ORLANDO, Fla. – For more than three decades, “Gay Days” has been one of Central Florida’s most recognizable LGBTQ gathering traditions — a largely grassroots phenomenon that began as a simple idea: wear the same color shirt to the theme parks and be visible.
In the 1970s and 1980s, public, large-scale gatherings for LGBTQ people were still relatively rare. That started to shift in the early 1990s, as attendees from Central Florida began organizing informal meetups around Orlando’s tourism corridor.
The first Gay Day began in 1991 when Orlando resident Doug Swallow encouraged members of the local LGBTQ community to show up at theme parks on the first Saturday in June.
“Back in 1991, when we started it, it was truly [just] … why not tell everybody else about it at the bars and see who would show up?” Swallow told the Orlando Weekly in 2000. “I’m sure there was a little bit of, you know, ‘It’ll be fun to see how Disney reacts to this.’ But it wasn’t meant to be in-your-face — ‘hey look at us, we’re going to make a mess in your park.’ It was meant to be, ‘We’re going to go out and have fun like everybody else.’ That was how it began.”
Early video from the event captured crowds at Magic Kingdom showing support by wearing red shirts — a tradition that became a defining visual marker for Gay Days in its early years.
What started as a single-day gathering grew quickly into a near-weeklong series of meetups, parties and other events — both official and unofficial.
“Gay Days is just really a vacation gathering of gays and lesbians from around the world, and straight people,” organizer Chris Alexander-Manley said in a 2002 interview with News 6.
[WATCH: 2002: Gay Days grows in Orlando]
By the event’s 10th year, organizers said corporate sponsors were lining up, drawn by the crowds and the economic boost brought by visitors who booked hotels, ate at restaurants and spent money throughout the region.
In 2003, recently elected Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer spoke at the Gay Days kick-off.
“As the Mayor of Orlando, I think this is the first year the mayor has attended this event,” Dyer said.
Gay Days also drew vocal opposition.
At times, protesters denounced the gathering on religious grounds.
“Gay and lesbian week, that’s a sin,” one protester said in 2004 while demonstrating outside Orlando City Hall.
“These individuals are destroying themselves,” Pastor John Butler Book said during a protest the previous year.
Religious groups picketed gatherings and flew banners over the theme parks.
In 1997, the Southern Baptist Convention launched a boycott of Disney, even though Disney did not officially recognize Gay Days at the time. The boycott ended eight years later.
Despite the controversy, the event continued to grow.
“It’s a great event. It’s a celebration,” attendee Adam Rote said in 2023.
In recent years, organizers and supporters have said Gay Days has attracted nearly 200,000 people for dozens of meetups across Central Florida.
[WATCH: Gay Days adjusts to Florida’s new LGBTQ+ legislation]
In 2023, then-Gay Days Inc. CEO Joseph Clark said organizers planned to continue despite political developments in Florida.
“We’re not stopping. We’re not stopping based on what’s going on in Tallahassee,” Clark said in a 2023 interview.
Clark also emphasized that the events were meant to be celebratory.
“We’re not here to harm anybody. We’re just here to get together and have a fun time,” he said.
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