This highly-anticipated merch release has become a favorite among fans in subsequent years, expanding each time with more elaborate offerings.
I’m talking, of course, about the Rainbow Collection, which took another leap forward in 2019 when a second follow-up series was released, building on the items from the previous year and broadening their options with a series of matching family shirts for adults and kids. Little did they know at the time, it would soon become an annual merchandise collection that would have fans counting down the days until its release. But they didn’t stop there, vowing to donate 10 percent of their profits to GLSEN – a US-based organization dedicated to the safety and well-being of LGBTQ+ school-aged children.
By May of the same year, with a mixture of rave reviews and peer pressure to expand the selection, Disney had released a matching handful of clothing and accessories items. See pictures of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios in Orlando, Fla.In April of 2018, the Disney theme parks took a step in a new direction, debuting the rainbow-themed ear hats in celebration of the LQBTQ+ community. The Couchman-Spencer family avoided the expo and the other adult activities. Spencer is a deputy sheriff who runs the K-9 unit in Michigan's Barry County Couchman, who is originally from the U.K., works in retail. Evan, Alix and Jamie were with their moms Richelle Spencer, 30, and Janice Couchman, 46.
How did the event come to rival the pride parades in New York City and San Francisco in terms of attendance? One answer, the answer you would hear from any gay political organization, is that many gay couples now have children. "But that's only a small part of the overall community." A gay day at the Magic Kingdom was a way to emphasize that many gays just want to ride a roller coaster with their partner like any other couple. The media tended to show "the drag queens and the extremes, the leather people," he says. and one of the volunteers who helped organize the first event in 1991. "Twenty years ago, there were hardly any visible portrayals of our community other than the pride parades," says Chris Alexander-Manley, 52, president of Gay Days Inc. There was also an element of political theater in a mass Disney visit a flash mob before the term existed. (See pictures of the gay-rights movement.) By 1995, at least 10,000 gays and lesbians were traveling to Orlando for the gay day at Disney. Going on the teacup ride or getting wet on Splash Mountain was a way to reclaim an unfinished adolescence. There was, literally and figuratively, no For many gays and lesbians who grew up in the latter half of the 20th century, childhood was a time of anxiety and secrets, faggot jokes and spitballs. But the event sparked something in the gay imagination. Gay Days started modestly in 1991 as a way for some 3,000 lesbians and gays from central Florida to become more visible on one day, the first Saturday in June in the theme parks that dominate the region's economy. (Watch TIME's video about Gay Days in the Magic Kingdom.) , a Florida-based gay newspaper that has been covering Gay Days since it started, about 150,000 people attended this June's six-day gathering, which included 17 pool parties, a business expo, a comic-book convention, a film festival, an after-hours trip to a Disney water park (think dance music and guys in very small swimsuits), bobble-head painting and tie-dyeing for the kids, rivers of alcohol (and some other substances) for the adults and, on June 5, the great culmination: 20,000 to 30,000 lesbians, gays and their families and friends descending on Disney World, everyone clad in red shirts to signify their presence. Gay Days is now one of the largest gay-pride events in the world. It is the 20th anniversary of Gay Days at Disney, and the whole family has traveled from Hickory Corners, Mich., to celebrate. It's a typical Disney scene, except that Evan, Alix and their sister Jamie, a desultory 4-year-old shielded from the sun in a stroller, have come to the Magic Kingdom with their two moms.
Alix is so excited, she can't even say what she wants to do. at Disney World for the first time, Alix, 10, and her brother Evan, 11, can barely contain their anticipation. Pretty much every child who walks up Main Street U.S.A.