Luxurious_Lumiere
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Oct 6, 2017
Furthermore, Disney has started offering up rainbow merch during Pride month, but refuse to acknowledge it as Pride merch and just call it the "rainbow collection". By comparison, Universal has started doing the same thing except they do call it Pride merch. Not to mention, Universal also has a window on the Horror Make-Up Show facade in memory of victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting and a whole scare zone at Halloween Horror Nights that is a spooky homage to drag ball culture. Both parks may profit off of us in these manners, but only one actually gives us recognition.
One thing to note around the Rainbow Collection: while it is not in a massive way (like calling it "Pride Collection"), Disney does recognize it as Pride merch. The parks blog post announcing the collection begins with: "In recognition of Pride Month 2020 and in honor of the Rainbow Disney Collection, and the incredible diversity of Disney fans around the world, I’m bursting with pride to share that Disney is donating $100,000 to GLSEN, a leading education organization working to create safe and inclusive K-12 schools for LGBTQ+ students." A similar note on each items Shop Disney page stated that a portion of any rainbow collection merch during June would be donated to GLSEN "in honor of Pride month".
I understand what you're saying regarding the name of Gay Days as well. It's sort of a hold over from language of decades past, where "gay" was more commonly used as an umbrella term for the LGBTQ community. That is no longer really the case. It would of course be more inclusive to re-title it "Queer Days" or "LGBTQ Days" or "Pride Days" but it seems like they have built a brand recognition with Gay Days. Anecdotally, though the pool parties and circuit parties (by One Magical Weekend) certainly skew towards cis gay men, I've found that many others who are not part of that group (lesbians, trans folk, etc) enjoy taking part in the festivities because those taking part embrace the spirit of Pride for the ENTIRE community, even if the company behind many of the celebrations hasn't adjusted their slightly outdated name.