Tens of thousands of LGBTQ+ people flocked to central Florida on the weekend to go on theme park rides, mingle with costumed performers, dance at all-night parties and lounge poolside at hotels during Gay Days, even though Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida lawmakers have championed a slew of anti-LGBTQ laws that spurred the most prominent gay rights group in the US to issue a warning that the Sunshine State may no longer be safe.
Organizers of Gay Days – a decades-long tradition that takes place the first weekend of June – encouraged visitors from around the world to come to one of Florida’s largest gay and lesbian celebrations, saying a strong turnout would send a message that LGBTQ+ people are not going away in Florida.
“That’s the point,” said Gay Days CEO Joseph Clark of the approximately 150,000 visitors that turned out for the half-week of pool parties, drag bingo and thrill rides at Orlando’s theme parks and hotels.
“Right now is not the time to run. It’s not the time to go away,” Clark said. “It’s time to show we are here, we are queer and we aren’t going anywhere.”
Unlike most of the country, which celebrates Pride in June, Orlando holds its Pride in October. Gay Days is a bonus celebration.
The highlight of the weekend was a Saturday meetup of LGBTQ+ visitors at the Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World, where the first Gay Days started as a single-day celebration in 1991. Traditionally, participants wear red shirts to identify themselves, and they meet for the afternoon parade in front of Cinderella’s Castle.
Responding to Florida’s new laws and policies, the Human Rights Campaign – the largest LGBTQ+ rights organization in the US – recently issued a travel and relocation warning for the state. While the advocacy group said it wasn’t calling for a boycott of all travel to Florida, it said it wanted to highlight the new laws it says are hostile to the LGBTQ+ community and restrict abortion access, as well as make the state unsafe for many by allowing people to carry concealed weapons without a permit.
Some participants in the Pride Cup athletic competitions at Gay Days decided not to come, forcing the cancellation of dodgeball and flag football tournaments. But the multi-sport competition that is held annually at Gay Days still had beach volleyball, golf, pickleball and kickball.
Organizers of Gay Days and their supporters maintain that Orlando is as gay-friendly a city as they come, earning a perfect score on the Human Rights Campaign index, which measures how inclusive cities are of LGBTQ+ residents and visitors. They say tourists can support the LGBTQ+ community by visiting cities like Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, and St. Petersburg, which also received perfect scores.
“We live in a bubble here in Orlando, where even with the chaos in Florida, we feel safe here,” said Jeremy Williams, editor-in-chief of Watermark Publishing Group Inc., a Florida-based media company that is one of the sponsors of Gay Days.
If Clark, the CEO of the Gay Days business, had his wish, DeSantis would have accepted an open invitation to see one of the drag shows during this year’s festivities.
“Come on out and see that not everything you hear out there is reality,” said Clark, as if he were directly addressing DeSantis. “There’s a part of me that hopes that if he were to see a show, maybe his mind would change, or maybe he would see the people his actions are affecting.”