Wingnuts have their own sort of liturgical calendar. Other Christian denominations cycle through periods such as “advent” and “Lent,” whereas anti-gay fundamentalists mark their church year by whatever it is that gays are doing that bothers them. If it’s June, that means it’s Gay Pride and, of course, Disney’s Gay Days:
Since this week is homosexual pride week, one family advocate says it may not be the best time for families to vacation in the Orlando area, especially at Disney’s Magic Kingdom.
According to David Caton of the Florida Family Association (FFA), the main focus is on Disney this Saturday.
“There will be perhaps as many as 18,000 same-sex revelers in the Magic Kingdom pretty much all day long,” he reports. “The event is pretty much a celebration of their lifestyle, and they target Disney on the first Saturday of summer because that’s when they’ve known in the past that the most children are in the park.”
Nice! Even though all people with a perfunctory knowledge of how to use Google can learn for themselves that homosexuality has nothing to do with recruiting or abusing children, David Caton knows he’s dealing with a wingnut audience who will believe whatever he tells them.
That means the youngsters, a captive audience, are exposed to the homosexual lifestyle. But this celebration has led many families in the past to leave the park.
[...]
“They want to be in what they’ve called the playground of America so they can influence the future of America, and that’s what this is all about,” Caton explains.
Actually, they want to go to Disneyworld and have a good time, just like all the rest of the people who go to Disneyworld. I’m sure it works better for the Florida Family Association’s fundraising to create a “threat” out of whole cloth, of course.
In a OneNewsNow poll in April, almost half of the 8,200 respondents said they respond to the annual pro-gay celebration at Disney World by choosing to never financially support Disney.
That’s a significant poll, then. I mean, the American Family Association, the hate group who runs OneNewsNow, only puts out the most scientific polls, and surely doesn’t create polls which only confirm the fringe wingnut point of view, right? Let’s look at that poll.
All right then.
I’m getting really, really sick of this s**t.
Ah yes the Great Annual Fundie Disney Boycott. How many years has this been going on now? Doesn’t seem to have hurt Disney’s bottom line very much from where I sit; I have a suspicion that the nutters who answered that poll secretly cave in to their kids’ whining and take them to Disney incognito.
I say kill the FFA and put their heads on spikes outside the gates of DisneWorld. That would really draw a crowd.
A classmate works in Epcot and he’s told me repeatedly that the Gay Days week is one of their top money making weeks of the year. I have an annual pass, visit Disney World several times a year, and the Disney World parks are always busy.
It’s worth noting that people from all over the world love coming to Disney World. Whatever you think of the Disney product, that basic “It’s A Small World After All” and “There’s A Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow Shining At The End Of Every Day” sensibility pervades everything and that alone is bound to give the phobes an allergic reaction. That “Disneyfied” take on reality, and wholesomeness isn’t everyone’s cup of tea (my gay friends couldn’t be less interested in going to Disney World, try as I might to get them to come along on one of my trips) but try to imagine some religious right nutcase actually enjoying themselves there.
The nightly fireworks show in Epcot, “Illuminations” is a fireworks show about the creation of the earth and the evolution of human civilization and creativity that, while it is generalized enough that a liberal Christian could see something of their own faith in it, a fundamentalist nutcase would get apoplectic. Epcot’s “future world” area has exhibits on environmentalism and alternative energy technology and makes a big deal about caring for Planet Earth, as does Animal Kingdom. Never mind Gay Days…Disney just isn’t and never was anything they’d want anything to do with, because, and especially in Epcot, they actually let some science into the fun.
They have their own theme park just up I-4 a tad. It’s called (I am not kidding) “The Holy Land Experience”. I’m sure Disney would welcome the fundies in just like they do everyone. But they’d have to be cool with that “It’s A Small World After All” thing and they just aren’t and never will be.
I hope the wingnuts convince their people to stay away. When I attended there were many many many LGBT families with their children in attendance. Those people and especially the children should be safe from wingnut hatred in the “happiest place on earth”.
“They want to be in what they’ve called the playground of America so they can influence the future of America, and that’s what this is all about,” – No! They want to be able to enjoy a lovely family vacation free from the hate and bigotry!
But they say they are all about the children. Right.
I have NEVER been able to understand how it is that being gay is such an infectious malady that if kids just SEE gay people they, having been exposed, will likely become gay. Being str8 is such a struggle, one has to hang on to it for dear life just so it isn’t overwhelmed and destroyed by the gay. Especially with kids – one look or one question and they are lost to it forever. These people are just plain nuts.
I went one year and had a great time. And no one was acting inappropriately for a ‘family place’, so the most the kids might ask is ‘why are so many people wearing red shirts?’.
Note how much violence children are exposed to and how casually and often. To the point that bullying is epidemic, and so is resolving conflicts. These things precipitate mass shootings in schools done by CHILDREN.
Parents are murdered, for disciplining their child or forbidding them to do something like attend a party.
Pastors have called for the assault and battery of gay children by their own parents.
So the hysteria around exposing children to ss affection is perverted unto itself.
People complain they don’t want to have to ‘explain’ a gay couple holding hands or kissing, but don’t care to explain to children AT ALL, how to handle a challenge about prejudice and unprovoked assault on gay kids in their schools.
Desensitizing young people to violence has been FAR more disastrous and dangerous to our society, than the same being TOO highly sensitized to gay people not matter what that gay person is doing or how innocently they are doing it.
WTF?!
OMG, children might be exposed to reality! EEEK!
The nutjobs take the kiddies to somewhere safe, like “Bibleland”, where they see Abraham prepare to slaughter Isaac, and watch Jesus get whipped and crucified. But of course two guys holding hands will traumatize the kids forever.