Are gay days an antiqued concept?

exactly, which means you treat all the same, which means a specialized day is to treat someone different.
Except no one is being treated different. Everyone is paying the same ticket prices, the same food costs, the same everything. It's no different than when a friend group goes anywhere, it's just a LOT of friends. Literally no one is being excluded.

For your argument to work you'd have to be against holiday celebrations as well, after all not everyone celebrates celebrates specific holidays thereby making it exclusionary?
 
that is correct regarding holidays as well: the Christmas party, the Halloween party, all fall in the same category.

And I’m not making things unsafe or saying that can’t be themselves, I’m just pointing out the flip side of the logic.
 
I guess without politics we’re more conservative too and we’ve never had trouble in the parks at all. I guess I just don’t think that being gay is my only piece of identity so perhaps that’s why it’a more important to others.

Being queer isn’t the only piece of my identity either. I’m Black, female, and disabled. But I’m also an avid gamer, cosplayer, gothic fashion enthusiast, and sf/f writer. The thing is, homophobes don’t care that I make a mean coq au vin or am really good at Final Fantasy. When I’m with my gf (and thus clocked much harder; being a femme means being invisible a lot), all they see is a couple of deviant sinners who are destroying America or whatever and have zero qualms about letting us know exactly how subhuman they think we are.
 


I could go on about how the holiday celebrations are official disney events, and gay days is not sponsored by disney at all...but why bother

Queer people shouldnt need to defend a harmless celebration that is important to community and history on a section of the boards for queer people. I took the time to write you a long and thoughtful response on the topic and you simply have fired back without taking that to heart, and saying its just presenting the "flip side of the logic". Narrator: "It wasn't the flip side of the logic."
 
exactly, which means you treat all the same, which means a specialized day is to treat someone different.

You seem very misinformed about Gay Days. Disney, as a company, does NOT specifically celebrate Gay Days with anything special in the parks,nor do they sponsor it. They are normal park operating days. It has only been the last couple of years where the company has even been offering any rainbow themed merchandise on site. In fact, for the first few years, Disney went so far as to put out disclaimer signs at the parks, and letters in the resort rooms.

HOWEVER, it hasn't been too many years since Disney DID promote and sell special tickets for Night of Joy, a Christian music celebration in the parks, which has been discontinued. As far as Gay Day private ticket events, they are not Disney promoting, you can't buy the tickets through Disney. The history of Gay Day may surprise those thinking that DIsney sponsors the event. It started as a group of internet friends meeting up in the park wearing red shirts...that was it, and as things tend to do on the internet, it grew and grew to what we see today. Still basically a group of people who have decided to all visit Disney at the same time. Just as any other group is welcome to do and many DO, from churches, schools, groups of employees from major corporations and non-profit organizations. You'll see LOTS of people wearing shirts from specific groups ANYTIME you visit Disney.

Promoters rent certain venues, like Typhoon Lagoon for a private party... the promoter sells the tickets...like any other private corporate event.

Everyone is welcome at Gay Days, again, there is no special events during park operating hours, it's like any other day in the parks. I went a few years ago with with a group of 16 people, I was the only gay person in the group. The group was all ages, from a few months to mid-60s. We all went to MK that day, and everyone enjoyed it. That said, we didn't wander through the park as a huge group, we broke into sub-groups of 4 to 6 people, so it wasn't like herding cats.
 
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My thoughts are: if there are Gay days....are there Native American days? African American days? Democrat days? Left handed days? Red-haired days? Goth days? Polygamy days? Etc etc etc. if what we really want is acceptance for all, aren’t characteristic-specific events pushing in the other direction?

exactly how I feel to be 100% honest. I don’t need a day to celebrate my sexuality. Everyday is “gay days” for me.

I know exactly the point you are trying to make which is the point I am as well.
 


Does anyone not see the necessary designation of one day as “Gay Days” any longer?

I just think that we have become so accepted loved and ingrained in society that we don’t need a special designated day as everyday is pretty much “Gay day”.

I have walked with my husband in Disney and never ever have been made to feel anything other than loved and welcomed.

Now with having a son and people see two dads I feel like people come up all the time respectfully giving us warm regards as well.

To me, Disney represents family, acceptance and Inclsuon. I feel that we have succeeded in all aspects as gay people without having a special day as everyday is special.

thoughts and feelings?
I am happy to hear of your experience at WDW. How special is it to bring your child to share the WDW magic? That's great!
More and more communities are progressing. More are getting onboard. That's great too.
But there's still a long way to go before all gay people can live their life without hurt, anguish, discrimination, safety threats, mental torture, etc.
 
You know what response really grinds me-
Well why can't they just live their life? Why do they have to make a spectacle out of it?

Isn't that the point though. Not always being able to just 'live their life'. The constant reminders that they are somehow less.

People in my own family are oblivious and just don't get it. Some of them almost start to get it... and then it slips away. Others are all in on the ignorance even when it harms close family members they love.

I feel like do what you need to do. Go celebrate at WDW or PRIDE or everywhere else. Don't let other people make you feel like you should be ashamed for being yourself. Each generation is getting better. Keep going!
 
Also, because this has always bugged me about that argument against "characteristic-specific events": Acceptance does not mean blending in to what the majority has decided is "normal" or "better."

To accept someone is to accept a person's differences from yourself.

As a mother of a disabled child, this speaks to me. He was born this way and I wish more people could just accept he is just different, not less. We should not be "colorblind" either; we should recognize our differences and embrace them. That's TRUE acceptance.

Being queer isn’t the only piece of my identity either. I’m Black, female, and disabled. But I’m also an avid gamer, cosplayer, gothic fashion enthusiast, and sf/f writer. The thing is, homophobes don’t care that I make a mean coq au vin or am really good at Final Fantasy. When I’m with my gf (and thus clocked much harder; being a femme means being invisible a lot), all they see is a couple of deviant sinners who are destroying America or whatever and have zero qualms about letting us know exactly how subhuman they think we are.

Personally, I'm a big fan of 'deviant sinners'.

In no way am I trying to minimize your statement. I just wanted to give you a shout out and let you know that there are others in the Disney fan community who appreciate the non-cookie-cutter folks.
 
Sometimes it is fun to get together and celebrate.

Probably you live near some family and you COULD go visit them anytime you wanted. But we use holidays as "excuses" to get together and celebrate something.
 
I feel that my friends are special for one day only and yet they are still discriminated against. Nobody is perfect.
 
I feel that my friends are special for one day only and yet they are still discriminated against. Nobody is perfect.

I hope one day it is more like your birthday...You are celebrated that you are you for one day and then you are just are one of the crowd.
 
My thoughts are: if there are Gay days....are there Native American days? African American days? Democrat days? Left handed days? Red-haired days? Goth days? Polygamy days? Etc etc etc. if what we really want is acceptance for all, aren’t characteristic-specific events pushing in the other direction?

I know in Disneyland, Anaheim, CA, there is Goth days.
 
I know in Disneyland, Anaheim, CA, there is Goth days.
There was an annual goth meet up called "bats day at the fun park", but the organizers stopped doing it. It wasn't officially affiliated with Disney. However, I noticed that Disney embraced them (or maybe embraced their spending money? lol) with well-placed merch, just as they do with gay days. :)
 
I don't think it's an antiquated concept at all.

Call me when there's a gay Disney prince. Or a gay Disney anything other than some nice merch once a year.
Hmm, clearly hasn't seen the live action Beauty and The Beast.
I'm more concerned with Disney recognising clearly homophobic t-shirts being worn in the parks under the guise of biblical quotes such as Corinthians 2 and doing something about it.

I'm going to get into trouble with the moderators for saying this, but, this isn't about religion as most religious people are supportive of the LGBTQ community, but, you still get the bigots sneakily broadcasting their views on a t-shirt, so this post is about bigotry.
 
My opinion? I'm gay, and I have no interest in Gay Days, so I wouldn't miss it. Also as a woman I feel discriminated against on that basis 1000x more often so the idea that we need a Disney event until discrimination ends has me 🙄 ... Again, my opinion, but I dislike focusing on the ways I might be considered inferior.
 
I think my perspective might be a little different on this so I thought I'd jump in.

Are Gay Days an antiquated concept? Yes and no. Yes, in regards to the name, but no in regards to society today. I think Gay Days definitely caters primarily to gay men as evident in the uptick in those visiting Country *BEAR* Jamboree on that day. The event is supposed to be about inclusion of the ENTIRE LGBTQ+ community and I think calling it Gay Days may say otherwise. It's like how Gay Pride has become just Pride to not focus in too much on the gay and lesbian communities. Although I understand it has a nicer ring, I personally have had no interest since it definitely caters toward a certain demographic even within the gay male community.

That being said, the event itself has always been a separate entity from the parks much like Dapper Day. From my experience, Dapper Day has gotten a bit more support albeit being a rather new event in comparison to Gay Days. I don't recall Disney ever offering discounted hotel rates in the way that Dapper Day has along with letting them use special venues for meet-ups. Wonder why? Furthermore, Disney has started offering up rainbow merch during Pride month, but refuse to acknowledge it as Pride merch and just call it the "rainbow collection". By comparison, Universal has started doing the same thing except they do call it Pride merch. Not to mention, Universal also has a window on the Horror Make-Up Show facade in memory of victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting and a whole scare zone at Halloween Horror Nights that is a spooky homage to drag ball culture. Both parks may profit off of us in these manners, but only one actually gives us recognition.

This is not to say that society has become more tolerant and accepting because they have or that Disney hasn't improved on representation because it has (albeit very teeny tiny baby steps), but it's not to say homophobia has gone away, much less transphobia, biphobia, misogyny or racism that are all very prevalent in this community. I think we still deserve to have a celebration, especially if Disney continues to profit off of us, but then effectively erases our existence in the parks. It also might make a world of difference for someone who is just coming to terms with their gender or sexuality, something a good bunch of us could relate to.

Maybe in conclusion, as a concept it isn't antiquated at all and is still necessary and important to the very diverse fan community Disney has.
 
In a way, Disney needs to continue to have gay days "officially unofficial" *wink* Everyone knows the Disney name, if there is a very public protest about anything, do you think it would be involving Universal or Disney? Heck, websites were saying Disney shouldn't have reopened in July, they were putting the public in danger and so forth...yet we heard crickets when Universal reopened on June 6th, over a month earlier The Disney name = publicity for every crackpot organization with a societal grievance. If they can find a way to justify using the Disney name to make news, they will. Disney is a favorite target.
 

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