Advice to Tourists - You May Want to Read This Before Going to Disneyland This Weekend

Starting tomorrow and running through Sunday (Oct. 3-5) the Disney Resort becomes the "Gayest Place on Earth", and believe me, they aren't kidding. My first experience with "Gay Days" was an accident, but I've gone back a couple of other times just for the sheer entertainment value of it. You'll see sights there you won't see anywhere else, though you may not want to your kids to see those sights.

I don't think I'll make it over there this year, but for anyone thinking of going who is not part of this weekends "target market", you might want to read this:

Question: Tell us about Gay Days at Disneyland. What are you looking forward to?
Answer: It’s a great mix of people. The whole spectrum of gay comes. There’s a lot of gay events that are for just women, just gym boys or just bears. We have a party where everyone is invited…

We have an event at Ralph Brennan’s Jazz Kitchen — 100 percent of the proceeds go to the Trevor Project, a suicide prevention hotline for gay youth.

There’ll be great gatherings in the park that are unofficial, a giant photo op in the festival area near Woody’s Roundup.

We’ll also have an info-center. We take over the Trillium Ballroom in the Grand Californian Hotel. There’ll be plenty of t-shirts for sale and free goody bags.

Q: How did Gay Days start?

A: I went with who was only my friend at the time, who later became my co-author, in 1998. Gay Days was only a few years in. The group that used to rent out Disneyland to do a gay party was no longer going to do it.

Q: So you decided to take it over?

A: We started an e-mail chain, and the next year, about 2,500 people showed up. Over the years it got more formal. We started an e-mail list and started renting blocks of rooms. We were all huge Disney geeks. We love the parks, we think they’re amazing.

Q:So the event is organized by you guys, it’s not an official Disney event, right?

A: Right. We do a lot of work with Disneyland and their group, PRIDE –

Q: PRIDE?

A: People Respecting Diversity in Everyone. Anything for an acronym, right? It’s Disney’s gay and lesbian diversity group. I know that we are technically not an official event, but Disney does work to embrace us as much as possible.

Q: I can see from your Web site that despite the assertions of celebrity gossip blog TMZ, Miley Cyrus’ Birthday celebration Sunday night won’t interfere with Gay Days?

A:It’ll be a great time for all the gay tweens who want to do both.

Consider yourself warned.

Now, let me say this about the event. If Disney wants to help promote a Gay Days event, it's their right to do so. However, this event is clearly promoted by Disney through various organizations within the company, but is not publicly acknowledged by Disney. I looked at the Disneyland.com website for all three days and there's no mention of Gay Days at all. If you're an average family planning a vacation at the park this weekend, there's nothing on the website to advise you of the special event (or help you with the answers to some very interesting questions you're going to get from your kids). I didn't call, but I'm guessing the Disney operators won't tell you about it either.

For the sake of families that may not choose to put their kids in that environment, at the very least Disney should disclose the event on their website.