Politics
Social Conservatives Take Aim at Gay Days in Orlando and at Disney
Around the State
Celebration at Walt Disney World
With thousands of people from around the world planning to visit Central Florida for the Gay Days festivities in early June, religious conservatives from the Sunshine State are warning families not to visit the Magic Kingdom on the first Saturday of the month.
“Approximately 30,000 children will rush with their parents to the Magic Kingdom in Orlando on Saturday, June 4, only to be thrust into a crowd of approximately 15,000 people reveling about gay pride,” noted David Caton, the executive director of the conservative Florida Family Association, on Thursday.
Caton, who has led numerous protests targeting companies that advertise on television shows with questionable and mature content, urged that Disney, which is not sponsoring the event, restrict Gay Days activities to after-hours.
“Why would Disney allow Gay Day to take place during regular operating hours at the expense of offending tens of thousands of unsuspecting guests when they require other special events to be held after normal operating hours?” demanded Caton. “Disney requires special events like Grad Night and Night of Joy to be held after the Magic Kingdom's regular operating hours. Disney does this to avoid having a large group of likeminded people in the park at the same time with regular patrons who expect a normal day at the Magic Kingdom.”
Besides recommending that members inform friends and family who are planning to hit the Magic Kingdom in early June, Caton urged his members and supporters to e-mail CEO Robert Igner and other leaders at Disney asking them to move the event back to after-hours.
Caton noted that his organization had raised enough funds to rent an airplane which would fly over the Orlando area on that Friday and Saturday with banners warning about the event.
“We have had a team attend several past Gay Days at Disney,” added Caton. “We estimate that as many as 10,000 people enter the park only to promptly exit before 1:00 p.m. after witnessing the same-sex revelry.”
Chris Alexander-Manley, the president of Orlando based Gay Days, Inc., welcomed the free publicity that Caton offered the event.
Pointing to the 21-year history of the event, which is not the largest gay and lesbian tourist event in the world, Alexander-Manley, whose company helps organize the festivities, countered that the event proved a boon to businesses in the region.
“We’ve proven the event’s impact to the businesses in Central Florida,” Alexander-Manley told Sunshine State News. Besides citing reports from businesses who found event patrons to be well-behaved, Alexander-Manley estimated the events his company promotes, which brought in around 150,000 people to the region in 2010, added $600 million to the economy.
Alexander-Manley took exception to Caton’s assertion that families left the Magic Kingdom over the event.
“As always, our attendees are expected to behave just like any other guest,” noted Alexander-Manley. “We get great feedback each year from families who didn't know that it was Gay Days and that they were happy their children were able to see the diversity of humanity.”
Alexander-Manley opined that the Florida Family Association could have spent their money on better causes than renting an airplane for their banners.
“That $3,700 could have been better spent supporting the disasters in Japan or the storm victims of Central Florida from the tornados from yesterday,” added Alexander-Manley.
Alexander-Manley was not alone in his criticism of the Florida Family Associaiton.
"It’s offensive to see an organization call on Disney to discriminate against any segment of the population,” said Brian Winfield, the communications director of LGBT civil rights group Equality Florida. “Fortunately, Disney is among the 89 percent of Fortune 500 companies that have policies prohibiting anti-gay discrimination. At a time when Florida is desperate for jobs and needs the economic benefits of tourism, we hope that the tens of thousands of gay families who travel to Orlando will be able to enjoy their vacations free of the bigotry demonstrated by this organization.”
Started in 1991, the Gay Days events received national attention when the Southern Baptist Convention voted to boycott Disney in 1997. The convention lifted the ban in 2005. Prominent televangelist and former Republican presidential candidate Pat Robertson made national headlines back in 1998 when he suggested that God would punish Orlando for hosting Gay Days by unleashing natural and man-made disasters upon the region.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
Comments (68)
Dear Dr. Laura:
Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I have learned a great deal from your show, and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination ... End of debate.
I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some other elements of God's Laws and how to follow them.
1. Leviticus 25:44 states that I may possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians?
2. I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?
3. I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of Menstrual uncleanliness - Lev.15: 19-24. The problem is how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense.
4. When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord - Lev.1:9. The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?
5. I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself, or should I ask the police to do it?
6. A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination, Lev. 11:10, it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don't agree. Can you settle this? Are there 'degrees' of abomination?
7. Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle-room here?
8. Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev. 19:27. How should they die?
9. I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?
10. My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev.19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? Lev.24:10-16. Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private family affair, like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14)
I know you have studied these things extensively and thus enjoy considerable expertise in such matters, so I'm confident you can help.
Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging.
Your adoring fan,
James M. Kauffman, Ed.D. Professor Emeritus, Dept. Of Curriculum, Instruction, and Special Education University of Virginia
(It would be a damn shame if we couldn't own a Canadian :)
Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Coincidence? I think not.
I mean, He created everything, right? Including man in His own image. So if that's true (and it is because it says so in the bible) then that means that all the thoughts and feelings man is capable of experiencing all came from God, including the thoughts and feelings that have to do with being attracted to a member of the same sex. If God didn't want us to have those kinds of emotions towards someone of the same gender then He wouldn't have thought of them before creating us.
So why the huge double standard then? What kind of God would create us with the same range of emotions He feels and then hold us to accountable just because some of us feel attracted to members of the same sex?
Doesn't sound like any God I'd want to believe in.
Besides, anybody who's anybody knows that The Flying Spaghetti Monster is the one true god. He loves us all equally, regardless of sexual orientation. You should all feel the loving warm radiating out of his noodly appendage.
Disney should be consistent in their policy so that they either require the Gay Days folks to hold their event after hours or they should allow other groups to have THEIR events during regular hours.
Gay, straight, religious, etc, whatever shouldn't enter into it.
Homosexuality occurs among animals. Penguins Wendell and Cass of Coney Island's New York Aquarium have been devoted partners for years; Boston's swan couple "Romeo and Juliet" turned out to be both females. Biologist Bruce Bagemihl (1999) has identified several hundred species in which at least occassinoal same-sex relations have been observed. This clearly demonstrates that homosexuality occurs in nature.
Recent studies seem to indicate the physiological nature of homosexuality. The brain hemispheres of gay men and straight women are of similar size, while the right hemispheres of lesbian women and straight men are larger (Savic & Lindstrom, 2008). Men with older brothers are slightly more likely to be homosexuals, most likely due to the mother producing additional maternal antibodies with each pregnancy of a male baby (Blanchard, 1997 & 2008). The antibodies then may interfere with the fetus' brain from developing in a male-typical pattern. Consistent with this research, this "fraternal birth-order effect" occurs only with brothers from the same mother, and not with adoptive brothers. Identical twins (who share the same gene makeup) are more likely to share same sexual orientation (heterosexual or homosexual) than fraternal twins (who do not share the same gene makeup), suggesting that genetics play a role in homosexuality as well (Langstrom et al., 2008).
It's true, despite the solid facts, that many people find homosexuality unacceptable -- about 50% of people in the United States said that they think that homosexuality "is never justified" (Pew, 2006). However, what is considered socially acceptable is always changing, and I do hope to see the public opinion changing for the better.
Homosexuality occurs among animals. Penguins Wendell and Cass of Coney Island's New York Aquarium have been devoted partners for years; Boston's swan couple "Romeo and Juliet" turned out to be both females. Biologist Bruce Bagemihl (1999) has identified several hundred species in which at least occassinoal same-sex relations have been observed. This clearly demonstrates that homosexuality occurs in nature.
Recent studies seem to indicate the physiological nature of homosexuality. The brain hemispheres of gay men and straight women are of similar size, while the right hemispheres of lesbian women and straight men are larger (Savic & Lindstrom, 2008). Men with older brothers are slightly more likely to be homosexuals, most likely due to the mother producing additional maternal antibodies with each pregnancy of a male baby (Blanchard, 1997 & 2008). The antibodies then may interfere with the fetus' brain from developing in a male-typical pattern. Consistent with this research, this "fraternal birth-order effect" occurs only with brothers from the same mother, and not with adoptive brothers. Identical twins (who share the same gene makeup) are more likely to share same sexual orientation (heterosexual or homosexual) than fraternal twins (who do not share the same gene makeup), suggesting that genetics play a role in homosexuality as well (Langstrom et al., 2008).
It's true, despite the solid facts, that many people find homosexuality unacceptable -- about 50% of people in the United States said that they think that homosexuality "is never justified" (Pew, 2006). However, what is considered socially acceptable is always changing, and I do hope to see the public opinion changing for the better.
http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/disneyland-bans-head-scarves/quest...
The small government, "stay out of my business unless it has to do with things I don't like" Republicans strike again! Sometimes I wonder if you'll all just collapse in on yourself like a great stupidity singularity.
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