Disney Holding a "Gay Pride" Parade for First Time

“The Walt Disney Company is embracing LGBT pride month for the first time ever and hosting a gay pride parade in its Disneyland Paris park in France. The massive corporation has been moving toward a more liberal approach to sexual identity over the last decade, but the ‘Magical Pride’ parade, set to take place on June 1, 2019, is the first time the Disney Parks have openly embraced and endorsed the shift. The event will take place right at the beginning of global pride month--June--and will feature a ‘Magical March of Diversity Parade,’ reportedly involving DJs, live music performances, and themed photo opportunities for visitors to the Disneyland Paris park, according to Queerty. Gay pride events in Disney Parks are not new. The ‘Magical Pride’ celebration has been an"unofficial" event at Disneyland Paris since 2014. Disney parks located in the United States--Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, and Disneyland in Anaheim, California--have both hosted unofficial LGBT events including ‘Gay Days,’ an unofficial weekend celebration for gay couples and same sex parents. The first Gay Days celebration took place in the mid-to-late 2000s. Disney has been inching closer to a cultural shift over the last decade, slowly incorporating openly LGBT characters into its television shows and animated features (including an LGBT background character in Frozen). The upcoming Disney live action film, Jungle Cruise, based on the Disney parks attraction of the same name, will feature the first openly gay character in a Disney live action feature.”

“Disney Holding,” The Daily Wire, Jan. 30, 2019

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