Yes, I lost it

[desertbloom]

hehehe... the Haunted Mansion is good for those groping PDA's too. Uhhh, not like I would know personally

 

[aclov]

Can I just agree that you handled the situation really well - I don't know that I could have been as polite!

WE've never visited in June - November is 'our' time - but we were stood next to a gay couple in the line for Peter Pan a couple of years ago. These guys were holding hands (as were my DH and I) and my DD (who was 4 at the time) spent ages staring at them. Eventually she asked the one guy "Is he your Handsome Prince?" (She's VERY into Princesses my DD! ) and the guys both laughed and said "Yep". My DD replied "How Lovely!" and then started talking about the Parade we'd just watched. I was SO proud of her - I've always taught her to accept people for who they are and those lessons have obviously paid off. We kept seeing these guys round and about all day, and they always said Hi to my DD.

Later that day we were watching Wishes and who should stand behind us but these guys. My DD was over the moon to see them again and stood with THEM to watch the fireworks instead of with DH and I. The one guy had one of those lightup Mickey toys and (after asking our permission) he gave this to my DD. She was thrilled and when she plays with this at home now, she always says the "Hamdsome Prince" gave it to her!

I tell this story to anyone who's 'scared' of Gay Days or whatever - di this experience scar my daughter for life, or is it one of her favourite memories about WDW.....I'll leave it to you to decide!!!!!

This is so nice I give you and your DH "kudos" for instilling in your DD such wonderful morals. Eventually the seed that you planted will grow and she will grow into a mature non-judgemental adult who can just accept people for who they are.

 

[Kevin&Randall]

Some of my favorite "girlfriends" are gay men! We can check out guys together, and they give me wonderful insight into the male psyche. I also have an aunt who is a lesbian. What makes me sad is that most gay couples don't feel free to have a PDA at all. Now I am not talking a groping, tongue slobbering PDA, as I feel that is inappropriate for both gay and straight couples. I just know it would really bother me to feel that I couldn't kiss my husband in public when we are sitting under the stars watching fireworks!

Kevin and I have been together for 15 years. We've walked hand in hand maybe once, twice tops. It frustrates me. However, I'm not going to risk the comments or nasty looks. Maybe, before I die, we can walk hand in hand through the theme parks and no one would notice, nor care.

Randall

 

[tampaguys]

Kevin and I have been together for 15 years. We've walked hand in hand maybe once, twice tops. It frustrates me. However, I'm not going to risk the comments or nasty looks. Maybe, before I die, we can walk hand in hand through the theme parks and no one would notice, nor care.

Believe me, I understand why you feel that way, but it won't happen before you die unless we are willing to risk it. Having been physically attacked before (years ago when I was leaving a cabaret bar in the west Vilage with some friends during a visit to New York), I'll take comments and nasty looks any day.

Come hang out at Disney with Travis and me some time. There's always comfort in numbers. I'll beat up anyone who bothers you.

 

[Footnotegirl]

I hate intolerance. It makes me mad and growly every single day.
But the mad and growly I can deal with. It's when it takes on that personal face like it just did reading your post, Kevin&Randall, that I just start tearing up. I can't stop knowing that we live in a world where such ugly happens, but sometimes it is the 'small' things that make the horror and ridiculousness of it all too real. Consenting adults should all be allowed to scream from the mountaintops who we love, and hear nothing but applause in return. (Unless it's really late at night in which case "shut the heck up I'm sleeping" is a legitimate response)

I second the 'come hang out' thing in my heart (unfortunately, I've only managed to get to WDW twice in 36 years... but come on the cruise with us in 2008!) because I would be more than happy to play angry-sass-in-your-face to anyone who dared to look at you and your sweety cross eyed for showing your connection and love in a way that so many get to do without it being blinked at.

Hell, my 72 year old mother would love to play the part too. She sure did when one of my less enlightened relatives had the gall to be all shocked at my wedding at the number of 'non-traditional' couples represented in the gathering. No one can give someone the dread gaze like my mom!

 

[zagafi]

Kevin and I have been together for 15 years. We've walked hand in hand maybe once, twice tops. It frustrates me. However, I'm not going to risk the comments or nasty looks. Maybe, before I die, we can walk hand in hand through the theme parks and no one would notice, nor care.

Randall

This breaks my heart. But, sadly, I'm not surprised. Two of my family's dearest friends are a lesbian couple and we've FINALLY convinced them that we do. not. mind. if they act like the couple they are. They're so "conditioned" by society to "hide" who they are that they're reluctant to show simple affection, and felt they had to ask permission. Ah, no--my permission is not needed to love your partner!! Nor is it needed to hold her (or his!) hand, give a kiss, etc.

A group of us were out shopping a while back and when people started giving them the hairy eyeball for holding hands, we ALL joined hands and walked with them. You should have seen the looks then.

 

[smartestnumber5]

Okay, I admit it...this thread made me go all carnival-ape crazy.

http://disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1324919

If I get banned from the boards for taking the webmaster to task for being a self-hating homophobe, it was lovely knowing you all.

Gotta agree with you about the "Why I'm Not Going to Gay Days" article. I was horrified the first time I read that shortly after getting on the DIS. I mean, it's pretty bad when other gay people are helping out the right wing by telling you how it's pushing your sexuality in other people's faces to kiss your SO. Not to mention, what exactly does the author mean by a "she-man"? Is this some kind of attack on transgendered people? Is it a dig on butch lesbians? On feminine men? On androgynous folks. What, only gay people who are completely gender normative deserve to go to Disney World?

 

[Viki]

Hi, friends, I'm thick in the middle of leading a 3-day training session in Del Ray Beach, FLA (with no side trip to WDW - bad, bad planning on my part), but I just wanted to say how much I am enjoying this discussion, both the clarity and respect with which it's being held.

 

[tampaguys]

Not to mention, what exactly does the author mean by a "she-man"? Is this some kind of attack on transgendered people? Is it a dig on butch lesbians? On feminine men? On androgynous folks?

Fear of association with effeminate men and trangendered people is one of the characteristics of self-hating gay men that ticks me off the most. Mr. Werner would do well to remember that it was a bunch of drag queens who kicked butt at Stonewall and that he benefits daily from their courage.

Like everything else in the article, this is a pitiful appeal to straight people to accept him as a gay man not out of any sense of decency, empathy, or equity, but because he's willing to say, "I hate those freaks just as much as you do."

 

[ChrizJen]

WOW! Bravo! I had actually never seen the article!! Needless to say, I was SHOCKED!!!

I commend you on your ability to speak your mind so eloquently and with such grace! I KNOW I wouldn't have been able to hold my composure nearly as well as you did!
Thank you for what you said, and the way you said it. It brought tears to my eyes.

It's people like you who have empowered us to be who we are, and to FIGHT for what we deserve! Thank you!

And thanks also to all of the "CSP" here and your stories! You ROCK!!
-Christal

 

[JLSM97]

Can I just agree that you handled the situation really well - I don't know that I could have been as polite!

WE've never visited in June - November is 'our' time - but we were stood next to a gay couple in the line for Peter Pan a couple of years ago. These guys were holding hands (as were my DH and I) and my DD (who was 4 at the time) spent ages staring at them. Eventually she asked the one guy "Is he your Handsome Prince?" (She's VERY into Princesses my DD! ) and the guys both laughed and said "Yep". My DD replied "How Lovely!" and then started talking about the Parade we'd just watched. I was SO proud of her - I've always taught her to accept people for who they are and those lessons have obviously paid off. We kept seeing these guys round and about all day, and they always said Hi to my DD.

Later that day we were watching Wishes and who should stand behind us but these guys. My DD was over the moon to see them again and stood with THEM to watch the fireworks instead of with DH and I. The one guy had one of those lightup Mickey toys and (after asking our permission) he gave this to my DD. She was thrilled and when she plays with this at home now, she always says the "Hamdsome Prince" gave it to her!

I tell this story to anyone who's 'scared' of Gay Days or whatever - di this experience scar my daughter for life, or is it one of her favourite memories about WDW.....I'll leave it to you to decide!!!!!

This totally made me teary. We should all be so accepting of others! Your daughter is being raised with a healthy view of what "normal" is. As far as teaching our children what is okay and what isn't, the only thing I've made sure mine understand clearly is pretty much, "MEAN PEOPLE SUCK." (Lookie there, I'm not accepting of others! But they started it...)

When my son was four, he went through a very anti-girl stage because he hated being excluded from his big sister's play dates. One day I heard them talking and she was teasing him about wanting to kiss one of his female classmates. I heard him reply, "I don't like kissing girls. I like when boys kiss boys." Although I'm not about to assume that simple statement was anything more than a girls-have-cooties thing, nor that it "means anything" about who my son will eventually fall in love with, I actually felt a little bit proud of him at that moment. I wasn't about to contradict him--I know lots of parents would firmly say (a la Marge Simpson), "Boys kiss girls"--because I want both my children to know that whatever is in their hearts is who they are and who they need to be. Of course, I also want them to accept this about others too. Thank you, tiggernut, for the reminder that there are many different kinds of opportunities we have to burn this into their brains.

--J.

 

[Tinkerboy00]

I thought you handled it very well. You can be the voice of my people anytime.

I dont handle discrimination very well.

If I have to look at people groping each other, kissing, holding hands etc. They can look at me.

My SO and I are very conscious of our public affections. We know when to do it, and when not.

We obviously dont do things in front of children etc. But if Im walking through a park, and we are having a moment, I'll grab his arm and hold him to let him know I love.

I dont understand peoples need to stifle LOVE. Its freaking LOVE people. Who am I hurting???

We had an issue at NYE's at Universal. We hugged and briefly kissed...and a coupld just stared, and the moved away from us, and continued to stare. So I grabbed him, gave him a big ole kiss, and just glared at them and yelled

"WHAT?!! STARE STARE STARE!!"

I dont handle it well.

 

[CanadianGuy]

I gotta say.. I feel qualified to comment here, as someone who has been to Gay Days at WDW parks at least 5 times .. most recently in June of 2006 .. I must say I couldn't DISagree with the original article by the "moderator" any more strenuously.

While perhaps I was not in the right place at the right time (over five different visits..) .. I didn't see anything that embarrassed me and I have a very low threshold for that kinda thing. I embarrass easily.

The things that annoyed me more than anything in June of 2006 were :
(in no particular order)

- Motorized Scooter drivers .. driving with impugnity and reckless disregard for their pedestrian counterparts

- Stroller 'brigades' travelling three and four abreast.. taking about 15 feet of horizontal walking space and expecting everyone else to move out of their way... and nipping at heels, running over toes etc.

But THAT is another thread.

Seriously. I saw nothing in June of 2006 that was out of the ordinary. In fact, we kept wondering if we were at the 'wrong park' for Gay Days on a given day because we couldn't really spot any gay folks. We did start seeing them more clearly on Friday and Saturday.

 

[CanadianGuy]

I posted this in another thread.. but what bout the idea of creating a STICKY in this forum explaining gay days.. and answering the most common questions from straights & gays a like?

J

 

[smartestnumber5]

Can I just agree that you handled the situation really well - I don't know that I could have been as polite!

WE've never visited in June - November is 'our' time - but we were stood next to a gay couple in the line for Peter Pan a couple of years ago. These guys were holding hands (as were my DH and I) and my DD (who was 4 at the time) spent ages staring at them. Eventually she asked the one guy "Is he your Handsome Prince?" (She's VERY into Princesses my DD! ) and the guys both laughed and said "Yep". My DD replied "How Lovely!" and then started talking about the Parade we'd just watched. I was SO proud of her - I've always taught her to accept people for who they are and those lessons have obviously paid off. We kept seeing these guys round and about all day, and they always said Hi to my DD.

Later that day we were watching Wishes and who should stand behind us but these guys. My DD was over the moon to see them again and stood with THEM to watch the fireworks instead of with DH and I. The one guy had one of those lightup Mickey toys and (after asking our permission) he gave this to my DD. She was thrilled and when she plays with this at home now, she always says the "Hamdsome Prince" gave it to her!

I tell this story to anyone who's 'scared' of Gay Days or whatever - di this experience scar my daughter for life, or is it one of her favourite memories about WDW.....I'll leave it to you to decide!!!!!

This reminded me of a story from our last trip this August. We were on a mostly empty bus going to downtown Disney after 10 pm and there was a family with two boys, maybe 6 and 8. GF and I were probably sitting pretty close on the bus, but we aren't small people so we'd probably have been sitting that similarly close even if we weren't in a relationship. We were displaying any affection at all--at most I might have touched her knee a few times. We were just talking about what to do at Downtown Disney.

Shortly into the ride we realized we had left a bag of souvenirs at the Spoodles which we just left, and as I was about to call Disney Dining and try to get through to Spoodles, the younger boy came over to us completely out of the blue. Since I was busy dialing, he looked at gf and asked her "are you two married?" Well, that got my attention right back away from the phone.

Gf paused for a second and said "well not yet, but maybe someday." Meanwhile, I snuck a look at the parents expecting that they would probably apologize or pull their son away or something--especially after gf made it clear that we're gay. But the parents just looked a little embarrassed/amused as the 6 year old continued "are you girlfriends?" to which gf said yes. The 8 year old then jumped in looking confused. He looked at GF and said "are you a boy or a girl"? She said girl, but he didn't seem convinced. He seemed to whisper something to his father like "I don't really think she's a girl" and his father said "Well if you don't believe her why don't you ask her your name?" So the 8 year old asks her name and gf tells him what her female biblical name is and then says "what's your name?" He immediately seemed embarrased--maybe the fact that she replied quickly with a female name convinced him she was a really a girl!

Then the 6 year old jumped in and asked incredulously, "are you really girlfriends?" We nodded yes. He asked even more disbelievingly, "WHY are you gilfriends?!" We both pause and then look at the parents thinking "Umm, should we explain sexual orientation to your children?" Gf just said "well we're girls and we're friends, so we're girlfriends." The 8 year old responded: "Gross." We laughed and his father (I assume) shrugged a little embarassed and said "Kids. They think something's gross and they're going to say it." He then went on to try to convince his son that they are boys and friends and that's not gross, but the boy wasn't convinced.

It gave us a pretty good laugh! But we couldn't figure out what it was that got the 6 year old thinking we were married in the first place since there was no PDA at all. Maybe he picked it up just from hearing how we talked to each other?

 

[Viki]

I posted this in another thread.. but what bout the idea of creating a STICKY in this forum explaining gay days.. and answering the most common questions from straights & gays a like?

J

Excellent idea! Sorry I didn't see the suggestion earlier - I'm at an out of town right now and just trying to check in every now and then.

But, here goes ... a new sticky!

 

[Boston5602]

Like everything else in the article, this is a pitiful appeal to straight people to accept him as a gay man not out of any sense of decency, empathy, or equity, but because he's willing to say, "I hate those freaks just as much as you do."

hey THANK YOU

I think , as apparently most everyone else , you did a terrific job in the other thread .

and WOW on the above quote !!! I didn't know it - but thats it exactly !!!!

 

[PghLybrt]

The article made me sick to my stomach. I just do not know what to say to that. Instead of coming together so that we can actually achieve some kind 0f rights in this nation we still want to tear apart those who are our family. I just do not get it.

Going to Gay days is not like going to Dinah Shore. We know the time and place for things.

 

[Viki]

Friends, as I said earlier, I've been out of town - finally made it home this afternoon - thank goodness! But, because of that, I've only been able to check in sporadically.

Having had a few minutes to read more of this thread I just want to add the caution that while our sub-board likes to enjoy more freedom of expression than some sub-boards might invite, it's true that across the entire Disboards it's terribly important that we not engage in personal attacks.

The free exchange of ideas about which many may differ? Yup. But let's be careful not to have it become personal. I fear this thread, at times, verges too far in that direction and and I would NOT want to close it.

 

[wallyb]

Fear of association with effeminate men and trangendered people is one of the characteristics of self-hating gay men that ticks me off the most. Mr. Werner would do well to remember that it was a bunch of drag queens who kicked butt at Stonewall and that he benefits daily from their courage.

Like everything else in the article, this is a pitiful appeal to straight people to accept him as a gay man not out of any sense of decency, empathy, or equity, but because he's willing to say, "I hate those freaks just as much as you do."

Hey - I like some of the things you had to say over at the other thread and thank you ...but...I don't totally agree with all your points.

I'm gay - but have not attended gay days at WDW so I don’t know what goes on there. But I having attended gay pride days here in Boston - I do know first hand that some gay people like to take it "over the top" and purposely push buttons at that event.
I'm not talking hand holding or even kissing.
(FYI - I'm not too thrilled to see straight couples "going at it" in public)
I just wish some times there was a bit more decorum
and pride in gay pride.

Call me a traitor to the cause if you like but - It’s my opinion.