When I was in Disney World recently, I made a point to ride the monorails.  I’d been absolutely fascinated by those things ever since I saw the pictures of the first ones in Disneyland back in the early 70s.  I’ve wondered ever since why more cities didn’t have something like them. 

On the trip from Magic Kingdom back to the Transportation center, which is a transfer point from the Magic Kingdom and Resort lines to the Epcot line, you go past several Disney resort areas, and the voice in the cars narrating the journey takes note of a little wedding pavilion along the way, just between the Grand Floridian and the Polynesian resorts…

Disney’s Wedding Pavilion

With all the grandeur of a classic Victorian summer home, Disney’s Wedding Pavilion offers many enchanting possibilities for the wedding ceremony of your dreams. With its palm-fringed solarium and views of Cinderella Castle across the Seven Seas Lagoon, this magnificent non-denominational chapel can accommodate your Escape Wedding ceremony with style and grace.

I was coming by then to really like Disney World, and the It’s A Small World After All mentality that pervades it.  But I had to wonder if that wedding pavilion was open to all couples, or whether Disney would, to avoid controversy, stipulate that the marriages had to be legally binding in the state of Florida, which had just then passed an anti same-sex marriage amendment.

Well…know I know…

Gay couples given keys to the Magic Kingdom as Disney relents

The Guardian, Saturday April 7 2007 

Disney’s theme parks are synonymous with the great American family day out, with the company’s traditional hospitality and characters having enthralled generations for more than half a century.

Now Mickey Mouse has taken a step away from protocol by throwing open the gates of Cinderella’s castle for same-sex partnership ceremonies. Gay and lesbian couples can, for the first time, stage their own commitment ceremonies anywhere on Disney property, a privilege heterosexual couples have enjoyed for decades.

"We are not in the business of making judgments about the lifestyle of our guests," said Donn Walker, spokesman for Disney Parks and Resorts. "We are in the hospitality business, and our parks and resorts are open to everyone."

The shift in position came after complaints that gay couples were specifically excluded from the Fairy Tale Weddings programme at Disney’s theme parks in California and Florida, and on its cruise liners. While others had a wide choice of marriage options, such as taking their vows on a white-knuckle ride or beneath a fireworks show with Minnie Mouse as a bridesmaid, gay couples had to organise their own private ceremonies in rented meeting rooms at resort hotels.

The Walt Disney Company has long been a tacit supporter of gay tourism. It has come under fire from the religious right for policies that include partner benefits for homosexual employees. In the 90s, rightwing groups held protests against the annual "Gay Days", when more than 100,000 gay and lesbian visitors go to Disney resorts.

The company blamed its weddings policy on laws in Florida and California prohibiting same-sex unions. But after pressure from the gay website afterelton.com, it dropped its requirement that Fairy Tale Weddings packages, which start at $8,000 (£4,100), have to include a valid marriage licence. "This is consistent with our policy of creating a welcoming, respectful and inclusive environment for all of our guests," Mr Walker said.

Michael Jensen, the editor of the website, had complained that Disney appeared to be hiding behind the law. Although same-sex wedding ceremonies were not legally recognized, he said, there was nothing to prevent gay couples holding their own ceremonies.

"Elton John, who had a civil union with his partner David Furnish last year in England, would have been turned away from Disney’s wedding gates," Mr Jensen said, pointing out that the singer had earned the company millions of dollars with his music for The Lion King.

Note that happened back in 2007.  Nice.  And I’ll say this…you can’t stay in the Disney theme parks for long without realizing there is a ton of gay talent there, working hard to make sure everyone enjoys their stay.  From the "cast members" in character costume (including several really cute Peter Pan’s I saw during my stay) to the ones who were simply working support roles and keeping the whole complex running smoothly, my Gaydar, which has trouble going off around DuPont Circle, was going off like mad.  And even though Gay Days for this year were long over, I still saw the occasional same sex couple strolling through the crowds, hand in hand, or arm in arm.  Nobody bothered them.

The pleasant, Let’s All Get Along And Enjoy The Day attitude was infectious and disarming.  You felt it everywhere.  In Magic Kingdom I took a bad spill one night near main street, while hurrying to the monorail.  I’d mis-stepped over a curb and tumbled hard onto a cobblestone pavement with my cameras dangling around me.  Luckily neither they nor I were badly hurt, but instantly a crowd of about a dozen or so folks were all around me asking me if I was okay, and helping me back up.  In another park I am certain they’d have just walked right on by. 

We are in the hospitality business…  That, really, sums it up.  And it’s the right answer to give to bigoted louts who just can’t enjoy themselves unless other people are suffering.  But there is more to it.  It’s that It’s A Small World After All mentality.  That really does seem to be the bedrock there.  I wrote previously how refreshing, how exhilarating it was to see the story of life on earth, and the history of human progress told, not only matter of factly, but that the study of science and history and archeology was a grand adventure.  There was something else in Disney World that genuinely lifted my spirits more, much more, then I would have imagined going into it.  That, It’s A Small World After All mentality that pervaded everything there. 

Sniff at the Disney-esq sentimentality if you like…but it gave my soul a much needed boost to face the real world outside the gates (where I later learned hundreds had been killed in by terrorists in India…).  I’d thought of it as escapism.  It isn’t.  It’s taking a break.  You just can’t let the world bear down on you constantly without going nuts.  It’s good to have somewhere you can go to remember your dreams, and why they were good, and let the power of those dreams lift you once more.

So it should not surprise the Kultur Krieger that Disney of all mainstream American icons, is being gay friendly.  For one thing, they’re in the hospitality business, not the beat your neighbor over the head with ballot initiatives business.  For another, Disney has always believed in the better tomorrow, and in the power of dreams.  If all that is a fairy tale, I’ll take it over the one George Bush, James Dobson, and the Mormon church are selling to America these days.

It isn’t cheap by any means, but same-sex couples can have that magic moment now too.  They can exchange vows by the shores of a beautiful lagoon, with Cinderella’s Castle in the background.  Everything will be just right, perfect even, like a dream come true. 

Then they can go forward together, back into the world, breath their life into it, and make the dream real…

A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes Come True
by Harrison Ellenshaw