Homecoming: Gay Days at the Disneyland Resort

First published October 7, 2003

By C. W. Oberleitner

Our man on the West Coast, C. W. Oberleitner, returns to JHM from a stint in Anaheim covering last weekend's Gay Day 2 event at the Disneyland Resort. Trusty Mac Pismo in hand -- whatever that is -- Chuck checked into the local Howard Johnson's to be close to the fun while covering this event-filled weekend.

Fall and the bright green leaves of summer are beginning to turn beautiful shades of orange, yellow, and red. At least that's what's happening in many parts of the country. In Southern California everything still looks pretty much like it did in June, July and August. About the one true sign we have that fall has arrived is the bright orange and indigo hues of the Birds of Paradise that are in bloom all around the southern end of The Golden State.

Despite our nearly constant warm and sunny temperatures most of us here in Southern California still look forward to the traditions of the fall season. Harvest festivals abound, folks are beginning to drag out and set up electric Jack-O-Lanterns and the men folk are plopped down in front of the TV watching football.

Homecoming is also a fall tradition and one of the biggest took place this past weekend at the Disneyland Resort. An estimated twenty five thousand gays and lesbians descended upon the resort, filling the Disneyland Hotel and surrounding hotels to capacity to take part in Gay Day 2, The Official Unofficial Gay Days at the Disneyland Resort.

The "unofficial" part of Gay Day means that unlike an event like Fiesta Latina at Disney's California Adventure, which concluded this same weekend, Gay Day 2 was not planned and presented by Disney Theme Parks and Resorts entertainment. Gay Day 2 is the brainchild of event founder Jeffrey Epstein. Sharp-eyed JimHillMedia readers will recall that Jeffrey Epstein is the co-author along with Eddie Shapiro of Queens In The Kingdom, The Ultimate Gay and Lesbian Guide to the Disney Theme Parks, reviewed here earlier this year by our own Jim Hill.

Gay Day 2 two has its roots in early 1990s gay activism. Way back on June 3, 1991 the Orlando Sentinel ran a story about gay activist Doug Swallow's plans to hold, "The First Annual Official Unofficial Gay & Lesbian Day at the Magic Kingdom." Here's more of what Sentinel columnist Bob Morris had to say about that first Gay Day:

Should be a colorful crowd out at Disney World this weekend. Central Florida homosexuals are being urged to turn out in force at the theme park and wear bright red to take part in 'The First Annual Official Unofficial Gay & Lesbian Day at the Magic Kingdom.' It's being organized as part of 'Gay & Lesbian Pride Week' by Orlando gay activist Doug Swallow, who also conceived the 'Gay Day at the Central Florida Fair' this spring. Says Swallow: 'The idea is just to have fun, to stand up and be counted.' A similar event at Tampa's Busch Gardens originally called 'Do It In The Jungle' was canceled over the Memorial Day weekend because of poor ticket sales. At Busch Gardens, organizers had rented the park for their exclusive use. But Disney doesn't rent to private groups, 'So gays and lesbians are just supposed to buy their tickets and mingle with the crowd,' said Swallow. Disney officials said they weren't aware of the event and, despite several calls from Column World, haven't offered any response to the plans. But you can bet they are none too pleased with promotional fliers. They feature the familiar profile of you-know-whom, with an earring bearing the gay-lesbian symbol of Lambda dangling from one oversized ear. Jeez, who's gonna break the news to Minnie?" -- The Orlando Sentinel, June 3, 1991.

From those humble beginnings Gay Day at the Magic Kingdom has grown into a nearly weeklong event attended by hundreds of thousands of gays and lesbians from all over the world. As Walt Disney World grew, so did Gay Day Orlando. It now includes Gay Day events in every WDW theme park as well as Downtown Disney, Typhoon Lagoon, Pleasure Island and even the Hard Rock Café at Universal Studios Florida's City Walk.

Unlike its sister park in Florida, Disneyland at one time did rent to private groups. For many years there was a "Gay Night" at Disneyland. Just as corporations and private organizations of all kinds would do, Odyssey Travel would rent Disneyland one night a year and sell tickets for a private party at the park for gays and lesbians.

All of that came to an end in 1997 when Disneyland expanded its weeknight off-season operating hours making it impossible to rent out the park. In stepped Jeffrey Epstein.

Jeffrey Epstein attended the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University. A one-time actor, over the years he sustained himself with a variety of jobs that included gym management and event planning, a skill that would later serve him well. He took up a career in writing after moving to Los Angeles and is now the senior editor at Out magazine.

Jeffrey, and what after six years of Gay Days, has become a committee of eight, stepped into the breach following the demise of the private Gay Night parties at Disneyland and started Gay Day 2. Their idea being that Gay Day Orlando is the first such event and GayDays at the Disneyland Resort is the second.

Their very first Gay Day 2 at Disneyland was in 1998 and only attracted an estimated 2,500 gay men and lesbians. That was in stark contrast to the last private Gay Night party the year before which reportedly drew over ten thousand participants. Undaunted the Gay Day 2 committee pressed on until Gay Day 2, like its sister event in Orlando, is now a multi day, multi venue event attended by thousands of gays and lesbians, their families and friends from all over the country. This year's event drew an estimated 25,000 celebrants.

And just like those homecoming events we all remember from our school days, Gay Day 2, GayDays at the Disneyland Resort is a celebration. Like any good homecoming it kicked off the evening of Friday October 3, with a dance in the grand ballroom of the Disneyland Hotel entitled "Wonderland". Billed as a trip down the rabbit hole it was hosted by drag diva "Momma" and featured the hard driving music mix of Southland DJ Ray Rhodes.

The Disneyland and Paradise Pier hotels were reportedly booked to capacity. Several of the hotels on Harbor Blvd., including "official sponsor of GayDays 2003" Howard Johnson, also reported higher than usual guest volume.

The reason for the near sell-out conditions at these hotels soon became evident. Early Saturday morning the lines queuing up at the main entrance to Disneyland were a wash in a sea of red tee shirts, sweat shirts, jumpers and jackets of all sorts. After a few minutes it became easier to count the number of guests not wearing red than it was to estimate how many were sporting Gay Day colors.

And they weren't all young men named Steve…

GayDays is more than just a trip to Disneyland with 25,000 of your closest friends. The Gay Day 2 organizers had an almost nonstop schedule of activities for GayDays participants. On Saturday there was a familiy gathering at Sleeping Beauty Castle hosted by the L.A. Gay & Lesbian Center's Family Services Program.

There were three park wide scavenger hunts. The first was for gay families with kids. The second, hosted by The Trevor Project was for gay youth 18 and under. The third was for teams and word has it, it drew many Disneyanamaniacs and regular readers of JimHillMedia.

There was a lunchtime gathering for Da Bears, where else but at The Hungry Bear restaurant. Gay Day 2 also continued its long time tradition of a group photo. At one point the line to get into the Festival Arena, where group photos were taken by park photographers, stretched all the way past Big Thunder Mountain to the River Boat ride entrance.

Jim likes to say that whether it's Orlando or Anaheim, Gay Day is always a great time to visit the Disney Parks because so many members of the parks' cast are themselves gay. It's his feeling that the performers in the parades and shows give a little extra and do a little more when they are playing for the hometown crowd, so to speak.

He probably has a point and heaven knows I saw my share of, er, well, animated behavior. At one point Saturday I found myself in Mickey's ToonTown. Chip and Dale were wandering about doing a character meet and greet. A muscular young man wearing a snug red tee shirt waited patiently to have his picture taken with these two Disney stars.

As the last group of kids moved out of the way the young man stepped between Chip and Dale, turned and looked up at friend who was about to take his picture. Just as the friend raised his camera Chip and Dale completely in unison turned their faces toward the young man's well defined chest and each began to nuzzle a pec. The crowd, full of families with kids as well as many GayDays participants, went wild with laughter. The young man's face turned to a brighter shade of red than his tee shirt.

While Chip and Dale certainly seemed to go out of their way to prove Jim's point that GayDays sharpens the performances of the cast I think it also works the other way around as well.

The sun had finally set and I had just finished a lovely dinner with friends at the Blue Bayou. By the time we made it to Royal Street in New Orleans Square the crowds had gathered for the evening's first performance of Fantasmic. Despite the size of the crowds and paucity of unobstructed views I whisked my group to my favorite viewing spot, which, as always had almost no one standing around it just thirty minutes before showtime. And no I'm not going to tell you where it is.

It was perhaps the best performance of Fantasmic I've seen in years. Not just because the performances were any more lively than usual. No this performance of Fantasmic was wonderful because the audience was far more lively than usual. The crowd, which was heavily populated with people participating in GayDays, was ready and willing to be swept away by fantasy and magic. They cheered, screamed, whistled, hooted and applauded all throughout the show and like no other Fantasmic audience I have ever been a part of.

This year's GayDays was truly a remarkable event for several reasons. In years past I have heard less than tolerant people make some rather disparaging homophobic remarks about Disneyland being "over run" with "those kind" of people. This year if there were any such remarks or complaints I never heard about any of them from anyone.

As I know it is not their policy to discuss guest complaints I did not ask Disneyland Guest Relations about GayDays specific complaints. And unlike some of my Disney media colleagues I did not feel like spending this festive sunny day sitting inside City Hall eavesdropping on guests and cast.

In point of fact I had been more concerned about how people were going to react to the large number of closed attractions. On this particular day, Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain were all closed.

The ride closures didn't really seem to upset anyone. Many people lamented not being able to ride one or all of these three attractions. However, whether it was a family of five from the Central Valley or a car full of young men who had just driven in from Las Vegas for GayDays they all shared the same feeling of having a wonderful time just being at Disneyland in the company of family and friends.

Gay Day 2 at Disneyland went on until closing. Late that afternoon Jeffrey Epstein and Eddie Shapiro held a reading from and autographed copies of Queens In The Kingdom at Compass Books in Downtown Disney. They were introduced by NYPD Blue star Bill Brochtrup.

The first full day of Gay Day 2, GayDays at the Disneyland Resort concluded with the Kingdom2 party. Kingdom2 took over the entire Hollywood Pictures Backlot section of Disney's California Adventure. There was food, music, dancing and I'm told lots of Disney royalty and a few more TV personalities. But this tired old queen made the mistake of going back to the hotel to change before going to the party and having a glass of wine. That was it for me until Gay Day 2, GayDays at Disney's California Adventure. But that's a story for another time.

C'ya real soon.