Gay Disney

Lay and I went to Gay Days at Disney World in Orlando this weekend. We had a pretty good time. The weather was threatening rain, but the clouds helped it be cool. The crowd was quite large. Part of the tradition is for gay attendees to wear red shirts. I’m guessing the crowd was probably half and half.

At the park, it was a fairly well behaved bunch, but you wonder what some of these people are thinking when they dress for this thing. It’s not a night out at the levi/leather bar, and I think it helps “narrow” people justify their stereotype. There are a lot of older gay people that attend, and a lot of people travel from long distances and come in groups. Many have matching outfits and such, so that is sort of cute.

Apparently there are a lot of reunions of groups of friends and people that have met on previous Gay Days.

It has become very much a long weekend of partying. Lots of that partying is centered around the Parliament House (a large gay hotel and entertainment complex in Orlando). There are some circuit parties now associated with the event, and its too bad that something orginally conceived as a more laid-back family oriented and fun sort of event has, as with many things gay-related, been co-opted by the Circuit Party Crowd.

Typically, there are some Christian Groups that sneak in to the events and tape some of the goings on to show to Disney Executives (and I’m sure run over and over again on the 700 Club). While they use four or five scenes, usually from the parties, we certainly give them no shortage of footage of outrageous behavior…and then wonder why some people still have a hard time accepting us. And, I can’t stress enough the inapproriateness of some of the outfits worn at the park (just a few mind you, but certainly the ones that will be included in the documentary). I just don’t understand why some people think every gay event must be a chance for them to be as brash and extreme as they can be.

This documentary will, of course, be just a few scenes taken out of three or four days, and that is unfortunate too. We really didn’t see anyone “misbehaving” at the park, and we attended the evening parties at Pleasure Island (Part of Downtown Disney) Saturday night rather then the Parliament House events. That was very much a mixed crowd, and everyone seemed to be having a lot of fun.

Having said all that though, it was great fun and it is uplifting to be out in one of the quintessential American family institutions with so many from our own family. We rented a condo with some friends, and a great time was had by everyone.