ANAHEIM, Calif. — For Eddie Shapiro, when it comes to gay rights, so much of the world has changed in the past 25 years.
And unfortunately, so much has stayed the same, said Shapiro, the organizer of Gay Days Anaheim at Disneyland.
Shapiro remembers the 1990s when former production company Odyssey Adventures would rent out Disneyland and host a Gay Nite at Disneyland, where LGBTQ+ Disney fans could come together.
That went away for reasons unknown, he said.
But fast forward to 2023, and in June, Disneyland will host its first Disney-sanctioned Pride Nite in the U.S., welcoming members of the LGBTQ+ community.
"There's an irony to this," said Shapiro to Spectrum News. "This [Gay Nite] all started as an after-hours event that went away, and now it's back with Disney hosting it."
Last week, Disneyland officials said the Anaheim theme park would host the first-ever Pride Nite at its U.S. parks on June 13 and 15 at Disneyland. Disneyland Paris hosts a similar annual event that began in 2019 called Disneyland Paris Pride.
The Disneyland Anaheim event is part of the theme park's Disneyland After Dark series, a separately ticketed-themed night event that occurs throughout the year.
Disneyland officials said the Pride event would offer one-of-a-kind photo opportunities, specialty menu items, merchandise, dance club and special cavalcade featuring Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse and others dressed in special colorful attire.
The $139 tickets went on sale for Magic Key annual pass holders on April 18 and will be available for the general public on April 20.
"Disneyland Resort drew on inspiration from events like Disneyland Paris Pride for the first-ever Disneyland After Dark: Pride Nite event in honor of Pride Month in June," a Disneyland official said in a statement to Spectrum News. "As a company, we’ve had a variety of special, ticketed events like Disneyland After Dark: Star Wars Nite and Disneyland After Dark: Princess Nite and continually look to develop offerings to excite our guests."
The Pride event comes a year after Disney faced criticism for not standing up against Florida's Parental Rights in Education, dubbed by activists as the "Don't Say Gay Bill." The bill Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed last year prohibits kindergarten to third-grade teachers from discussing sexual orientation and gender identity topics.
Proponents of the bill said parents, not schools, should choose when and how to discuss LGBTQ+ topics with their children.
Many LGBTQ+ leaders argued that the legislation could harm vulnerable LGBTQ+ children.
Disney, one of the state's largest employers with more than 80,000 employees and a politically influential organization, was criticized for not doing enough to stop or speak up against the bill.
By the time Disney officials did speak up, the damage was done. The company's LGBTQ+ employees rose against Disney leadership, and DeSantis would not buckle under Disney's "woke ideology."
"Disney absolutely got pushback for the 'Don't Say Gay Bill,'" Shapiro said. "They were not vocal enough in their rejection. They heard from their guests and cast members that they had let down the [LGBTQ+] community."
Shapiro said Pride Nite at Disneyland is, in a way, "repairing some of the damage."
For years, Disneyland and Walt Disney World have hosted unofficial gay-themed days organized by independent groups.
Shapiro said he began organizing Gay Days Anaheim in 1998. The event, now three days long and occurs twice a year, brought together tens of thousands of members of the LGBTQ+ community and their allies at Disneyland and Disney California Adventure. During Gay Days, aside from spending a day at Disneyland, there are lectures and speakers about LGBTQ+ issues in nearby Disney hotel conference rooms.
"It was essentially to build community," Shapiro said. "At that time, it was a politically important statement to be making that we were there at the No. 1 family destination in the world with our family of choice and being ourselves. We wanted to create a safe environment."
The group often wears the color red as a sign of solidarity.
But Shapiro also remembers when he and his team first started, Disneyland officials would hand guests, who unknowingly wore red shirts that day, a white T-shirt or refund their money if they objected to the Gay Days celebration.
"There was a lot of schooling in those early days. Disney has grown a lot. They've learned they can't do that," he said.
These days, Gay Days Anaheim attracts tens of thousands of people from across the nation and the world.
Disneyland's official Pride Nite is going further to bring not just the LGBTQ+ community but almost everyone together, Shapiro said.
Unfortunately, he laments that only some are together on Disney's inclusive night.
After Disney announced the Pride Nite event, message boards across Twitter lit up. There were positive messages and some mean comments, Shapiro said.
"Those comments are to be expected," he said. "I call them less enlightened people in the world. There will always be that faction, but I also read the number of positive and passionate responses. To have this company officially saying, 'We see you and are inviting you,' means a tremendous amount to people. They feel accepted at a place where they desperately want to feel safe."
Shapiro said Disneyland's Pride Nite is about community building.
"We are all in this world together," he said.