Booze. Drugs. Sex toys. It's not your typical Disney scene; it's Gay Days at Disney World.
But the overt “adult” nature of Gay Days didn't keep Time magazine from portraying the event as a chance for gay couples to experience Disney World-style family time. Reporter John Cloud wrote that the event was simply “a way to emphasize that many gays just want to ride a roller coaster with their partner like any other couple.”
Cloud profiled a lesbian couple with three kids excited to be taking in the “typical Disney scene.” He later noted that the family stayed away from the affiliated “business expo,” which featured “huge displays for companies that sell pornography, sex toys and lubricants.” Some other booths offered free vaccinations for hepatitis A and B and testing services for HIV.
Cloud downplayed other controverseries surrounding Gay Days, which Disney does not officially recognize but certainly welcomes. A man was removed from a party at Disney's Typhoon Lagoon “because he was high on something and incoherent,” Cloud noted. Others wore offensive clothing or snuck alcohol into the parks.
The atmosphere of the event was not like Disney's typical family-friendly environment. One event of Gay Days included a bawdy after-hours Disney water park party; one man was kicked out of the park for being high on drugs; and “rivers of alcohol (and some other substances)” were available for adult customers.
Not all gay customers were OK with the predominantly adult-oriented event, and Cloud commendably pointed that out. Cloud included input from Alex Wall, a lesbian activist who opposes Gay Days. “It hurts the cause to gain equal rights,” Wall wrote. “I'm all for having a good time, but not at the expense of people's family vacation.”
But even so, Cloud suggested, opponents of Gay Days – whether straight or gay – are supposedly few and far between. “[A]ngry moms and dads who don't want their kids exposed to gay couples or gay-themed shirts” are in the “vanishing minority,” Cloud insisted.
He called the lesbian family “the future: kids with their parents who want the great American vacation, no politics required.”
Time has a history of being promoting the gay agenda. The magazine has featured extensive positive coverage of gay rights issues, including a gay rights timeline and a 5,500-word article about gay teens in
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