted the parks in the past. In 2013, a plane with the banner
“Warning: Gay Day at Disney 6/1” was spotted flying around Central
Florida. The Florida Family Association, a group that defines its
mission as “defending American values,” said it had raised over $16,000
to fly the banners.
“The primary objective of this project is to warn families before
they expose their children to Gay Day’s revelry,” the group said in a press release at the time.
Now as DeSantis spats with Disney, the park has become an epicenter
for the governor’s culture war against all things “woke” — a term he
frequently invokes to push legislation placing restrictions on the LGBTQ
community. The feud has drawn criticism even from Republicans who say he has crossed a line in using the powers of the state to target an independent corporation. Disney recently sued DeSantis,
alleging the governor violated its First Amendment rights when it was
targeted after voicing disapproval of a law critics dub “don’t say gay.”
The Parental Rights in Education law,
which prohibits instruction on gender and sexuality in schools, was
expanded earlier this year to cover all grade levels. Many teachers and
school administrators say the vague language of the law has led them to
remove rainbow flags and safe space stickers from their classrooms for
fear they could spark a prohibited conversation.
A slate of additional laws targeting
the LGBTQ community have recently gone into effect or will later this
summer — including legislation banning gender affirming care for minors,
prohibiting the use of preferred pronouns for students and teachers,
and allowing medical providers to refuse treatment based on moral,
ethical or religious beliefs.
DeSantis blames Disney and others for trying to indoctrinate children and has said his policies “protect” children.
“I know all these Republicans are lining up against me to take the
side of Disney,” DeSantis said during a recent speech in Iowa, shortly
after announcing his presidential campaign. “But I’ll tell you this. We
stand for the protection of our children. We will fight those who seek
to rob them of their innocence and on that point, there will be no
compromise.”
Neither Disney nor DeSantis responded to a request for comment on the Gay Days event.
In the months leading up to this year’s Gay Days, some visitors
called in, worried about their personal safety or expressing fear of
arrest if they attended one of the event-sponsored drag shows, Clark
said. DeSantis recently signed a law forbidding children from attending
“adult live performances,” including drag shows, though it punishes
venues, not parents. Organizers said they added extra security and
medical personnel.
“I don’t blame them for thinking that maybe we’re playing with fire,”
Clark said. “They have to trust me and the organization and know that
we’re not going to put them at risk.”
For the most part, the event looked and felt like it had in years
prior — with some exceptions. The “Taste of Gay Days” was scaled back
after the “current political climate” sparked concern from a “large
group of our restaurant partners,” the organization announced in a
Facebook post.
“Though we adamantly tried to recruit additional vendors, it became
clear that we would be unable to provide the exceptional experience that
our guests have come to expect,” the group wrote.
Justin May was mingling at a pool party Friday dressed in a tangerine
orange one-piece Marilyn Monroe-style bathing suit, getting ready for
the next phase of the Miss Gay Days contest.
“I am literally what they’re targeting,” May said. “It’s all so
disheartening. And the travel advisories are just keeping people away
from supporting our community.”
Events like bingo and pool parties took place outside of Walt Disney
World, but inside the Magic Kingdom and Disney’s other theme parks, Gay
Days visitors filled lines for rides and souvenir shops — one visitor,
dressed in a T-shirt with the words “Don’t Say DeSantis.”
“A lot of people are coming and telling me they love it,” Matt Thompson said.
Rights activists said it’s significant that Disney continues to
embrace the event. The company is hosting the annual Out & Equal
Workplace Summit, billed as “the largest LGBTQ+ workplace equality event
in the world,” in September.
“It says something that Disney has been unwilling to kowtow to
DeSantis and his brand of authoritarianism,” said Wolf, the
communications director with Equality Florida. “I think that Disney’s
refusal to be bullied into submission is a good reminder to others that
in this moment, there is no negotiating with people like Ron DeSantis.”
Clark said many Gay Days fans were torn between making the annual
pilgrimage to Orlando or staying away to honor the travel advisories.
But he believes the current political environment is, “more of a reason
to do what we’ve been doing on an annual basis for more than 30 years.”
“And that’s to show everybody that we have a community that supports each other, and that together we’re strong,” he said.
That is the message James Couick, of Orlando, and his friends hoped
to send with their presence at the Magic Kingdom on Saturday.
“We’re being targeted by politicians, but our community is still
strong,” Couick said. “We’re here to have fun, but we’re also here to
say we’re standing up for ourselves.”
All we need to make this picture complete is a visit by Rhonda Santis.
