Credit: Gay Days Anaheim Facebook
In the 1990s, the opening of Gay Days hit Disneyland and Walt Disney World Resort – where thousands of members of the LGBTQIA+ community held a casual get-together in the Magic Kingdom and Disneyland Park. Since then, Gay Days has remained a favorite event for Disney Parks fans.
Gay Days took over Walt Disney World Resort in June – Pride Month. Last weekend, thousands of LGBTQIA+ guests and allies gathered at Disneyland Resort’s version of the casual fan meeting!
Related Topics: Disney Pride Collection Creator is committed to Rainbow Disney merchandise all year round
If you missed your gay days this year, don’t worry! Gay Days has officially announced that the fan meeting will return to the Disneyland Resort from September 22-24, 2023. From Anaheim Gay Days:
GAY DAYS 2023 is coming September 22-24!
Gay Days Anaheim will return a week later next year, in deference to the Jewish holidays. We’ll see real ya soon!
Gay days may be a casual event, but Disney has long taken a progressive stance on gay marriage and LGBTQIA+ issues. In the 1990s, before the Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, The Walt Disney Company Offered insurance for gay and lesbian employees to their partners.
This year saw Walt Disney CEO Bob Chapek promise Disney Cast members and fans that the company would stand firm in support of the LGBTQIA+ community. In February, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis introduced the Parental Rights in Education Act, also known as the “Don’t Say Like Me” bill. Fans and cast members led protests across the country after public records revealed that Disney had made donations to several of the politicians who sponsored the bill.
Disney issued a statement on March 3 but did not directly mention the “Don’t Say Like Me” bill, which was later passed into law. Fans again asked Chapek to condemn the anti-LGBTQIA+ legislation, and Pixar employees wrote a letter to Walt Disney asking the company to take a stronger stand against the bill.
One day later, Chapek called DeSantis to tell him that Disney did not support the bill, which was later passed. Disney also promised to stop political donations in Florida After donating $4.8 million to fund the Florida campaign in the year 2020.
DeSantis said he warned Disney not to get involved in the Florida controversy, and later introduced legislation to dissolve Disney’s Reedy Creek Improvement District. The bill was later passed, meaning that Walt Disney World Resort will no longer control its own municipal services from next year.
Other conservative Republican politicians such as Senator Josh Hawley and Senator Marco Rubio have publicly attacked Disney for its stance on the law and its refusal to censor gay kissing at Pixar. Light year (2022). President Joe Biden joked that right-wing politicians want to “break into Cinderella’s castle.”
Have you ever attended gay days at Walt Disney World or Disneyland Resort?
