Magic Kingdom: For a day or so, it's the gayest place on earth

by Loann Halden
OutTraveler.com

In 1991, a small gay group donned eye-catching red shirts and gathered at the Magic Kingdom in Orlando, having no idea that word of mouth would propel their ''Gay Day'' outing into an event of epic proportions. Within six years, attendance had swelled to 60,000, and a single day had morphed into nearly a week of activities.

When Gay Day unfolds this year -- it's always on the first Saturday in June -- an estimated 135,000 gays and lesbians are expected to converge in Central Florida. The state's largest gay pride festival, held in St. Petersburg, draws about half that number.

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Gay Orlando Steps Out

A LITTLE past midnight at the Parliament House, the parking lot is full. That’s not surprising: the club, actually several bars and a hotel rolled into one sprawling complex, has become a definitive destination in Orlando, though not quite in the mold of Walt Disney World, just a 30-minute drive away.

At one of the Parliament House’s bars, male dancers perform in little more than their skivvies. At another, a more rough-and-tumble Western-minded crowd holds sway. And at the complex’s small Footlight Theater, drag queens take the stage, including one seemingly pregnant female impersonator who gives “birth” to the musical strains of “I’m Every Woman.”

Parliament House is just breaking ground on the Gardens, an adjoining 164-unit time-share resort that is being heralded as the first gay-friendly project of its kind in the world. And closer to Disney, on the often ticky-tacky tourist strip of Highway 192 in Kissimmee, the Freedom Resort & Spa, a gay-oriented membership resort, has opened on the site of a former Travelodge hotel; the price of membership begins at $3,000.

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